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A Guide to Strategic Planning Process

Strategic planning is a process adopted by organizations to meet their long-term business goals. Keeping in view the volatile market conditions and technological developments, adhering to forecast- based planning is not sufficient for survival and growth. Forming an integral part of strategic human resource management, strategic planning defines clear business objectives and ways to achieve the same by assessing the internal and external situations. An important management activity, it helps business to focus on establishing their priorities and leveraging their strengths to accomplish their targeted goals.

In a gist, strategic planning drives business in the right direction and involves all the players, the employees, shareholders and employers to attain the real purpose. Working as an HR consultancy in Pune, we understand that although strategic planning can be challenging, requiring clear vision, talent, and patience, it certainly ensures positive outcomes.

A-Guide-to-Strategic-Planning-Process

Here are some of the important steps in the strategic planning process that when followed properly can generate the expected results:

  • Setting a defined vision and mission: Having a clear vision is the pre-requisite for achieving set targets. You will need to define your short as well as long-term goals. Next, determine the steps that will steer you to achieve these objectives. While identifying your strategic position, it’s crucial to establish goals that are measurable and realistic. You can look back to your mission statement, corporate values and work culture for this purpose.
  • Environmental analysis: It’s imperative to assess the internal as well as external environmental situations in order to set the ball rolling. While the internal analysis can help identify the firms’ strengths & weaknesses, by external analysis you come to know about the opportunities and threats that your business is exposed to. A profile of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is generated by means of SWOT analysis. Industry analysis can also be performed to evaluate competitors, suppliers, substitute products, customers and rivalry industry.
  • Formulation of the strategic plan: Once you identify your strategic position and have defined goals that align with your organization’s mission, you can start working on strategic planning. Being one of the top strategic planning consulting firms, we suggest our clients focus on initiatives that will have a greater impact on business and those which are urgent and need immediate attention. While formulating the strategic plan firms can refer to Porter’s generic strategies that include cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. These strategies can help to overcome the challenges posed by competitive forces.
  • Executing the strategic plan: This is the action phase of the strategic planning process. The strategy is implemented by way of programs, budgets, and procedures. It involves engaging the resources and workforce at different levels for the attainment of the target. Distributing tasks among different individuals or departments, training them for the respective operations and checking back with these individuals/groups to ensure things are on track form the core of the strategic planning process. An important aspect of the human resource planning process, strategic plan execution requires you to hold respective individuals/departments accountable for the tasks assigned to them.
  • Evaluation and control: This is a critical part of strategic planning that aims at identifying and correcting problems that may occur at any stage of the strategic management process. This needs constant monitoring and adjustments. It will involve measuring the performances and comparing results to the pre-defined standards and accordingly making changes that will set things back in the track.

The future prospects of your business largely depend on how well you devise and execute your strategic plans. The strategic planning process not only lays out your company’s goals but also helps your business reach its potential.

Known for the best consultancy in Pune, CerveauSys Strategic specializes in strategic planning and business consultancy solutions. To know more about strategic planning process and its impact on your business, speak to us today!