By Anthony Taylor - October 28, 2013
Each organization's concerns are dictated by what's happening in their everyday environment, and the strategic planning process helps leaders to take a step back from the day-to-day operations in order to identify areas that might need attention. In our experience, there are two key types of strategic planning that organizations undertake: internal strategic planningfor the futureand building a competitive strategy for the external marketplace. If you need a strategic planning facilitator to align your team and reach your vision, SME Strategy can help. Learn more about our facilitation services: Internal Strategic Planning: The key aspect of strategic planning is aligning all members of the management team with the visionand missionof the organization; both in the short and long term. Once an organization is on the same page as far as where they want to go and what they want to achieve, they then need to create the action plans to get there. In contrast, making decisions that are not directly inline with their goals and objectives, an organization risks wasting valuable time and money. Strategic planning of this nature can be done by any company at any time. Manyorganizations work through the processyearly, while others plan more frequently at quarterly or monthly intervals. Though a complete overhaul of the organizational strategy may only need to be completed yearly, we advocate for quarterly strategy reviewsto evaluate prior performance as well as track changes in the business environment. Depending on the scope of the planning session and the experience in the group, here are some of the things that we at SME Strategy like to cover: If possible, leave time for key questions and concerns as a group discussion. In more complex strategy planning sessions we would include: organizational values, a SWOT analysis, and a marketing strategy as part of the implementation. These sessions can last for one or two days, so making time for team building and brainstorming activities is equally important to running an effective and engaging strategic planning session. Competitive Strategic Planning: Once you have a good understanding of what what your organization's mission, vision and values are, you may find your company operating in a highly competitive environment.All companies have competitors, but in some industries, the actions and decisions that your competitors make have a greater impact on how you run your organization. Competitive strategy requires you to focus part of your attention outside your own organization to what's happening in the external marketplace and guiding your decision making based on your current and desired positionwithin the market. This may mean: Your key decisions are based on both internal factors as well as what your competitors are doing and what you anticipate them to do in the future. Every company should be aware of their competitors activities, but competitive strategic planning is a focused approach to creating a competitive advantage within the organization, with the goal of increasing market share. Are you having a strategy meeting soon? Get our free 2-Day strategic planning agenda. This will provide the framework and structure to help you set and reach your organization's goals. Strategic planning not only helps align your people with your business vision, but it can also help you get a deeper understanding of the current and ever-changing environment that your business operates in. Whether you hire a strategic planning consultant for your strategic planning sessions, or you do it on your own, we encourage you to take some time with your team (ideally off-site) and dedicate time to the strategic planning process. You'll find that you'll come out with a better idea of where your company isnow and what your vision is for the future. You'll be more prepared for risks and uncertainties, and you'llbe able to develop a detailed action plan with responsibilities tohelp you successfully implement your strategy.
