6 answers you should know before planning strategy for your organization

Strategic planning is critical. Why? Because only smart determination of the overall direction and goals can lead to the long-term success of your organization. Strategy unifies your team in a single direction and helps you make your business decisions.
If you are planning the strategy for your organization, or you think about it, you are at the right place.
First, let’s understand what the strategic planning is known for and what this term includes.
1. What is strategic planning?
Strategic management is an effective and efficient way to get from Point A to Point B while enjoying the process and learning from it.
Strategic Planning closes the gap between the present and the “ideal future”. It answers the question “What” the company will do over the next two years to work towards realizing the strategic vision.
What an organization is, what it does where the company wants to be in the future and how it can get there? This is what proper strategic planning covers.
Organizations use strategic planning to manage resources and actions with mission, vision and strategy.
2. When is the best time?
The companies choose when to start scheduling strategic planning depending on their own nature and needs.
Generally, you can start thinking about the strategic plan, when;
-starting a new business
-preparing for a new venture
-adapting to a changing market
-changing of the business environment
-dealing with limited resources of money, people and time
-having a constant need to grow
3. What it can bring to your organization?
It brings you a real value. Without it, you will be lost in a highly competitive business environment. Many businesses lose because they do not know where to focus and the managers do not understand their vision.

A strategic plan can clear the uncertainty on the horizon. It helps to determine where to spend time, money and human capital.
4. What to consider before planning?
Before developing a plan, you need to step back and examine where you are, where you want to go and how to get there.
Core questions to cover and ask yourself are:
1. Where are we now? And where have we come from?
2. Where do we want to be? And by when?
3. How might we get there?
4. Which way is best?
5. How do we ensure arrival?
6. What are the expected outcomes?
5. Who carries it out?
The key players of your business should be engaged in the strategic planning process. It can be headed by the head of the organization, who gets input from employees or a specific team. They clarify all the key factors for the analysis and make interviews to share ideas. Here are typical questions to discuss during those interviews;
• Who is on our Planning Team?
• Who will be the business process owner (Strategy Director) of strategic planning in our organization?
• What do we want to see differently in our organization?
This will bring you the following outcomes;
• Planning team members are informed of their roles and responsibilities.
• Planning schedule is established.
• Existing planning information and secondary data are collected.
6. What does planning include?
There are many methodologies for strategic planning and each organization chooses what’s the most proper for them. However, there are some absolute rules that are followed by all of them;
1. Analysis of the external environment of the organization, how it affects the organization, identifying opportunities and threats,
2. Analysis of internal environment, identifying strengths and weaknesses (SWOT),
3. Establishment of mission, vision and core value,
4. Identifying the gaps between the organization’s current state and what it hopes to achieve (GAP analysis),
5. Establishment of goals for the next years,
6. Identifying the strategies, objectives, responsibilities, and timelines to reach those goals.
SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis comprises internal STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES and external OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS.

One useful approach you can use to SWOT Analysis is “THE 5 CRITICAL ACTIONABLE SWOT FACTORS”;
• What are the 5 Critical Strengths which can be used to drive future Strategy?
• What are the 5 Most Penetrating Weaknesses which hold the business back?
• What are the 5 Most Attractive Opportunities the organization can take advantage of in the future?
• What are the 5 Most Significant Threats of which the organization must be aware?
The outcome of external environment analysis is to determine drivers for change that may arise from the extraction and assessment of current and future OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS.
Vision and mission
To unify the organization and keep everyone focused you should create mission and vision statements. Mission and vision unify and inspire people and help businesses thrive in the long run.
Vision
Vision is the “aspirational” goal of the company. What the company aspires to be. Just think about 2–3 length sentences giving a mental picture of what the company wishes to become or what the company hopes to achieve.

Mission
The mission is the statement of what the organization has to be. It answers to the question what is the business for and what business are we in. Mission gives purpose to the company and belief to the employees and indicates values and culture. It directs with the steps to be done to achieve the vision.
Start with describing what you are doing currently, for who and how. Explain why a company exists and what ways are needed to achieve your vision.
Mission statements generally are shorter than vision statements.
Core values
Core values account for the ways the business operates in order to reach your mission.
Values describe your beliefs and behaviors that enable you to reach your vision and mission.
Gap analysis
The difference between the future desire plan and the probability to achieve it creates a strategic gap. Plans should be evaluated from the potential of closing the strategic gap.
The process includes researching what’s going outside your organization and within the organization.
Goals
What you do next? Set goals that usually start three years out and extend to around five years into the future supporting your mission and vision.
Establish long-term goals to guide your operations. Each goal should have one-year objectives that advance your goals. Each objective should have a plan detailing how it will be achieved.
Implementation
To move from the strategy option into implementation, your plan will include:
• Strategy planning
• Strategy implementation
• Implementation monitoring
• Performance evaluation
• Review
Goals can be monitored on a quarterly basis. You can just ask a responsible person to give a status update.
This point is very important as companies sometimes get in a way of completing long term goals.
And what’s the most important is reviewing plans once a year and adapting them to changing the environment. You can use goal document to always be tracked of the processes.

And, in the end, do not forget about following tips for creating your effective strategic plan:
· Regularly modify and review your plan
· Write the goals that are possible to implement
· Don’t be focused on deadlines, the result is more important
· Listen to all team members regardless of their positions
