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September 9, 2020
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The key toThe success of your company lies in having good strategic planning.In the business world, no matter how simple a task may seem, it is important to establish a plan: define what you want to achieve and through what specific actions.
Strategic planning translates into a guide that will tell you which path to follow or what decisions to make to achieve each of your goals and objectives.
Below we invite you to learn about its concept, its elements and what thestrategic planning tools that you can apply in your company .
What is corporate strategic planning?
According to Venezuelan economist and doctor in development studies, Hercilio Castellano, planning is a method for decision-making, the purpose of which is to maintain a reality or transform it into a more desirable one through the distribution of resources, the minimization of costs, the maximization of benefits and the maintenance of balances.
Corporate strategic planning comprises the same elements of planning, but transferred to a business environment where it is important to outline key objectives and actions to meet the goals and mission of an organization.
The strategy must be aimed at understanding the external situation (opportunities and threats) and internal situation (strengths and weaknesses) of an organization with the objective of identifying and addressing the obstacles that may arise at the beginning and during the execution of the plans.
Elements of strategic planning
Correct strategic planning must have:
Goals
In any business plan, there must be goals, whether short, medium and/or long term. Everyone on your team must know what the goal is that is being pursued. This helps maintain focus and unite all efforts towards a common objective.
Study of the competition
Competitive analysis helps you understand your competitors' opportunities, strengths, threats and weaknesses, as well as any other important information. Based on this study, it is possible to establish strategies aimed at designing your company's competitive advantages.
Analysis of resources
Resources are the tangible or intangible assets that a company has; these can be economic, human, or technological. When planning strategically, it is important to know what resources are available to make the achievement of objectives feasible.
Process evaluation
Evaluation is one of the most important steps in strategic planning. It is an analysis that allows us to know the effectiveness of the planning designed from the objectives, activities and general functioning of the team.
Corporate strategic planning is not only about establishing a plan along with the actions and resources required to accomplish it: it also requires evaluating the process. Evaluation allows errors in execution to be detected, which can be corrected in time to prevent loss of time and money.
Corporate Strategic Planning Tools
Corporate strategic planning is implemented, mostly, through tools and techniques that allow each of the stages of its process to be executed. According to Fred Davis in his work “Strategic Management”, these stages are:
Discussion on how they are currently conceived in the organization, its mission, vision, objectives and strategies.
External audit: opportunities and threats that the environment poses to the organization.
Internal audit: strengths and weaknesses of the organization, in the face of opportunities and threats in the environment, to fulfill the mission and achieve the objectives.
Redefinition or affirmation of the mission.
Definition of objectives, goals, strategies and policies.
Allocation of resources to implement strategies and policies.
Measurement and evaluation of results.
In this sense, the main strategic planning tools are:
1. Business management philosophy
Business management philosophy consists of the aspects that characterize a company and differentiate it from others. It is composed of three elements: mission, vision and values.
Mission
The mission is a written statement in which you describe the reason for your company's existence. According to Fred Davis, the Mission allows you to:
Ensure unanimity of your organization's purposes.
Develop a basic standard to guide resource allocation.
Establish an organizational climate that suggests a methodical operation.
Serve as a meeting point for people who identify with the purposes of your organization.
Facilitates the transfer of objectives and goals to an organizational structure.
It makes it possible to translate your organization's purpose into concrete goals.
Among the main questions you must answer when establishing your mission are: who are we?, why do we exist?, what is our purpose?, who are our users and clients?
Vision
Vision is how your company sees itself and the goals it wants to achieve in the future. Vision allows you to:
It gives you clear and concise direction.
It gives you a foundation when thinking about your company's values.
Encourages teams to work towards a desired future.
Contributes to the decision-making process.
To draft your vision you must answer together with your team: Where do we want to go? What do we want our organization to become in the long term? How do we want it to be perceived by others?
Values
Values are attributes for which a person or thing is appreciated or valued. These attributes may include: responsibility, empathy, perseverance, discipline, loyalty, tolerance.
In a business environment, values are key to guiding your company's mission and vision because they allow you to start from a framework of beliefs and self-identification qualities that clearly want to be communicated.
These allow for the construction of an organizational culture in which all germany whatsapp number strategies, that is, all actions aimed at achieving objectives, are aligned with established values.
Netflix, for example, makes its values very clear in its organizational culture document.
Read also : Netflix's organizational culture, the key to its success
Goals
According to Hercilio Castellano, an objective is what is desired to be achieved through actions proposed as a result of the planning process. Objectives can arise from the evaluation of a certain problem or situation that can be observed and that needs to be changed.
In management philosophy, objectives are usually broader and, in turn, accompanied by more specific objectives. These must be realistic and achievable through small or large efforts.
Strategic planning also includes tools to determine whether or not objectives are realistic, based on specific criteria.
You may be interested in reading : How to design SMART objectives in digital marketing?
Basic recommendations for creating your management philosophy:
Write each element of the management philosophy in a simple, clear and concise manner. Define all concepts in a legible manner.
Develop your mission, vision, values and objectives in a participatory manner, involving the main actors in your company.
Avoid planning policies, actions and strategies until the management philosophy has been clearly defined.
2. SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis, known by its acronym in English as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats), is a tool proposed by Albert S. Humphrey, who obtained an MBA from Harvard in the mid-20th century.
In Spanish, its acronym stands for: strength, opportunities, weaknesses, threats, and the way the data is presented is through a square matrix.
Strengths are positive attributes of your organization, that is, those that make you stand out and are part of your value proposition.
Opportunities are external factors that benefit your company and facilitate the achievement of its objectives.
Weaknesses are characterized by being negative aspects of your company that must be identified, analyzed and improved over time.
Threats represent external obstacles to your company that harm the execution of your strategy and the achievement of your objectives.
The SWOT analysis is very useful; it provides a greater perspective when making decisions and when designing a strategic plan, since its main function is to be able to unite the elements of the matrix to create strategies for different scenarios. We show you:
swot-analysis-strategic-planning-tool.