Strategic Planning – A Simplified Model For Small and Medium Size Industries
It’s an unfortunate reality that most of the businesses that otherwise have excellent potential to grow to get stagnated either due to a lack of credible business strategy or neglect towards strategy execution at the grass root levels. Only a few can break through these barriers and spiral fast through the growth orbits. Why do some companies succeed when others stagnate or fail?
It is proven that the companies that grew into profitable and large organizations did the following three things correctly-:
- Setting clear strategic direction
- Established strategically aligned internal Processes and Systems
- Rigorous consistent execution and monitoring
Best Business Consulting Firms in Pune suggest that the strategy is simply defined as your organization’s well-informed approach and method to combat external threats, utilize your organizational strengths and achieve sustained growth. This simple definition however strongly underscores that strategy requires organizations to look beyond day-to-day operations and take serious cognizance of the external environment. It also entails that strategy has to do with the big picture which you as a leader wish to create with a roadmap through which you would lead your team towards such a picture.
A robust yet simple strategy model for small and medium size industries requires comprehensively answering and articulating the following questions:-
- Who are we as an organization?
- What are we best at? Our Strengths?
- How do we leverage these strengths in the existing business opportunities?
- What new business opportunities/avenues do our strengths open for us?
- What are some of the critical problems we are facing now?
- What are our organizational weaknesses and threats?
- What must we do to address them?
- In view of the above which are some of the most attractive and viable strategic growth options and objectives for our organization?
- What would be our unique differentiation points, ( or in a nutshell, answers to the question of why must customers buy from us) that would enable easy market penetration and revenue ramp-up?
- Do we have a document that clearly articulates our action plans, responsibility ownerships, timelines and review mechanism to see that the strategy gets percolated and executed to the grass root levels of our organization?
As per our experience in Corporates as well as in our consulting roles, we have found that it always helps to seek the facilitation of external experts in the strategic planning process.
This is mainly because-:
- Being part of the organizational system it generally becomes difficult for internal teammates to take a completely objective view of their own organization without getting emotionally involved. An external expert can effectively consolidate individual perspectives in an unbiased manner.
- An expert facilitating the strategic planning initiative frees senior members in the organization from the process and planning aspects of the initiative so that they can focus their energy on the thought process required for the strategic deliberations.
- The experts lead discussions towards a healthy outcome by timely facilitating to avoid the blame game, decision deadlocks, miscommunication, group conflicts etc. Experts with their insights from strategic planning projects in a range of industries bring fresh thoughts, perspectives and out-of-the-box solutions to organisational problems.
Finally, strategy planning is not an optional but an essential yearly initiative for every organization that wishes to achieve its business objectives, survive and grow into a great organization. This is especially critical for small and medium size industries that have great potential waiting to be unlocked to create wealth for our nation. CerveauSys, Best Strategy and Management Consulting firm in Pune, is on a mission to make strategic planning simple and effective for all small and medium size industries. Feel free to get in touch and talk to our experts. We’re here to provide your customised strategic plans and move your business to new heights of success.
Also Read- 4 Key Steps to Strategic Human Resources Planning!