Basic steps

What are the basic steps in a strategic planning process?

Strategic Planning Model

Many books and articles illustrate how best a strategic plan can be. However, our purpose here is to focus on the very basic steps needed in the strategic planning process. Below is a brief description of the 5-step planning process. Getting ready, Articulating mission and vision, Assessing the situation, Developing strategies, Goals, and objectives and finally Completing the written plan.

These 5-steps are only a recommendation, but not a complete recipe for presenting a strategic plan. Other sources may put forward completely different steps or slight modifications to these. Thoughtful and creative planners will add spice to the mix to the presentation in order to come up with a strategic plan that best suits the company.

Step One - Getting Ready

To get ready for strategic planning, a company should first assess if it's ready and if it's top-level management are really committed to the effort. For instance, if a financial crisis looms large or if the founder is terminally ill or the environment is disorderly, then it makes no sense to implement strategic planning. A company that initiates strategic planning after considering all the pros and cons should perform the 5-tasks to structure the process:

• Classify specific issues to be addressed during the planning process
• Specify roles (who does what in the process)
• Form a Planning Committee
• Develop a company profile
• Distinguish the data to be collected to assist in decision-making.
Thus, a workplan is developed at the end of Step One.

Step Two - Articulating Mission and Vision

A mission statement is like an introductory paragraph, it must communicate the essence of a company to the reader. A company's ability to articulate its mission announces its focus and purposefulness. A vision statement presents an image of what success will look like for the company while a mission statement describes the company in terms of its:

• Purpose - why the company exists and what it seeks to achieve
• Business - the main methodology or action by which the company tries to fulfill its purpose
• Values - the principles or beliefs that direct its members to follow the company's purpose

With mission and vision statements in hand, a company has taken a vital step towards creating a shared, coherent idea of what it is strategically planning for. Thus, at the end of Step Two, a draft mission statement along with a draft vision statement is developed.

Step Three - Assessing the Situation

Once a company has committed to why it exists and what it does, it should then take a clear-stand on its current situation. Remember that the aspects of strategic planning, thinking and management is consciousness of resources and an eye to the future environment, so that the company successfully responds to changes in the environment. Therefore, situation assessment means getting current data about the company's strengths, weaknesses and performance. Collect data highlighting critical issues faced by the company like funding, new programme opportunities, changing rules or modifying needs in the client population. The point is to select the most important issues to address for which the Planning Committee must agree for at least five to ten critical issues. Thus, the outcome of Step Three includes a database of quality data needed for quality decisions and a list of important issues that demand a answer from the company.

Step Four - Developing Strategies, Goals, and Objectives

Once the company's mission has been affirmed and its core issues recognized, it's time to think about them- the broad approaches to be taken (strategies) and the common and specific results to be sought (the goals and objectives). Strategies, goals and objectives may develop from individual inspiration, group discussion, formal decision-making techniques. However, the bottom line for this is that in the end the leadership consents to address the core issues.

This may take considerable time, flexibility and new insights may emerge that may alter the thrust of the mission statement. Thus, it is important that planners should not be anxious to go back to an earlier step in the process and benefit from the available data to work out the best possible plan. Thus in Step Four, an outline of the company's strategic directions - the general strategies, long-range goals and specific objectives of its response to important issues.

Step Five - Completing the Written Plan

The mission has been articulated, the important issues identified and the goals, strategies agreed upon. Now this step necessarily involves putting all that down on paper. Usually a member of the Planning Committee, the executive director or a planning consultant should draft a final planning document and submit it for analysis to all key decision makers. The senior staff can even be consulted to know whether the document can be translated into operating plans. In addition, to guarantee that the plan answers key issues about priorities and directions explicitly to serve as a guide. Revisions should not be pulled on for months, but actions should be taken to reply any important questions during this step. Thus, the final Step Five gives a clear strategic plan.

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