strategic issues in business plan development

How to improve strategic planning

In conference rooms everywhere, corporate planners are in the midst of the annual strategic-planning process. For the better part of a year, they collect financial and operational data, make forecasts, and prepare lengthy presentations with the CEO and other senior managers about the future direction of the business. But at the end of this expensive and time-consuming process, many participants say they are frustrated by its lack of impact on either their own actions or the strategic direction of the company.

This sense of disappointment was captured in a recent McKinsey Quarterly survey of nearly 800 executives: just 45 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with the strategic-planning process. 1 1. “ Improving strategic planning: A McKinsey Survey ,” The McKinsey Quarterly , Web exclusive, September 2006. The survey, conducted in late July and early August 2006, received 796 responses from a panel of executives from around the world. All panelists have mostly financial or strategic responsibilities and work in a wide range of industries for organizations with revenues of at least $500 million. Moreover, only 23 percent indicated that major strategic decisions were made within its confines. Given these results, managers might well be tempted to jettison the planning process altogether.

But for those working in the overwhelming majority of corporations, the annual planning process plays an essential role. In addition to formulating at least some elements of a company’s strategy, the process results in a budget, which establishes the resource allocation map for the coming 12 to 18 months; sets financial and operating targets, often used to determine compensation metrics and to provide guidance for financial markets; and aligns the management team on its strategic priorities. The operative question for chief executives is how to make the planning process more effective—not whether it is the sole mechanism used to design strategy. CEOs know that strategy is often formulated through ad hoc meetings or brand reviews, or as a result of decisions about mergers and acquisitions.

Our research shows that formal strategic-planning processes play an important role in improving overall satisfaction with strategy development. That role can be seen in the responses of the 79 percent of managers who claimed that the formal planning process played a significant role in developing strategies and were satisfied with the approach of their companies, compared with only 21 percent of the respondents who felt that the process did not play a significant role. Looked at another way, 51 percent of the respondents whose companies had no formal process were dissatisfied with their approach to the development of strategy, against only 20 percent of those at companies with a formal process.

So what can managers do to improve the process? There are many ways to conduct strategic planning, but determining the ideal method goes beyond the scope of this article. Instead we offer, from our research, five emergent ideas that executives can employ immediately to make existing processes run better. The changes we discuss here (such as a focus on important strategic issues or a connection to core-management processes) are the elements most linked with the satisfaction of employees and their perceptions of the significance of the process. These steps cannot guarantee that the right strategic decisions will be made or that strategy will be better executed, but by enhancing the planning process—and thus increasing satisfaction with the development of strategy—they will improve the odds for success.

Start with the issues

Ask CEOs what they think strategic planning should involve and they will talk about anticipating big challenges and spotting important trends. At many companies, however, this noble purpose has taken a backseat to rigid, data-driven processes dominated by the production of budgets and financial forecasts. If the calendar-based process is to play a more valuable role in a company’s overall strategy efforts, it must complement budgeting with a focus on strategic issues. In our experience, the first liberating change managers can make to improve the quality of the planning process is to begin it by deliberately and thoughtfully identifying and discussing the strategic issues that will have the greatest impact on future business performance.

Granted, an approach based on issues will not necessarily yield better strategic results. The music business, for instance, has discussed the threat posed by digital-file sharing for years without finding an effective way of dealing with the problem. But as a first step, identifying the key issues will ensure that management does not waste time and energy on less important topics.

We found a variety of practical ways in which companies can impose a fresh strategic perspective. For instance, the CEO of one large health care company asks the leaders of each business unit to imagine how a set of specific economic, social, and business trends will affect their businesses, as well as ways to capture the opportunities—or counter the threats—that these trends pose. Only after such an analysis and discussion do the leaders settle into the more typical planning exercises of financial forecasting and identifying strategic initiatives.

One consumer goods organization takes a more directed approach. The CEO, supported by the corporate-strategy function, compiles a list of three to six priorities for the coming year. Distributed to the managers responsible for functions, geographies, and brands, the list then becomes the basis for an offsite strategy-alignment meeting, where managers debate the implications of the priorities for their particular organizations. The corporate-strategy function summarizes the results, adds appropriate corporate targets, and shares them with the organization in the form of a strategy memo, which serves as the basis for more detailed strategic planning at the division and business-unit levels.

A packaged-goods company offers an even more tailored example. Every December the corporate senior-management team produces a list of ten strategic questions tailored to each of the three business units. The leaders of these businesses have six months to explore and debate the questions internally and to come up with answers. In June each unit convenes with the senior-management team in a one-day meeting to discuss proposed actions and reach decisions.

Some companies prefer to use a bottom-up rather than top-down process. We recently worked with a sales company to design a strategic-planning process that begins with in-depth interviews (involving all of the senior managers and selected corporate and business executives) to generate a list of the most important strategic issues facing the company. The senior-management team prioritizes the list and assigns managers to explore each issue and report back in four to six weeks. Such an approach can be especially valuable in companies where internal consensus building is an imperative.

Bring together the right people

An issues-based approach won’t do much good unless the most relevant people are involved in the debate. We found that survey respondents who were satisfied with the strategic-planning process rated it highly on dimensions such as including the most knowledgeable and influential participants, stimulating and challenging the participants’ thinking, and having honest, open discussions about difficult issues. In contrast, 27 percent of the dissatisfied respondents reported that their company’s strategic planning had not a single one of these virtues. Such results suggest that too many companies focus on the data-gathering and packaging elements of strategic planning and neglect the crucial interactive components.

Strategic conversations will have little impact if they involve only strategic planners from both the business unit and the corporate levels. One of our core beliefs is that those who carry out strategy should also develop it. The key strategy conversation should take place among corporate decision makers, business unit leaders, and people with expertise essential to the discussion. In addition to leading the corporate review, the CEO, aided by members of the executive team, should as a rule lead the strategy review for business units as well. The head of a business unit, supported by four to six people, should direct the discussion from its side of the table (see sidebar, "Things to ask in any business unit review").

Things to ask in any business unit review

Are major trends and changes in your business unit’s environment affecting your strategic plan? Specifically, what potential developments in customer demand, technology, or the regulatory environment could have enough impact on the industry to change the entire plan?

How and why is this plan different from last year’s?

What were your forecasts for market growth, sales, and profitability last year, two years ago, and three years ago? How right or wrong were they? What did the business unit learn from those experiences?

What would it take to double your business unit’s growth rate and profits? Where will growth come from: expansion or gains in market share?

If your business unit plans to take market share from competitors, how will it do so, and how will they respond? Are you counting on a strategic advantage or superior execution?

What are your business unit’s distinctive competitive strengths, and how does the plan build on them?

How different is the strategy from those of competitors, and why? Is that a good or a bad thing?

Beyond the immediate planning cycle, what are the key issues, risks, and opportunities that we should discuss today?

What would a private-equity owner do with this business?

How will the business unit monitor the execution of this strategy?

One pharmaceutical company invites business unit leaders to take part in the strategy reviews of their peers in other units. This approach can help build a better understanding of the entire company and, especially, of the issues that span business units. The risk is that such interactions might constrain the honesty and vigor of the dialogue and put executives at the focus of the discussion on the defensive.

Corporate senior-management teams can dedicate only a few hours or at most a few days to a business unit under review. So team members should spend this time in challenging yet collaborative discussions with business unit leaders rather than trying to absorb many facts during the review itself. To provide some context for the discussion, best-practice companies disseminate important operational and financial information to the corporate review team well in advance of such sessions. This reading material should also tee up the most important issues facing the business and outline the proposed strategy, ensuring that the review team is prepared with well-thought-out questions. In our experience, the right 10 pages provide ample fuel to fire a vigorous discussion, but more than 25 pages will likely douse the level of energy or engagement in the room.

Adapt planning cycles to the needs of each business

Managers are justifiably concerned about the resources and time required to implement an issues-based strategic-planning approach. One easy—yet rarely adopted—solution is to free business units from the need to conduct this rigorous process every single year. In all but the most volatile, high-velocity industries, it is hard to imagine that a major strategic redirection will be necessary every planning cycle. In fact, forcing businesses to undertake this exercise annually is distracting and may even be detrimental. Managers need to focus on executing the last plan’s major initiatives, many of which can take 18 to 36 months to implement fully.

Some companies alternate the business units that undergo the complete strategic-planning process (as opposed to abbreviated annual updates of the existing plan). One media company, for example, requires individual business units to undertake strategic planning only every two or three years. This cadence enables the corporate senior-management team and its strategy group to devote more energy to the business units that are “at bat.” More important, it frees the corporate-strategy group to work directly with the senior team on critical issues that affect the entire company—issues such as developing an integrated digitization strategy and addressing unforeseen changes in the fast-moving digital-media landscape.

Other companies use trigger mechanisms to decide which business units will undergo a full strategic-planning exercise in a given year. One industrial company assigns each business unit a color-coded grade—green, yellow, or red—based on the unit’s success in executing the existing strategic plan. “Code red,” for example, would slate a business unit for a strategy review. Although many of the metrics that determine the grade are financial, some may be operational to provide a more complete assessment of the unit’s performance.

Freeing business units from participating in the strategic-planning process every year raises a caveat, however. When important changes in the external environment occur, senior managers must be able to engage with business units that are not under review and make major strategic decisions on an ad hoc basis. For instance, a major merger in any industry would prompt competitors in it to revisit their strategies. Indeed, one advantage of a tailored planning cycle is that it builds slack into the strategic-review system, enabling management to address unforeseen but pressing strategic issues as they arise.

Implement a strategic-performance-management system

In the end, many companies fail to execute the chosen strategy. More than a quarter of our survey respondents said that their companies had plans but no execution path. Forty-five percent reported that planning processes failed to track the execution of strategic initiatives. All this suggests that putting in place a system to measure and monitor their progress can greatly enhance the impact of the planning process.

Most companies believe that their existing control systems and performance-management processes (including budgets and operating reviews) are the sole way to monitor progress on strategy. As a result, managers attempt to translate the decisions made during the planning process into budget targets or other financial goals. Although this practice is sensible and necessary, it is not enough. We estimate that a significant portion of the strategic decisions we recommend to companies can’t be tracked solely through financial targets. A company undertaking a major strategic initiative to enhance its innovation and product-development capabilities, for example, should measure a variety of input metrics, such as the quality of available talent and the number of ideas and projects at each stage in development, in addition to pure output metrics such as revenues from new-product sales. One information technology company, for instance, carefully tracks the number and skill levels of people posted to important strategic projects.

Strategic-performance-management systems, which should assign accountability for initiatives and make their progress more transparent, can take many forms. One industrial corporation tracks major strategic initiatives that will have the greatest impact, across a portfolio of a dozen businesses, on its financial and strategic goals. Transparency is achieved through regular reviews and the use of financial as well as nonfinancial metrics. The corporate-strategy team assumes responsibility for reviews (chaired by the CEO and involving the relevant business-unit leaders) that use an array of milestones and metrics to assess the top ten initiatives. One to expand operations in China and India, for example, would entail regular reviews of interim metrics such as the quality and number of local employees recruited and the pace at which alliances are formed with channel partners or suppliers. Each business unit, in turn, is accountable for adopting the same performance-management approach for its own, lower-tier top-ten list of initiatives.

When designed well, strategic-performance-management systems can give an early warning of problems with strategic initiatives, whereas financial targets alone at best provide lagging indicators. An effective system enables management to step in and correct, redirect, or even abandon an initiative that is failing to perform as expected. The strategy of a pharmaceutical company that embarked on a major expansion of its sales force to drive revenue growth, for example, presupposed that rapid growth in the number of sales representatives would lead to a corresponding increase in revenues. The company also recognized, however, that expansion was in turn contingent on several factors, including the ability to recruit and train the right people. It therefore put in place a regular review of the key strategic metrics against its actual performance to alert managers to any emerging problems.

Integrate human-resources systems into the strategic plan

Simply monitoring the execution of strategic initiatives is not sufficient: their successful implementation also depends on how managers are evaluated and compensated. Yet only 36 percent of the executives we surveyed said that their companies’ strategic-planning processes were integrated with HR processes. One way to create a more valuable strategic-planning process would be to tie the evaluation and compensation of managers to the progress of new initiatives.

Although the development of strategy is ostensibly a long-term endeavor, companies traditionally emphasize short-term, purely financial targets—such as annual revenue growth or improved margins—as the sole metrics to gauge the performance of managers and employees. This approach is gradually changing. Deferred-compensation models for boards, CEOs, and some senior managers are now widely used. What’s more, several companies have added longer-term performance targets to complement the short-term ones. A major pharmaceutical company, for example, recently revamped its managerial-compensation structure to include a basket of short-term financial and operating targets as well as longer-term, innovation-based growth targets.

Although these changes help persuade managers to adopt both short- and long-term approaches to the development of strategy, they don’t address the need to link evaluation and compensation to specific strategic initiatives. One way of doing so is to craft a mix of performance targets that more appropriately reflect a company’s strategy. For example, one North American services business that launched strategic initiatives to improve its customer retention and increase sales also adjusted the evaluation and compensation targets for its managers. Rather than measuring senior managers only by revenue and margin targets, as it had done before, it tied 20 percent of their compensation to achieving its retention and cross-selling goals. By introducing metrics for these specific initiatives and linking their success closely to bonus packages, the company motivated managers to make the strategy succeed.

An advantage of this approach is that it motivates managers to flag any problems early in the implementation of a strategic initiative (which determines the size of bonuses) so that the company can solve them. Otherwise, managers all too often sweep the debris of a failing strategy under the operating rug until the spring-cleaning ritual of next year’s annual planning process.

Some business leaders have found ways to give strategic planning a more valuable role in the formulation as well as the execution of strategy. Companies that emulate their methods might find satisfaction instead of frustration at the end of the annual process.

Renée Dye is a consultant in McKinsey’s Atlanta office, and Olivier Sibony is a director in the Paris office.

This article was first published in the Autumn 2007 issue of McKinsey on Finance . Visit McKinsey’s corporate finance site to view the full issue.

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What You Lose with Your New Strategy

• Natalia Weisz
• Roberto Vassolo

Changing your strategic priorities will inevitably come with downsides. Here’s how leaders can address those losses head on.

Company strategies often fail and this is frequently ascribed to unpredictable changes in the context. But most failures are the result of fairly predictable challenges, including one factor that is constantly overlooked: the role and impact of loss. New strategic priorities inevitably generate losses as people’s reality changes: loss of power, loss of competence or identity. Companies typically trumpet the benefits and ignore these losses, treating implementation as a straightforward technical challenge. Instead, they need to treat strategic planning as an adaptive leadership challenge, helping the organization come to terms with new realities and to appropriately grieve what is lost. Leaders should build an adaptive strategic planning process by: strengthening the “holding environment”; creating a formal moment to discuss losses; and mapping the affected groups and losses for each strategic priority.

Why do organizational strategies so frequently fall short? This question has perennially stumped executives and managers, and one thing seems certain: it’s not for lack of planning.

• NW Natalia Weisz is Professor in Organizational Behavior at IAE Business School. She is co-author of Strategy as Leadership: Facing Adaptive Challenges in Organizations (Stanford University Press 2022).
• RV Roberto Vassolo is Professor in Strategic Management at IAE Business School. He is co-author of Strategy as Leadership: Facing Adaptive Challenges in Organizations (Stanford University Press 2022).

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• 7 strategic planning models, plus 8 fra ...

7 strategic planning models, plus 8 frameworks to help you get started

Strategic planning is vital in defining where your business is going in the next three to five years. With the right strategic planning models and frameworks, you can uncover opportunities, identify risks, and create a strategic plan to fuel your organization’s success. We list the most popular models and frameworks and explain how you can combine them to create a strategic plan that fits your business.

A strategic plan is a great tool to help you hit your business goals . But sometimes, this tool needs to be updated to reflect new business priorities or changing market conditions. If you decide to use a model that already exists, you can benefit from a roadmap that’s already created. The model you choose can improve your knowledge of what works best in your organization, uncover unknown strengths and weaknesses, or help you find out how you can outpace your competitors.

In this article, we cover the most common strategic planning models and frameworks and explain when to use which one. Plus, get tips on how to apply them and which models and frameworks work well together. 

Strategic planning models vs. frameworks

First off: This is not a one-or-nothing scenario. You can use as many or as few strategic planning models and frameworks as you like. 

When your organization undergoes a strategic planning phase, you should first pick a model or two that you want to apply. This will provide you with a basic outline of the steps to take during the strategic planning process.

During that process, think of strategic planning frameworks as the tools in your toolbox. Many models suggest starting with a SWOT analysis or defining your vision and mission statements first. Depending on your goals, though, you may want to apply several different frameworks throughout the strategic planning process.

For example, if you’re applying a scenario-based strategic plan, you could start with a SWOT and PEST(LE) analysis to get a better overview of your current standing. If one of the weaknesses you identify has to do with your manufacturing process, you could apply the theory of constraints to improve bottlenecks and mitigate risks. 

Now that you know the difference between the two, learn more about the seven strategic planning models, as well as the eight most commonly used frameworks that go along with them.

1. Basic model

The basic strategic planning model is ideal for establishing your company’s vision, mission, business objectives, and values. This model helps you outline the specific steps you need to take to reach your goals, monitor progress to keep everyone on target, and address issues as they arise.

If it’s your first strategic planning session, the basic model is the way to go. Later on, you can embellish it with other models to adjust or rewrite your business strategy as needed. Let’s take a look at what kinds of businesses can benefit from this strategic planning model and how to apply it.

Small businesses or organizations

Companies with little to no strategic planning experience

Organizations with few resources 

Write your mission statement. Gather your planning team and have a brainstorming session. The more ideas you can collect early in this step, the more fun and rewarding the analysis phase will feel.

Identify your organization’s goals . Setting clear business goals will increase your team’s performance and positively impact their motivation.

Outline strategies that will help you reach your goals. Ask yourself what steps you have to take in order to reach these goals and break them down into long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals .

Create action plans to implement each of the strategies above. Action plans will keep teams motivated and your organization on target.

Monitor and revise the plan as you go . As with any strategic plan, it’s important to closely monitor if your company is implementing it successfully and how you can adjust it for a better outcome.

2. Issue-based model

Also called goal-based planning model, this is essentially an extension of the basic strategic planning model. It’s a bit more dynamic and very popular for companies that want to create a more comprehensive plan.

Organizations with basic strategic planning experience

Businesses that are looking for a more comprehensive plan

Conduct a SWOT analysis . Assess your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with a SWOT analysis to get a better overview of what your strategic plan should focus on. We’ll give into how to conduct a SWOT analysis when we get into the strategic planning frameworks below.

Identify and prioritize major issues and/or goals. Based on your SWOT analysis, identify and prioritize what your strategic plan should focus on this time around.

Develop your main strategies that address these issues and/or goals. Aim to develop one overarching strategy that addresses your highest-priority goal and/or issue to keep this process as simple as possible.

Update or create a mission and vision statement . Make sure that your business’s statements align with your new or updated strategy. If you haven’t already, this is also a chance for you to define your organization’s values.

Create action plans. These will help you address your organization’s goals, resource needs, roles, and responsibilities. 

Develop a yearly operational plan document. This model works best if your business repeats the strategic plan implementation process on an annual basis, so use a yearly operational plan to capture your goals, progress, and opportunities for next time.

Allocate resources for your year-one operational plan. Whether you need funding or dedicated team members to implement your first strategic plan, now is the time to allocate all the resources you’ll need.

Monitor and revise the strategic plan. Record your lessons learned in the operational plan so you can revisit and improve it for the next strategic planning phase.

The issue-based plan can repeat on an annual basis (or less often once you resolve the issues). It’s important to update the plan every time it’s in action to ensure it’s still doing the best it can for your organization.

You don’t have to repeat the full process every year—rather, focus on what’s a priority during this run.

3. Alignment model

This model is also called strategic alignment model (SAM) and is one of the most popular strategic planning models. It helps you align your business and IT strategies with your organization’s strategic goals. 

You’ll have to consider four equally important, yet different perspectives when applying the alignment strategic planning model:

Strategy execution: The business strategy driving the model

Technology potential: The IT strategy supporting the business strategy

Competitive potential: Emerging IT capabilities that can create new products and services

Service level: Team members dedicated to creating the best IT system in the organization

Ideally, your strategy will check off all the criteria above—however, it’s more likely you’ll have to find a compromise. 

Here’s how to create a strategic plan using the alignment model and what kinds of companies can benefit from it.

Organizations that need to fine-tune their strategies

Businesses that want to uncover issues that prevent them from aligning with their mission

Companies that want to reassess objectives or correct problem areas that prevent them from growing

Outline your organization’s mission, programs, resources, and where support is needed. Before you can improve your statements and approaches, you need to define what exactly they are.

Identify what internal processes are working and which ones aren’t. Pinpoint which processes are causing problems, creating bottlenecks , or could otherwise use improving. Then prioritize which internal processes will have the biggest positive impact on your business.

Identify solutions. Work with the respective teams when you’re creating a new strategy to benefit from their experience and perspective on the current situation.

Update your strategic plan with the solutions. Update your strategic plan and monitor if implementing it is setting your business up for improvement or growth. If not, you may have to return to the drawing board and update your strategic plan with new solutions.

4. Scenario model

The scenario model works great if you combine it with other models like the basic or issue-based model. This model is particularly helpful if you need to consider external factors as well. These can be government regulations, technical, or demographic changes that may impact your business.

Organizations trying to identify strategic issues and goals caused by external factors

Identify external factors that influence your organization. For example, you should consider demographic, regulation, or environmental factors.

Review the worst case scenario the above factors could have on your organization. If you know what the worst case scenario for your business looks like, it’ll be much easier to prepare for it. Besides, it’ll take some of the pressure and surprise out of the mix, should a scenario similar to the one you create actually occur.

Identify and discuss two additional hypothetical organizational scenarios. On top of your worst case scenario, you’ll also want to define the best case and average case scenarios. Keep in mind that the worst case scenario from the previous step can often provoke strong motivation to change your organization for the better. However, discussing the other two will allow you to focus on the positive—the opportunities your business may have ahead.

Identify and suggest potential strategies or solutions. Everyone on the team should now brainstorm different ways your business could potentially respond to each of the three scenarios. Discuss the proposed strategies as a team afterward.

Uncover common considerations or strategies for your organization. There’s a good chance that your teammates come up with similar solutions. Decide which ones you like best as a team or create a new one together.

Identify the most likely scenario and the most reasonable strategy. Finally, examine which of the three scenarios is most likely to occur in the next three to five years and how your business should respond to potential changes.

5. Self-organizing model

Also called the organic planning model, the self-organizing model is a bit different from the linear approaches of the other models. You’ll have to be very patient with this method. 

This strategic planning model is all about focusing on the learning and growing process rather than achieving a specific goal. Since the organic model concentrates on continuous improvement , the process is never really over.

Large organizations that can afford to take their time

Businesses that prefer a more naturalistic, organic planning approach that revolves around common values, communication, and shared reflection

Companies that have a clear understanding of their vision

Define and communicate your organization’s cultural values . Your team can only think clearly and with solutions in mind when they have a clear understanding of your organization's values.

Communicate the planning group’s vision for the organization. Define and communicate the vision with everyone involved in the strategic planning process. This will align everyone’s ideas with your company’s vision.

Discuss what processes will help realize the organization’s vision on a regular basis. Meet every quarter to discuss strategies or tactics that will move your organization closer to realizing your vision.

6. Real-time model

This fluid model can help organizations that deal with rapid changes to their work environment. There are three levels of success in the real-time model: 

Organizational: At the organizational level, you’re forming strategies in response to opportunities or trends.

Programmatic: At the programmatic level, you have to decide how to respond to specific outcomes or environmental changes.

Operational: On the operational level, you will study internal systems, policies, and people to develop a strategy for your company.

Figuring out your competitive advantage can be difficult, but this is absolutely crucial to ensure success. Whether it’s a unique asset or strength your organization has or an outstanding execution of services or programs—it’s important that you can set yourself apart from others in the industry to succeed.

Companies that need to react quickly to changing environments

Businesses that are seeking new tools to help them align with their organizational strategy

Define your mission and vision statement. If you ever feel stuck formulating your company’s mission or vision statement, take a look at those of others. Maybe Asana’s vision statement sparks some inspiration.

Research, understand, and learn from competitor strategy and market trends. Pick a handful of competitors in your industry and find out how they’ve created success for themselves. How did they handle setbacks or challenges? What kinds of challenges did they even encounter? Are these common scenarios in the market? Learn from your competitors by finding out as much as you can about them.

Study external environments. At this point, you can combine the real-time model with the scenario model to find solutions to threats and opportunities outside of your control.

Conduct a SWOT analysis of your internal processes, systems, and resources. Besides the external factors your team has to consider, it’s also important to look at your company’s internal environment and how well you’re prepared for different scenarios.

Develop a strategy. Discuss the results of your SWOT analysis to develop a business strategy that builds toward organizational, programmatic, and operational success.

Rinse and repeat. Monitor how well the new strategy is working for your organization and repeat the planning process as needed to ensure you’re on top or, perhaps, ahead of the game. 

7. Inspirational model

This last strategic planning model is perfect to inspire and energize your team as they work toward your organization’s goals. It’s also a great way to introduce or reconnect your employees to your business strategy after a merger or acquisition.

Businesses with a dynamic and inspired start-up culture

Organizations looking for inspiration to reinvigorate the creative process

Companies looking for quick solutions and strategy shifts

Gather your team to discuss an inspirational vision for your organization. The more people you can gather for this process, the more input you will receive.

Brainstorm big, hairy audacious goals and ideas. Encouraging your team not to hold back with ideas that may seem ridiculous will do two things: for one, it will mitigate the fear of contributing bad ideas. But more importantly, it may lead to a genius idea or suggestion that your team wouldn’t have thought of if they felt like they had to think inside of the box.

Assess your organization’s resources. Find out if your company has the resources to implement your new ideas. If they don’t, you’ll have to either adjust your strategy or allocate more resources.

Develop a strategy balancing your resources and brainstorming ideas. Far-fetched ideas can grow into amazing opportunities but they can also bear great risk. Make sure to balance ideas with your strategic direction. 

Now, let’s dive into the most commonly used strategic frameworks.

8. SWOT analysis framework

One of the most popular strategic planning frameworks is the SWOT analysis . A SWOT analysis is a great first step in identifying areas of opportunity and risk—which can help you create a strategic plan that accounts for growth and prepares for threats.

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Here’s an example:

9. OKRs framework

A big part of strategic planning is setting goals for your company. That’s where OKRs come into play. 

OKRs stand for objective and key results—this goal-setting framework helps your organization set and achieve goals. It provides a somewhat holistic approach that you can use to connect your team’s work to your organization’s big-picture goals.  When team members understand how their individual work contributes to the organization’s success, they tend to be more motivated and produce better results

10. Balanced scorecard (BSC) framework

The balanced scorecard is a popular strategic framework for businesses that want to take a more holistic approach rather than just focus on their financial performance. It was designed by David Norton and Robert Kaplan in the 1990s, it’s used by companies around the globe to: 

Communicate goals

Align their team’s daily work with their company’s strategy

Prioritize products, services, and projects

Monitor their progress toward their strategic goals

Your balanced scorecard will outline four main business perspectives:

Customers or clients , meaning their value, satisfaction, and/or retention

Financial , meaning your effectiveness in using resources and your financial performance

Internal process , meaning your business’s quality and efficiency

Organizational capacity , meaning your organizational culture, infrastructure and technology, and human resources

With the help of a strategy map, you can visualize and communicate how your company is creating value. A strategy map is a simple graphic that shows cause-and-effect connections between strategic objectives. 

The balanced scorecard framework is an amazing tool to use from outlining your mission, vision, and values all the way to implementing your strategic plan .

You can use an integration like Lucidchart to create strategy maps for your business in Asana.

11. Porter’s Five Forces framework

If you’re using the real-time strategic planning model, Porter’s Five Forces are a great framework to apply. You can use it to find out what your product’s or service’s competitive advantage is before entering the market.

Developed by Michael E. Porter , the framework outlines five forces you have to be aware of and monitor:

Threat of new industry entrants: Any new entry into the market results in increased pressure on prices and costs. 

Competition in the industry: The more competitors that exist, the more difficult it will be for you to create value in the market with your product or service.

Bargaining power of suppliers: Suppliers can wield more power if there are less alternatives for buyers or it’s expensive, time consuming, or difficult to switch to a different supplier.

Bargaining power of buyers: Buyers can wield more power if the same product or service is available elsewhere with little to no difference in quality.

Threat of substitutes: If another company already covers the market’s needs, you’ll have to create a better product or service or make it available for a lower price at the same quality in order to compete.

Remember, industry structures aren’t static. The more dynamic your strategic plan is, the better you’ll be able to compete in a market.

12. VRIO framework

The VRIO framework is another strategic planning tool designed to help you evaluate your competitive advantage. VRIO stands for value, rarity, imitability, and organization.

It’s a resource-based theory developed by Jay Barney. With this framework, you can study your firmed resources and find out whether or not your company can transform them into sustained competitive advantages. 

Firmed resources can be tangible (e.g., cash, tools, inventory, etc.) or intangible (e.g., copyrights, trademarks, organizational culture, etc.). Whether these resources will actually help your business once you enter the market depends on four qualities:

Valuable : Will this resource either increase your revenue or decrease your costs and thereby create value for your business?

Rare : Are the resources you’re using rare or can others use your resources as well and therefore easily provide the same product or service?

Inimitable : Are your resources either inimitable or non-substitutable? In other words, how unique and complex are your resources?

Organizational: Are you organized enough to use your resources in a way that captures their value, rarity, and inimitability?

It’s important that your resources check all the boxes above so you can ensure that you have sustained competitive advantage over others in the industry.

13. Theory of Constraints (TOC) framework

If the reason you’re currently in a strategic planning process is because you’re trying to mitigate risks or uncover issues that could hurt your business—this framework should be in your toolkit.

The theory of constraints (TOC) is a problem-solving framework that can help you identify limiting factors or bottlenecks preventing your organization from hitting OKRs or KPIs . 

Whether it’s a policy, market, or recourse constraint—you can apply the theory of constraints to solve potential problems, respond to issues, and empower your team to improve their work with the resources they have.

14. PEST/PESTLE analysis framework

The idea of the PEST analysis is similar to that of the SWOT analysis except that you’re focusing on external factors and solutions. It’s a great framework to combine with the scenario-based strategic planning model as it helps you define external factors connected to your business’s success.

PEST stands for political, economic, sociological, and technological factors. Depending on your business model, you may want to expand this framework to include legal and environmental factors as well (PESTLE). These are the most common factors you can include in a PESTLE analysis:

Political: Taxes, trade tariffs, conflicts

Economic: Interest and inflation rate, economic growth patterns, unemployment rate

Social: Demographics, education, media, health

Technological: Communication, information technology, research and development, patents

Legal: Regulatory bodies, environmental regulations, consumer protection

Environmental: Climate, geographical location, environmental offsets

15. Hoshin Kanri framework

Hoshin Kanri is a great tool to communicate and implement strategic goals. It’s a planning system that involves the entire organization in the strategic planning process. The term is Japanese and stands for “compass management” and is also known as policy management. 

This strategic planning framework is a top-down approach that starts with your leadership team defining long-term goals which are then aligned and communicated with every team member in the company. 

You should hold regular meetings to monitor progress and update the timeline to ensure that every teammate’s contributions are aligned with the overarching company goals.

Stick to your strategic goals

Whether you’re a small business just starting out or a nonprofit organization with decades of experience, strategic planning is a crucial step in your journey to success. 

If you’re looking for a tool that can help you and your team define, organize, and implement your strategic goals, Asana is here to help. Our goal-setting software allows you to connect all of your team members in one place, visualize progress, and stay on target.

Related resources

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Unmanaged business goals don’t work. Here’s what does.

How Asana uses work management to effectively manage goals

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• Engagedly Blog

Strategic Business Alignment

Your guide to creating a strategic business development plan.

The People Strategy Leaders Podcast

Every business faces the challenge of crafting an effective business development strategy . But what exactly is strategic business development? In simple terms, it’s a vital tool that ensures long-term success by aligning everyone in your organization towards a common objective.

A well-defined strategy outlines what your organization aims to achieve and the necessary steps to get there. It provides a clear roadmap, guiding your transition from broad directions to specific initiatives and ongoing operations. A strategic business development plan plays a crucial role in driving growth and ensuring sustainable success.

Now, let’s explore the strategic plan further, understand its significance, and dive into the art of crafting a winning business development plan.

Strategic Business Development Plan – What Is It?

A business development strategy is crucial for achieving organizational objectives and driving growth. It involves finding and implementing effective business growth strategies. With a well-defined growth strategy, teams can better understand their goals and contribute to organizational objectives. Business development focuses on attracting and retaining new customers to enhance revenue and expand your organization. By developing a clear plan, your business can plan to achieve these goals.

According to a poll conducted by Bridges Business Consultancy, a staggering 48% of organizations and 85% of businesses fail to achieve even half of their strategic goals. This highlights the importance of creating a strategic business development plan. 

Importance of Strategic Business Development Plan

A well-crafted strategic business development plan is the key to unlock long-term success and growth for your organization. By defining clear goals and actionable plans, businesses can thrive and achieve greatness. But why exactly is a strategic business development plan crucial? Let’s dive into a few compelling reasons.

Improves transparency

Transparency has become recognized as a critical business trait for both customers and employees. By cultivating transparency, you can enhance your company’s success and reputation. From strengthening your sales team to improving employee retention, transparency has the power to make a significant impact. Implementing a strategic growth strategy ensures that everyone in your organization is aware of the goals and their role in achieving them, thus promoting transparency.

Increases sales

At the heart of business development lies growth. Increasing sales is the ultimate goal, and businesses need a plan to make it happen. A strategic business development plan allows you to identify markets and products with high-profit potential, enabling you to prioritize partnerships and make informed decisions. It also helps you reduce expenses, uncover untapped growth opportunities, and allocate resources efficiently. With a solid business development strategy , your bottom line will thrive.

In today’s competitive landscape, businesses must actively seek growth opportunities. A thoughtfully designed business development strategy enables you to expand your clientele, explore new markets, and offer innovative products or services. By identifying your differentiators and value propositions, you’ll set your organization apart from competitors and take a lead in the market.

Also Read: How To Improve Employee Productivity In 2024?

How to create a strategic business development plan.

Effective strategic management involves identifying an organization’s strengths and acknowledging its weaknesses. It goes beyond mere recognition and outlines a robust business strategy that maximizes the benefits and mitigates the drawbacks. A comprehensive corporate development plan comprises various components, each strategically aligned with distinct goals and objectives. Now, let’s delve into a detailed possess to create a business plan:

Define your purpose

A strategic plan serves as the overarching mission or vision statement for a company. When embarking on the creation of a corporate plan, it proves advantageous to initiate the process by clearly defining the goal of your organization . This entails a meticulous identification of the needs, preferences, and pain points of your ideal customers. By gaining a profound understanding of these factors, your plan can be more effectively tailored to cater to their specific requirements. Initiating the strategic planning process with a well-defined purpose sets the foundation for your company to deliver enhanced value over time.

Perform market research

After identifying your target market, it’s time to delve into comprehending their needs. To effectively persuade them to collaborate with you, you need to address the following inquiries:

• What are the major challenges they currently face?
• What specific services pique their interest?
• How do they approach problem-solving at present?
• How can your products or services uplift their current situation?

Once you have solid answers to these questions, it’s crucial to thoroughly research your competitors. Identify what makes you stand out from the crowd and emphasize this unique value proposition to potential clients, leveraging it as your competitive advantage.

Consider SWOT analysis

To gain a profound understanding of your company’s current standing, conducting a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is a paramount strategy. Each element of the SWOT matrix plays a crucial role in shaping and executing an organization’s strategy. Some factors fall under internal control, while others are significantly influenced by external forces. A SWOT analysis provides a comprehensive view of your business from various perspectives. It not only sheds light on internal aspects for improvement and areas of success but also necessitates an evaluation of the external environment. This evaluation helps identify potential threats and business opportunities that can be either mitigated or seized in the future.”

Provide value to stakeholders

Investing in lasting connections with your clients is a worthwhile expense. Repeat customers not only contribute significantly to your business’s revenue but also come at a lower conversion cost. Moreover, returning customers are more open to your sales pitches, providing valuable insights for your company’s growth. However, remember that your suppliers deserve value too – it’s crucial to prioritize delivering value to them alongside your customers. And let’s not forget about the importance of prioritizing employee satisfaction in your business plan. By doing so, you’ll not only enhance employee morale but also improve customer satisfaction in the process.

Identify ways to monitor progress

Effectively monitoring the progress of your business development strategy is crucial for achieving your goals. One key approach is the utilization of key performance indicators (KPIs) tailored to your strategic objectives. Regularly tracking these KPIs provides real-time insights into the performance of various initiatives, allowing for timely adjustments and improvements. Data analytics tools play a vital role in quantifying metrics such as customer acquisition costs, conversion rates, and website traffic. Additionally, seeking feedback from customers, conducting market research, and implementing surveys can offer qualitative insights that complement quantitative data. 

Make use of technology

Embrace tools and platforms designed to enhance the efficiency of your business development activities. Utilize advanced solutions to manage leads, keep track of interactions, and engage with prospects seamlessly. Leverage social networking sites, implement marketing automation software, and integrate CRM systems to streamline your processes. Maintain flexibility and readiness to adapt to evolving consumer demands and market conditions. Regularly assess and enhance your business development approach to stay ahead and remain competitive in a dynamic business landscape.

Monitor and alter your approach

Regularly monitoring the effectiveness of your business development strategy enables you to make necessary adjustments based on valuable information and insights. Keep a close eye on the progress of your objectives and assess the efficiency of your strategy using key performance indicators (KPIs). Stay proactive by consistently evaluating market developments, gathering customer input, and monitoring competitor activities. 

A comprehensive understanding of your target market, specific objectives, and a clearly articulated value proposition are essential for crafting a successful business growth strategy.

Also Read: Modern Performance Appraisal Types that Create a Winning Culture

Summing it up.

Every successful business has its own unique qualities. That’s why it is crucial to tailor these tactics to align with your specific goals, industry, and target audience. Continuously evaluate your business development efforts and make the necessary adjustments to foster growth and triumph. 

With a well-structured strategic management approach, you can not only enjoy this process but also proudly propel your company forward. Remember, implementing a company plan requires dedication, but it is just the beginning of an exciting journey. By embracing the right planning and utilizing the appropriate resources, your organization stands a fair chance of achieving remarkable success. 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. what is the primary purpose of a strategic business development plan.

A strategic business development plan serves as a roadmap for guiding your company’s growth and success. It outlines goals, identifies opportunities, and sets a clear path for achieving sustainable development. By aligning your business activities with a well-thought-out plan, you can enhance decision-making and improve overall efficiency.

2. How often should I update my strategic business development plan?

Regular updates are crucial for keeping your strategic business development plan relevant and effective. Aim to review and, if necessary, revise the plan at least annually. However, more frequent assessments may be required if there are significant changes in your industry, market conditions, or internal factors. Flexibility and adaptability are key in ensuring your plan remains a dynamic tool for success.

3. What are the key components of a successful strategic business development plan?

A comprehensive strategic business development plan typically includes key components such as a clear mission statement, a thorough analysis of the current business environment, defined short-term and long-term goals, identification of target markets, competitive analysis, and a detailed implementation strategy. It should also outline how progress will be measured and what mechanisms are in place for regular evaluation and adjustments.

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Chandler Barr is the VP of Sales at Engagedly and is focused on driving a culture of progress over perfection in a no-fault environment where employees are secure and encouraged to think creatively to solve problems. Chandler is a seasoned leader that has scaled sales teams for SaaS startups and multibillion-dollar publicly traded tech companies, as well as, led Marines to accomplish the mission during hardships overseas.

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What are strategic issues in strategic planning?

Strategic issues facing companies are the important questions, topics, and challenges that firms must manage to stay competitive and relevant in the ever-changing business environment. Strategic issues come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Understanding and managing your strategic issues is key to achieving long-term, sustained growth. Some leaders only think of issues as adverse or harmful events or problems that must be addressed. However, issues can also include opportunities that the enterprise should consider in order to achieve its strategic goals and objectives.

How do you critically analyze a strategic plan’s issues?

When identifying, examining, and analyzing important issues, leaders should look both internally and externally. Here are a few examples of areas to consider:

Internal Issues

• Supply-chain disruptions
• Product lifecycle
• Workforce and talent
• Product or service offerings
• Target customers
• Internal operating systems
• New innovations in products and processes

External Issues

• Globalization trends
• Political and regulatory changes
• Economic conditions
• Industry consolidations
• Technology disruptions
• Competitor behaviors and rivalry
• Social trends
• Environmental patterns
• Population health and welfare

Periodically, executives need to refresh their perspective and assumptions about all of the variables that could impact their business. When examining relevant issues, we advise our clients to consider three timeframes:

• Near-term issues that could affect the organization this year or next.
• Mid-term issues that could affect the success of the enterprise over the next three to five years.
• Long-term issues that could affect the fortune of the business five years from now or beyond.

How do you develop a strategic plan?

Strategy is all about conversations, and conversations among leaders are the key to the strategic-issues methodology. When leaders come together and engage in open and constructive dialogue about the issues they are facing, they can compare each other’s thinking, logic, and insights about the future. Then, leaders can prioritize the issues, challenges, and opportunities they see, allowing them to formulate solutions and create a plan of action to contain risks and explore the opportunities they might like to pursue.

Regardless of your function in the business, the department you work within, or your level in the organizational hierarchy, you should periodically identify and review the issues that you are likely to encounter in the future. Every person, team, or enterprise will have to navigate turbulence and recognize opportunity. People and firms who can see and anticipate the future better and faster than the competition will have an edge as they strive to create value for customers, associates, owners, and their community.

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More Like this

Use strategic issues to create a better organizational strategy..

But why waste time?

You’d be settling with having just a good strategy when you could have had a great strategy. Undoubtedly, identifying and analyzing your strategic issues is often the difference between hitting a triple in baseball versus a grand-slam.

What are strategic issues?

Strategic issues are the ones that you’re losing sleep over. They’re the ones you think about when you’re driving home from the office. They’re the elephants in the room keeping your organization from reaching its goals.

There are two types of strategic issues; external and internal.

External strategic issues arise due to factors beyond your control. For example, one of our local clients is Nevada’s Washoe County. Recently, Tesla announced the construction of a $5 billion gigafactory for the manufacturing of electric car batteries to be located within the county. County officials are now creating a strategy for supporting massive growth in the local infrastructure and economy. That’s an external strategic issue. Staying flexible and dynamic is key.

Internal strategic issues are ones which your organization faces because of internal factors. One of our clients is a global technology company who is struggling to scale to deliver against revenue growth. That’s an internal strategic issue. Simply put, internal strategic issues are the “big problems” your organization faces that you have direct influence and impact over.

Tip: Most organization have 2 or 3 big strategic issues that are critical to address during a strategy development process.

Great. You’ve identified your internal or external strategic issues. What’s next?

Identifying strategic issues is only the first step. Now, your planning team needs to decide how you’ll analyze and collect the information you need to make informed strategic decisions.

There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to how much analysis and data your team needs. A good rule of thumb to follow is to collect just enough to feel confident in making strategic decisions.

With strategic issues identified and data collected, you now begin the analysis. A great non-linear way to closely analyze your strategic issues is to perform a SWOT analysis on each. It gives your team the opportunity to really dive in and analyze it.

This approach allows you to create a cheat sheet you can use as a hip-pocket guide for your entire strategic planning process . Yep, you heard that right – analysis of strategic issues delivers a vantage point for starting see the whole strategy. It will help your planning team create a strategy that is relevant and aligned. And lastly, it will help you set-up the glory of a strategy grand-slam.

StrategyCheck: What are your organization’s strategic issues?

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How to Develop a Strategic Plan for Business Development [Free Template]

Published: May 01, 2023

Business development is usually confused with sales , often overlooked, and only sometimes given the strategic focus it deserves. Having a business development strategy, however, is crucial to long-term success. It ensures that everyone in your company is working toward a common goal.

But how do you develop a business development plan? Pull up a chair and stay awhile, I’m diving into that and more below.

Free Strategic Planning Template

Access a business strategic planning template to grow your business.

• Sales and Revenue Growth
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Business development.

Business development is the practice of identifying, attracting, and acquiring new business to further your company’s revenue and growth goals. How you achieve these goals is sometimes referred to as a business development strategy — and it applies to and benefits everyone at your company.

It’s not unusual to mistake business development with sales, but there’s an important distinction between the two. Business development refers to many activities and functions inside and outside the traditional sales team structure. In some companies, business development is part of the larger sales operations team. In others, it’s part of the marketing team or sits on its own team altogether.

Because business development can look so different among industries and businesses, the strategy behind this function is expansive. Below, we outline each step in the strategy and how to apply it to your business development plan.

Business Development Strategy

• Understand your competitive landscape.
• Choose effective KPIs.
• Develop long-term customer relationships.
• Implement customer feedback.
• Keep your website content and user interface fresh.
• Speed up your response time.
• Leverage a sales plan to identify areas of growth.
• Implement a social listening strategy.
• Sponsor industry organizations, conferences, and events.

1. Understand your competitive landscape.

Before you can develop a strategic plan to drive business growth, you must have a solid understanding of the competitive landscape in your industry. When you know who your ideal customer is and what problem they are looking to solve with your product or service, research who else is providing a viable solution in your industry.

Identify other companies operating in your space. What features do their products have? How competitive is their pricing? Do their systems integrate with other third-party solutions? Get crystal-clear on what the competition is offering so you know how to differentiate your product to your customers.

Featured Resource: 10 Competitive Analysis Templates

2. Choose effective KPIs.

How will you know if your business development efforts are successful? Ensure you can measure your goals with relevant, meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect the health of your business. The result of these metrics should give you a strong indication of how effective your business development efforts are.

Featured Resource: Sales Metrics Calculator Dashboard

3. Develop long-term customer relationships.

Do you engage with your customers even after the deal has been closed? If not, it’s time to develop a plan to keep your buyers engaged. Building long-term relationships with your customers pays off. A grand majority of a company's business comes from repeat customers, and returning customers are cheaper to convert. Indeed, it’s famously known that it costs five times more to convert new customers than it does to sell to returning customers.

Not only are repeat customers easier to sell to, they can also provide valuable feedback and insights to help you improve your business. Additionally, customer testimonials can be used for valuable content that can attract your next buyer.

4. Implement customer feedback.

If and when you have customers who are willing to provide feedback on your sales process and offerings, make sure you hear them out and implement it. Your customers offer a unique, valuable perspective because they chose your product over the competition — their insights can help shape your strategy to keep your business ahead of the curve.

5. Keep your website content and user interface fresh.

When was the last time your company had a website refresh? Can you ensure that all links are working, that your site is easy to navigate, and that it is laid out and intuitive for those who want to buy from you?

Keeping your website up-to-date and easy to use can make or break the sale for customers who know they are ready to buy. Don’t make it too difficult for potential customers to get in touch with you or purchase your product directly (if that suits your business model).

6. Speed up your response time.

How fast your sales team responds to your leads can make or break your ability to close the deal. If you notice your sales process has some lag time that prevents you from responding to prospects as soon as possible, these could be areas to prioritize improvement.

7. Leverage a sales plan to identify areas of growth.

No business development strategy is complete without a sales plan . If you’ve already established a plan, make sure to unify it with your business development efforts. Your plan should outline your target audience, identify potential obstacles, provide a “game plan” for sales reps, outline responsibilities for team members, and define market conditions.

While a sales plan primarily affects your sales team, it can inform the activities of your business development reps. A sales plan can help them understand where the business needs growth — whether it’s in a new vertical, a new audience, or a new need that’s recently come to light in the industry.

Not sure how to create a sales plan? Download the following template to get started.

Featured Resource: Sales Plan Template

8. Implement a social listening strategy.

While social listening is mainly used in a marketing and customer service context, it’s also an essential practice for business development. There are more than 4 billion social media users worldwide. Naturally, social media is one of the best places to hear directly from consumers and businesses — without needing to reach out to them first.

In business development, you can use social listening to track what the general public is saying about your brand, industry, product offerings, product category, and more. It can help you identify key weaknesses in the industry, making it a prime opportunity to be the first to address those pitfalls.

Use a social listening tool to pick up on trends before they gain traction.

9. Sponsor industry organizations, conferences, and events.

A key facet of business development is reaching potential customers where they are. One of the easiest ways to do that is by sponsoring industry organizations, conferences, and events. This strategy will guarantee that your business development reps get valuable face-to-face time with your business’ target audience. The additional visibility can also help establish your business as a leader in the field.

Now that you understand what business development entails, it's time to create a plan to set your strategy in motion.

How to Develop a Strategic Plan

When we refer to a business development strategic plan, we’re referring to a roadmap that guides the whole company and requires everyone’s assistance to execute successfully and move your customer through the flywheel . With a plan, you’ll close more deals and quantify success.

Let’s go over the steps you should take to create a strategic plan.

1. Download our strategic plan template .

First, download our free growth strategy template to create a rock-solid strategic plan. With this template, you can map a growth plan for increasing sales, revenue, and customer acquisition rates. You can also create action plans for adding new locations, creating new product lines, and expanding into new regions.

Featured Resource: Strategic Plan Template

2. Craft your elevator pitch.

What is your company’s mission and how do you explain it to potential clients in 30 seconds or less? Keeping your elevator pitch at the forefront of all strategic planning will remind everyone what you’re working toward and why.

Some people believe the best pitch isn’t a pitch at all , but a story. Others have their favorite types of pitches , from a one-word pitch to a Twitter pitch that forces you to boil down your elevator pitch to just 280 characters.

Find the elevator pitch that works best for your reps, company, and offer, and document it in your business development strategy.

3. Include an executive summary.

You’ll share your strategic plan with executives and maybe even board members, so it’s important they have a high-level overview to skim. Pick the most salient points from your strategic plan and list or summarize them here.

You might already have an executive summary for your company if you’ve written a business proposal or value proposition . Use this as a jumping off point but create one that’s unique to your business development goals and priorities.

Once your executives have read your summary, they should have a pretty good idea of your direction for growing the business — without having to read the rest of your strategy.

3. Set SMART goals.

What are your goals for this strategy? If you don’t know, it will be difficult for your company and team to align behind your plan. So, set SMART goals . Remember, SMART stands for:

Featured Resource: SMART Goal Setting Template

Download the template now.

If one of your goals is for 5% of monthly revenue to come from upsells or cross-sells, make this goal specific by identifying what types of clients you’ll target.

Identify how you’ll measure success. Is success when reps conduct upsell outreach to 30 clients every month, or is it when they successfully upsell a customer and close the deal? To make your goal attainable, ensure everyone on your team understands who is responsible for this goal: in this case, sales or business development reps.

This goal is relevant because it will help your company grow, and likely contributes to larger company-wide goals. To make it time-based, set a timeline for success and action. In this case, your sales team must achieve that 5% upsell/cross-sell number by the end of the quarter.

4. Conduct SWOT analysis.

SWOT is a strategic planning technique used to identify a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Before conducting a SWOT, identify what your goal is. For example, “We’d like to use SWOT to learn how best to conduct outreach to prospective buyers.”

Once you’ve identified what you’re working toward, conduct market research by talking with your staff, business partners, and customers.

Next, identify your business’ strengths. Perhaps you have low employee turnover, a central location that makes it easy to visit with prospects in person, or an in-demand feature your competitors haven’t been able to mimic.

Featured Resource: Market Research Kit with SWOT Analysis Template

Your business’ weaknesses are next. Has your product recently glitched? Have you been unable to successfully build out a customer service team that can meet the demands of your customers?

Then, switch to opportunities. For example, have you made a new business partnership that will transition you into a previously untapped market segment?

What are the threats? Is your physical space getting crowded? What about your market space? Is increasing competition an issue?

Use SWOT results to identify a better way forward for your company.

5. Determine how you’ll measure success.

You’ve identified strengths and weaknesses and set SMART goals , but how will you measure it all ? It’s important for your team to know just how they will be measured, goaled, and rewarded. Common key performance indicators (KPIs) for business development include:

• Company growth
• Lead conversion rate
• Leads generated per month
• Client satisfaction
• Pipeline value

6. Set a budget.

What will your budget be for achieving your goals? Review financial documents, historical budgets, and operational estimates to set a budget that’s realistic.

Once you have a “draft” budget, check it against other businesses in your industry and region to make sure you’re not overlooking or misjudging any numbers. Don’t forget to factor in payroll, facilities costs, insurance, and other operational line items that tend to add up.

7. Identify your target customer.

Who will your business development team pursue? Your target market is the group of customers your product/service was built for. For example, if you sell a suite of products for facilities teams at enterprise-level companies, your target market might be facilities or janitorial coordinators at companies with 1000+ employees. To identify your target market:

• Analyze your product or service
• Check out the competition
• Choose criteria to segment by
• Perform research

Your target customer is the person most likely to buy your product. Do your homework and make sure your business development plan addresses the right people. Only then will you be able to grow your business.

8. Choose an outreach strategy.

What tactics will you use to attract new business for your sales team to close? You might focus on a single tactic or a blend of a few. Once you know who your target market is and where they “hang out,” then you can choose an appropriate outreach strategy.

Will your business development plan rely heavily on thought leadership such as speaking at or attending conferences? Will you host a local meetup for others in your industry? Or will your reps network heavily on LinkedIn and social media?

If referrals will be pivotal to your business’ growth, consider at which stage of the buying process your BDRs will ask for referrals. Will you ask for a referral even if a prospect decides they like your product/service but aren’t a good fit? Or will you wait until a customer has been using your solution for a few months? Define these parameters in your strategy.

Upselling and Cross-Selling

Upselling and cross-selling are a cost-effective way of growing your business. But it’s important that this tactic is used with guardrails. Only upsell clients on features that will benefit them as well as your bottom line. Don’t bloat client accounts with features or services they really don’t need — that’s when turnover and churn start to happen.

Sponsorship and Advertising

Will your BDR work with or be on the marketing team to develop paid advertising campaigns? If so, how will your BDRs support these campaigns? And which channels will your strategy include? If you sell a product, you might want to feature heavily on Instagram or Facebook. If you’re selling a SaaS platform, LinkedIn or Twitter might be more appropriate.

What’s your outreach strategy? Will your BDRs be held to a quota to make 25 calls a week and send 15 emails? Will your outreach strategy be inbound , outbound , or a healthy combination of both? Identify the outreach guardrails that best match your company values for doing business.

Strategic Plan Example

Let’s put all of these moving parts in action with a strategic plan example featuring good ol’ Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

Elevator Pitch Example for Strategic Plan

Dunder Mifflin is a local paper company dedicated to providing excellent customer support and the paper your business needs to excel today and grow tomorrow.

Here are some additional resources for inspiration:

• Elevator Pitch Examples to Inspire Your Own
• Components of an Elevator Pitch

Executive Summary Example for Strategic Plan

At Dunder Mifflin, our strengths are our customer service, speed of delivery, and our local appeal. Our weakness is that our sales cycle is too long.

To shorten the sales cycle 5% by the end of Q4, we need to ask for more referrals (which already enjoy a 15% faster sales cycle), sponsor local professional events, and outreach to big box store customers who suffer from poor customer support and are more likely to exit their contract. These tactics should allow us to meet our goal in the agreed-upon timeline.

• How to Write an Incredibly Well-Written Executive Summary [+ Example]
• Executive Summary Template

SMART Goals Example for Strategic Plan

Dunder Mifflin’s goal is to decrease our sales cycle 5% by the end of Q4. We will do this by more proactively scheduling follow-up meetings, sourcing more qualified, ready-to-buy leads, and asking for 25% more referrals (which have a 15% shorter sales cycle already). We will measure success by looking at the sales pipeline and calculating the average length of time it takes a prospect to become closed won or closed lost.

• 5 Dos and Don'ts When Making a SMART Goal [Examples]
• How to Write a SMART Goal
• SMART Marketing Goals Template

SWOT Analysis Example for Strategic Plan

Strengths: Our strengths are our reputation in the greater Scranton area, our customer service team (led by Kelly Kapoor), and our warehouse team, who ship same-day reams to our customers — something the big box stores cannot offer.

Weaknesses: Our greatest weakness is that our sales team has been unable to successfully counter prospects who choose big box stores for their paper supply. This results in a longer-than-average sales cycle, which costs money and time.

Opportunities: Our greatest business opportunity is to conduct better-targeted outreach to prospects who are ready to buy, ask for more referrals from existing customers, and follow up with closed lost business that’s likely coming up on the end of an annual contract with a big box store.

Threats: Our biggest threat is large box stores offering lower prices to our prospects and customers and a sales cycle that is too long, resulting in low revenue and slow growth.

• How to Conduct Competitive Analysis
• How to Run a SWOT Analysis for Your Business [+ Template]
• SWOT Analysis Template and Market Research Kit

Measurement of Success Example for Strategic Plan

We will measure success by looking at the sales pipeline and calculating the average length of time it takes a prospect to become closed won or closed lost.

Budget Example for Strategic Plan

You've laid out the SMART goals and the way you'll measure for success. The budget section's goal is to estimate how much investment it will take to achieve those goals. This will likely end up being a big-picture overview, broken down into a budget by a program or a summary of key investments. Consider laying it out in a table format like so:

• Budgeting Templates
• How to Write an Incredible Startup Marketing Budget

Target Customer Example for Strategic Plan

Our target customer is office managers at small- to medium-sized companies in the greater Scranton, PA area. They are buying paper for the entire office, primarily for use in office printers, custom letterhead, fax machines. They are busy managing the office and value good customer service and a fast solution for their paper needs.

• How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business
• Make My Persona Tool

Outreach Strategy Example for Strategic Plan

Networking, sponsorships, and referrals will be our primary mode of outreach. We will focus on networking at regional paper conferences, HR conferences, and local office manager meetups. We will sponsor local professional events. And we will increase the volume of referrals we request from existing customers.

Create a Strategic Plan for Business Development

Without a strategic plan, you can invest resources, time, and funds into business development initiatives that won't grow your business. A strategic plan is crucial as it aligns your business development and sales teams. With a solid business development strategic plan, everyone will be working toward the greater good of your company.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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How to Set Strategic Planning Goals

• 29 Oct 2020

In an ever-changing business world, it’s imperative to have strategic goals and a plan to guide organizational efforts. Yet, crafting strategic goals can be a daunting task. How do you decide which goals are vital to your company? Which ones are actionable and measurable? Which goals to prioritize?

To help you answer these questions, here’s a breakdown of what strategic planning is, what characterizes strategic goals, and how to select organizational goals to pursue.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is the ongoing organizational process of using available knowledge to document a business's intended direction. This process is used to prioritize efforts, effectively allocate resources, align shareholders and employees, and ensure organizational goals are backed by data and sound reasoning.

Research in the Harvard Business Review cautions against getting locked into your strategic plan and forgetting that strategy involves inherent risk and discomfort. A good strategic plan evolves and shifts as opportunities and threats arise.

“Most people think of strategy as an event, but that’s not the way the world works,” says Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen in the online course Disruptive Strategy . “When we run into unanticipated opportunities and threats, we have to respond. Sometimes we respond successfully; sometimes we don’t. But most strategies develop through this process. More often than not, the strategy that leads to success emerges through a process that’s at work 24/7 in almost every industry."

Related: 5 Tips for Formulating a Successful Strategy

4 Characteristics of Strategic Goals

To craft a strategic plan for your organization, you first need to determine the goals you’re trying to reach. Strategic goals are an organization’s measurable objectives that are indicative of its long-term vision.

Here are four characteristics of strategic goals to keep in mind when setting them for your organization.

1. Purpose-Driven

The starting point for crafting strategic goals is asking yourself what your company’s purpose and values are . What are you striving for, and why is it important to set these objectives? Let the answers to these questions guide the development of your organization’s strategic goals.

“You don’t have to leave your values at the door when you come to work,” says HBS Professor Rebecca Henderson in the online course Sustainable Business Strategy .

Henderson, whose work focuses on reimagining capitalism for a just and sustainable world, also explains that leading with purpose can drive business performance.

“Adopting a purpose will not hurt your performance if you do it authentically and well,” Henderson says in a lecture streamed via Facebook Live . “If you’re able to link your purpose to the strategic vision of the company in a way that really gets people aligned and facing in the right direction, then you have the possibility of outperforming your competitors.”

Related: 5 Examples of Successful Sustainability Initiatives

2. Long-Term and Forward-Focused

While strategic goals are the long-term objectives of your organization, operational goals are the daily milestones that need to be reached to achieve them. When setting strategic goals, think of your company’s values and long-term vision, and ensure you’re not confusing strategic and operational goals.

For instance, your organization’s goal could be to create a new marketing strategy; however, this is an operational goal in service of a long-term vision. The strategic goal, in this case, could be breaking into a new market segment, to which the creation of a new marketing strategy would contribute.

Keep a forward-focused vision to ensure you’re setting challenging objectives that can have a lasting impact on your organization.

3. Actionable

Strong strategic goals are not only long-term and forward-focused—they’re actionable. If there aren’t operational goals that your team can complete to reach the strategic goal, your organization is better off spending time and resources elsewhere.

When formulating strategic goals, think about the operational goals that fall under them. Do they make up an action plan your team can take to achieve your organization’s objective? If so, the goal could be a worthwhile endeavor for your business.

4. Measurable

When crafting strategic goals, it’s important to define how progress and success will be measured.

According to the online course Strategy Execution , an effective tool you can use to create measurable goals is a balanced scorecard —a tool to help you track and measure non-financial variables.

“The balanced scorecard combines the traditional financial perspective with additional perspectives that focus on customers, internal business processes, and learning and development,” says HBS Professor Robert Simons in the online course Strategy Execution . “These additional perspectives help businesses measure all the activities essential to creating value.”

The four perspectives are:

• Internal business processes
• Learning and growth

The most important element of a balanced scorecard is its alignment with your business strategy.

“Ask yourself,” Simons says, “‘If I picked up a scorecard and examined the measures on it, could I infer what the business's strategy was? If you've designed measures well, the answer should be yes.”

Related: A Manager’s Guide to Successful Strategy Implementation

Strategic Goal Examples

Whatever your business goals and objectives , they must have all four of the characteristics listed above.

For instance, the goal “become a household name” is valid but vague. Consider the intended timeframe to reach this goal and how you’ll operationally define “a household name.” The method of obtaining data must also be taken into account.

An appropriate revision to the original goal could be: “Increase brand recognition by 80 percent among surveyed Americans by 2030.” By setting a more specific goal, you can better equip your organization to reach it and ensure that employees and shareholders have a clear definition of success and how it will be measured.

If your organization is focused on becoming more sustainable and eco-conscious, you may need to assess your strategic goals. For example, you may have a goal of becoming a carbon neutral company, but without defining a realistic timeline and baseline for this initiative, the probability of failure is much higher.

A stronger goal might be: “Implement a comprehensive carbon neutrality strategy by 2030.” From there, you can determine the operational goals that will make this strategic goal possible.

No matter what goal you choose to pursue, it’s important to avoid those that lack clarity, detail, specific targets or timeframes, or clear parameters for success. Without these specific elements in place, you’ll have a difficult time making your goals actionable and measurable.

Prioritizing Strategic Goals

Once you’ve identified several strategic goals, determine which are worth pursuing. This can be a lengthy process, especially if other decision-makers have differing priorities and opinions.

To set the stage, ensure everyone is aware of the purpose behind each strategic goal. This calls back to Henderson’s point that employees’ alignment on purpose can set your organization up to outperform its competitors.

Calculate Anticipated ROI

Next, calculate the estimated return on investment (ROI) of the operational goals tied to each strategic objective. For example, if the strategic goal is “reach carbon-neutral status by 2030,” you need to break that down into actionable sub-tasks—such as “determine how much CO2 our company produces each year” and “craft a marketing and public relations strategy”—and calculate the expected cost and return for each.

The ROI formula is typically written as:

ROI = (Net Profit / Cost of Investment) x 100

In project management, the formula uses slightly different terms:

ROI = [(Financial Value - Project Cost) / Project Cost] x 100

An estimate can be a valuable piece of information when deciding which goals to pursue. Although not all strategic goals need to yield a high return on investment, it’s in your best interest to calculate each objective's anticipated ROI so you can compare them.

Consider Current Events

Finally, when deciding which strategic goal to prioritize, the importance of the present moment can’t be overlooked. What’s happening in the world that could impact the timeliness of each goal?

For example, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the ever-intensifying climate change crisis have impacted many organizations’ strategic goals in 2020. Often, the goals that are timely and pressing are those that earn priority.

Learn to Plan Strategic Goals

As you set and prioritize strategic goals, remember that your strategy should always be evolving. As circumstances and challenges shift, so must your organizational strategy.

If you lead with purpose, a measurable and actionable vision, and an awareness of current events, you can set strategic goals worth striving for.

Do you want to learn more about strategic planning? Explore our online strategy courses and download our free flowchart to determine which is right for you and your goals.

This post was updated on November 16, 2023. It was originally published on October 29, 2020.

About the Author

Strategic Issues: The Pivotal Process for Strategic Success

Thomas e. ambler senior consultant, cssp, inc..

REALIZE YOUR POTENTIAL! Is that what you want for yourself and your company? What is your company’s potential? Do you have a vision of it?

Yes? That’s why you use Simplified Strategic Planning, isn’t it? In the Simplified Strategic Planning process you build toward your strategy - your vision for the longer term, the course and direction you need to take to maximize your potential. Then, for the short term you make sure that your resources line up and are focused on achieving your vision.

Good strategy takes more than just strong desire. Good strategy requires good input and analysis. It also requires good decision-making. That’s what the exercise known as “STRATEGIC ISSUES” is all about. It is a pivotal step in the strategic planning process that deals with answering the “Big Strategic Questions.”

Successful identification and resolution of Strategic Issues results from combining both content and process elements, big and small, effectively and smoothly.

What is a Strategic Issue? A Strategic Issue is, first of all, an issue - an unresolved question needing a decision or waiting for some clarifying future event. Secondly, it is strategic and has major impact on the course and direction of the business. It probably relates directly to one or more of the fundamental “Three Strategic Questions”:

• What are we going to sell?
• To whom are we going to sell it?
• How will we beat or avoid our competition?

Strategic Issues lie right at the heart of the business. Correspondingly, the process step dealing with Strategic Issues lies right at the heart of Simplified Strategic Planning.

How Does the Strategic Issues Process Relate to the Rest of the Simplified Strategic Planning Process? Figure 1 provides a schematic diagram of the entire Simplified Strategic Planning process. The information generation and analysis steps of the process build and converge toward Strategic Issues, while the later, intention formulation steps flow directly from it. Strategic Issues is a cornerstone of any strategic planning process.

The information-generating steps above the Strategic Issues block of Figure 1 take place early in the process. They provide the raw material for the review and analysis that occurs immediately before Strategic Issues. In his in-depth article entitled “Good Input - the Foundation of Good Strategy”, featured in the July 1998 issue of Compass Points, Charles Bradford emphasizes that good input—freely shared, properly analyzed, challenged and understood—is vital for good strategy. Unfortunately, the benefit of good input will never be realized unless the critical step that identifies Strategic Issues is handled properly by your Planning Team.

How Should You Identify Strategic Issues? Very few Strategic Issues come out of thin air. They are the products of hard digging. Below are a couple of simple, but effective, techniques that help identify potential Strategic Issues:

• Fully explain the concept of Strategic Issues before starting the review of information and challenge your team to think about the strategic implications of the information.
• Strongly urge each team member to highlight on the information worksheet, key information that suggests a Strategic Issue and capture their thoughts on a pad of paper throughout the review.

Simple techniques like these permit the process to be more time-efficient and minimize the escape of key information from the scrutiny of the team. Potential Strategic Issues often surface during the review of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (known in Simplified Strategic Planning as Capabilities Assessment, Perceived Opportunities, Perceived Threats) or the Winner’s Profile exercise.

Sometimes potential Strategic Issues do not readily surface. Subsequent to the Information Review, each team member should be allowed time to formulate what they perceive to be the key issues. Recognizing that Strategic Issues are those significant and unresolved questions that must be dealt with before Strategies can be fully articulated, each team member should:

• review the notes they have made, the information they have highlighted and those critical items highlighted on the team exercises
• identify the most critical subjects that the firm needs to address
• frame a question that defines what it is about that subject that needs to be discussed

The next step is to capture the key Strategic Issues on a flip chart or other medium that can be easily viewed and shared with the entire team. Select an approach that balances the need for time efficiency and team participation.

Strategic Issues are typically somewhat unique from company to company. They will also change from year to year as some issues are totally resolved and new ones arise. There are, however, some general topics that tend to be sources of Strategic Issues in many companies.

Some areas that typically produce Strategic Issues are:

• Strategic Focus
• Strategic Competencies
• Culture modification/Organizational change
• Resource limitations
• Strategic alliances/acquisitions/mergers/joint ventures
• E-commerce products

How Should You Reduce and Prioritize the List of Strategic Issues? Typically, the team will generate a longer list of potential Strategic Issues than they will have time to discuss and resolve. Therefore, the list must be reduced and prioritized.

A simple “forced choice” procedure will rank your list quickly and efficiently. You will spend an average of about 30 minutes on each Strategic Issue. We find that the truly critical Strategic Issues usually fall in the top ten.

At this point you are now ready to launch into the discussion and resolution of Strategic Issues.

Normally, it is advantageous for you to address “What should be our future Strategic Focus?” as your first issue, since Strategic Focus is the broad answer to the Strategic Questions “what are we going to sell and to whom?”. It is, therefore, fundamental to the resolution of many other issues.

The companion issue is “What Strategic Competencies will we require in the future?”. Since it deals with the major Strategic Question, “How will we beat or avoid our competition?”, it will typically be the second Strategic Issue you handle. You want to assure consistency between your Strategic Competencies and Strategic Focus and recognize the high-level role played by Strategic Competencies in shaping your overall competitive advantage.

Resolving your Strategic Focus and Strategic Competencies issues first provides a tighter framework for discussing other Strategic Issues and appropriately narrows the field on decision alternatives you will consider acceptable.

The remaining Strategic Issues are addressed in priority order. The number you can handle is dictated by the time available. If 6 to 8 hours are available for Strategic Issues, you should be able to cover 10 to 15 different issues.

Methodologies for Resolving Strategic Issues: Once identified, your team must consider and seek some degree of resolution to each issue. They should be primarily concerned with reaching a decision that defines the future direction without delving into all of the tactical sub-decisions needed for implementation. Not all Strategic Issues can be immediately resolved. Resolve those you can at this point. For each that cannot be resolved, be sure to state why it cannot be resolved and identify those steps, information or activities required to bring the issue to resolution in the future.

Following are several useful approaches for Strategic Issue resolution:

• Start the discussion with basics like definition of terms. This permits the team to start off on the same foot and begins to define some of the scope of the issue before getting into the heat of the discussion.
• Ask the question “what is at issue?” or “why is this an issue?”. In other words, define the problem. An issue is often half resolved once a good definition is developed.
• Drive the discussion until either a decision has been reached or the additional steps needed to make a later decision have been defined. A sense of future direction must be captured - either in the form of a decision or a path to resolution.
• Define alternative solutions and record those on which there seems to be consensus. Sometimes it is beneficial to let the discussion run to the tactical level because the team may generate material that could be useful later as a possible Strategic Objective.
• Explore and evaluate, at least implicitly, the upside potential, the downside risk, the resource consumption and the probabilities of success for the alternatives and select the best direction. Seek to shortcut the process for time efficiency by identifying key factors that dominate all others.

Resolution of some Strategic Issues may require you to use simple versions of more sophisticated, non-mathematical decision-making techniques. Two familiar techniques are matrices and analogies. Ferreting out conflicting, implicit assumptions and conceptions of key cause-and-effect relationships held by different team members is frequently necessary as well.

Often a major Strategic Issue, which has been recognized and kicked around but never fully resolved for a number of years, can be resolved rather simply following this process.

Why? Because all of the key decision-makers:

are together in one place, have immersed themselves in strategic information, have reached agreement on facts and assumptions, are motivated and guided by a seasoned process leader to reach a good decision, and know that they need to resolve this issue in order to formulate their strategy.

Before proceeding to the next step in the planning process, you should consider stepping back from the decisions you have made in Strategic Issues and challenging their quality. In particular, you should examine your major decisions for possible downside risks and assure yourselves that your team has not inadvertently “shot themselves in the foot”.

How does the Strategic Issues process drive later Strategic Planning steps? Figure 1 clearly shows that Strategic Issues links directly to the strategy formulation step called “STRATEGIES” in the Simplified Strategic Planning process. Your strategies derive much of their content directly from Strategic Issues. This content is restated and augmented with additional decisions and captured in a highly structured format that clearly enunciates your firm’s vision as to future course and direction.

Strategic Issues may also be linked to the process step that defines the future role of your organization (Mission Statement) and the process step that defines the general and continuing intended results necessary and sufficient to the satisfaction of your organization’s concept of success (Goals). The linkage may flow in two directions. Strategic Issues may arise because of your recognition that you are not fulfilling the commitments you had made previously in your Mission Statement and Goals. Conversely, the content of your Mission Statement and Goals may result indirectly from the resolution of Strategic Issues and its impact on your Strategies.

In turn, a comparison between your present course and direction, role and performance and your Strategies, Mission Statement and Goals will probably reveal some misalignments. These lead to the identification of those strategic initiatives required in the next year or so that will not happen in the normal course of business. In Simplified Strategic Planning these initiatives are called Strategic Objectives. Your team generates them by;

(a) reviewing your Mission Statement and Goals to identify areas in need of significant effort, (b) searching the flip charts defining your Strategies for suggestions of major initiatives, and (c) seeking key supporting details on the flip charts documenting the resolution of Strategic Issues.

You then translate each Strategic Objective into a detailed, scheduled, step-by-step Action Plan. Action Plans are the tools to focus your resources and drive RESULTS, and that is what you agreed you want.

And where did it all begin? It began with high quality information, but it largely took shape through a robust process that identified and resolved Strategic Issues and then linked them to where the action was.

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Strategy Development FAQ: Definition, Components, & Benefits

What to read next:

Strategy development is the beating heart of effective business management. It’s about understanding your business’s current position, defining the path toward your business ambitions, and tailoring it to the business environment, using objectives and goals as milestones along the way. Without a robust strategy creation approach, your business risks navigating rocky market environments aimlessly, vulnerable to unexpected risks and missed opportunities.  

Below, we cover quick-fire FAQs on strategy development, unpacking its definition, elements, and advantages to help you deliver the best results in today’s business landscape.  

What is strategy development?

Strategy development involves assessing your business within its environment, considering both internal and external factors. It covers:  

• Tailored business strategies aimed at value creation  
• Comprehensive mitigation plans based on identified risks, scenarios, and trade-offs  
• Clear communication and execution of plans using defined strategic goals and success metrics  

What is the role of a strategic plan?

A strategic plan guides your business toward its long-term goals by focusing resources, actions, and priorities on a united purpose. It creates a shared understanding of the company’s direction among company leaders, stakeholders, and staff, ensuring they synchronize their efforts to serve a desired outcome.  

Explore our step-by-step guide to strategic planning

What is the difference between strategy development and strategic planning?

Strategy development involves continuously analyzing, developing strategies, and refining business strategy based on the business's current state, risks, and emerging opportunities. Strategic planning is a subset of strategy development focused on creating resilient strategies for long-term business sustainability. Both processes are integral to the planning process, with company leaders playing a vital role in guiding and overseeing their execution.  

What are some key reasons strategy development is important in business?

Strategy development is essential for several reasons. It:   

• Establishes clear direction and purpose , helping employees understand the ‘why’ behind their work   
• Identifies organizational strengths and weaknesses , aiding in effective resource allocation  
• Allows your business to adapt to changing environments , repositioning it to suit shifting markets and circumstances   
• Enhances decision-making , serving as a framework for evaluating performance and progress  
• Promotes innovation , fostering a competitive advantage through continuous improvement based on feedback loops  
• Facilitates organizational alignment , ensuring conflicting efforts are reduced as departments work cohesively toward shared goals  
• Guides risk management , offering a structured approach to assessing and mitigating risks  

How do you develop a strategic plan?

The development of a strategic plan involves several key steps:  

• Analyze : Assess your business's current state to understand its strengths and opportunities while minimizing weaknesses and threats  
• Develop strategy : Create a strategic plan that navigates your business toward its desired state, identifying strategic options for risks and outlining financial planning concerning resources, budgets, and trade-offs  
• Align and communicate : Communicate your business's vision, mission , and long-term goals, aligning these using a goal-setting framework like OKRs  
• Create action plans : Detail execution plans, establishing responsibilities and timelines for accountability   

Implementing your strategic plan requires successful execution that emphasizes measurability. This serves as a continuous feedback loop that drives the strategy creation’s adaptation and optimization, ensuring your strategy doesn’t miss out on market opportunities.   

Why should past strategic performance be part of strategy development?

Past strategic performance provides insights into what worked and what didn’t, enabling your business to refine future strategies, embrace practical approaches, and steer clear of prior errors. Historical data also nurtures organizational know-how, empowering your company to evolve and enhance strategy creation effectiveness as it gathers knowledge over time. Frameworks such as key performance indicators (KPIs) and OKRs can be valuable tools in evaluating past performance and informing future strategy, helping company leaders make informed decisions.  

Which approach to strategy development is most likely to produce competitive advantage?

A strategy built on innovation and ongoing adaptation is a great way to gain a competitive advantage. Innovation is critical, driving differentiation to secure a competitive advantage. This involves introducing novel ideas, products, or processes that set your business apart from competitors.  

Yet, an innovative spirit can fall short if it’s not aligned with the business environment.  The crux lies with senior executives and their capacity to leverage critical, comprehensive, and timely data, as this dictates business agility and enables your business to tackle market shifts as they come.

What can hold back the realization of a strategic development plan?

Strategy development plans typically lack robust feedback loops, hindering continuous evaluation and adaptation. This absence results in stagnant plans unsuitable to dynamic markets, rendering them obsolete.   

To maintain agile and relevant strategy development plans, you need real-time feedback — and technology-driven feedback loops powered by AI are an effective way to stay ahead. AI enables rapid data analysis , supporting adaptive decision-making in dynamic environments. As such, using it for strategic insights allows your business to adapt plans to market changes, analyze trends, and incorporate internal insights, ensuring ongoing relevance, resilience, and success in your strategy development approach.  

How creative should strategy development be?

Creativity fuels strategy development. It empowers your business to innovate, explore new paths, and craft unique value propositions. However, creative strategic concepts must be substantiated to ensure alignment with market realities. Powering your creative ideas with data-backed insights can refine and validate these, providing empirical support for strategy creation. As such, a blend of creativity and data-driven strategies is essential to creating validated visionary strategies primed for success.  

How does strategic alignment between departments contribute to successful strategy implementation?

Alignment between different departments or units within your business is essential for effective strategy execution . When various parts of the organization work cohesively towards common strategic objectives, you minimize conflicts, optimize resource allocation, and enhance overall efficiency, contributing to successful strategy implementation. Effective alignment requires active involvement and leadership from company leaders to ensure coherence across the organization.  

What is the difference between a deliberate and an emergency strategy development process?

Deliberate strategy development is a pre-planned strategic approach aligned with long-term objectives. Think of it as a systematic process focused on structured planning and execution. In contrast, emergency strategy development is reactive, responding to unforeseen events or crises. It requires quick decision-making and implementation to navigate immediate challenges and mitigate their impact.  

The best strategy development approach blends deliberate, long-term planning with the flexibility to pivot, optimize, and refine based on data-driven insights. At Quantive, we call this the Always-On Strategy model .  

Powered by ongoing measurements and continuous optimizations, the Always-On Strategy operates as a dynamic loop, continuously developing, executing, and evaluating strategies. It prioritizes business agility and alignment with market shifts, emphasizing continual strategic readiness to avoid surprises and prevent strategies from becoming obsolete. By leveraging real-time insights, the Always-On Strategy model enables swift, informed decisions and ongoing refinements, ensuring your business strategy remains relevant and adaptable.  

Discover the Always-On Strategy model

What is strategy deployment? How does it differ from strategy development?

Strategy deployment involves translating your formulated strategy into actionable steps and ensuring its effective implementation across all business levels. Strategy development is the process preceding strategy deployment and consists of the conceptualization, formulation, and planning of business strategies.  

How often should strategy development occur?

While many companies stick to traditional annual strategy reviews, this approach is typically inflexible, rigid, and time-consuming. Instead, focus on creating a dynamic strategy by consistently revisiting and optimizing it to ensure continuous alignment with the evolving market and business landscape.   

By setting an ongoing schedule for strategic optimizations using best practices such as pre-scheduled planning and regular reviews, you emphasize the significance of strategic agility for stakeholders. Moreover, this approach enables ongoing strategic reassessments while avoiding unnecessary or impulsive changes.  

Should companies seek external support when developing their strategy?

While not always necessary, a fresh pair of impartial eyes can be immensely valuable to your strategy development process, offering expertise and experience that might not be available internally. This can include support with activities such as strategic analysis, market research, problem-solving, and industry-specific best practices — all of which can enrich your strategy development process.   

Similarly, the right technology can significantly enhance strategic development. AI-powered solutions not only enable you to analyze your market environment and sift through large amounts of existing data quickly, but also contribute to data-driven strategic decisions. This not only aligns your business with market threats and opportunities but also helps with eliminating biases and navigating organizational politics often associated with this process.  

Who owns strategy development?

Strategy development isn't a one-person job. It's a collaborative effort that involves strategic management from key decision-makers who draw on insights from across the organization. This helps your business account for diverse perspectives and contributions to ensure your strategy development plan is well-rounded and comprehensive.  

How is strategy development evolving?

Integrating technology and ESG in strategy development is becoming the norm.    

The right tech tools can help your business navigate the onslaught of business uncertainties using the right data. AI, machine learning, and big data play a pivotal role in rapidly analyzing your business environment to drive quick, informed decision-making that seamlessly align your strategy with changing market needs. Additionally, the push for sustainability and social responsibility push for ESG-aligned strategic initiatives as part of strategic development.    

Quantive empowers modern organizations to turn their ambitions into reality through strategic agility. It's where strategy, teams, and data come together to drive effective decision-making, streamline execution, and maximize performance.  

As your company navigates today’s competitive landscape, you need an Always-On Strategy to continuously bridge the gap between current and desired business outcomes. Quantive brings together the technology, expertise, and passion to transform your strategy from a static plan to a feedback-driven engine for growth.  

Whether you’re a visionary start-up, a mid-market business looking to conquer, or a large enterprise facing disruption, Quantive keeps you ahead — every step of the way. For more information, visit www.quantive.com . 

Additional resources

How top companies are closing the strategy execution gap, what is an always-on strategy, 6 signs of strategy failure.

Strategic Planning Process: Why Is Strategic Planning Important for Organizations in 2024?

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5.3 Strategic Issue Identification

So, what happens in strategic management once all the external and internal analysis is done and the SWOT framework is complete? Is it time to start developing strategies? No, not yet. One more thing needs to happen: defining the strategic issue or issues the firm needs to be sure to address.

What is a strategic issue ? First, it is an issue, something that needs to be addressed and resolved. Second, it is strategic. It is a long-term issue whose resolution will help move the organization toward its vision. Resolving the strategic issue will have a major impact on the direction and success of the firm (Ambler, 2020). The strategic issue is derived from the facts and data provided by the external and internal analysis and its synthesis through the SWOT framework. The business decision makers do not define the strategic issue(s) at the beginning of the strategic management process, through a hunch or guess, but after the analysis is completed. Once defined, the strategic issue helps drive the strategies that the organization develops and pursues. A strategic issue, when identified correctly and used effectively, becomes the strategic focus of the organization. In this process, more than one strategic issue may surface. Generally, decision makers will condense these into a single statement, or deal with less important strategic issues when establishing strategies or lower order goals.

The word “issue” often connotes a negative situation that a firm may be facing. For example, Southwest Airlines was faced with much lower passenger volumes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020. However, the Subway example discussed at the beginning of this chapter demonstrates that the strategic issue was framed as capitalizing on an opportunity—how to move into untapped international markets.

Ideally, the strategic issue is reduced to one concise sentence, so that it is easily captured and understood. Amplifying information may be provided to further explain the situation and justify the choice of the strategic issue. Often, the strategic issue starts with the word how . In the Southwest Airlines example, the strategic issue could be: “How does Southwest Airlines adjust to long-term, lower passenger volumes and remain the preferred, low-cost leader in the industry?” For Subway, it may have been “How does Subway enter untapped international markets?” Once defined, these companies would develop strategies that move their organization towards its vision, while addressing the strategic issue.

The strategic issue will change over time, as the external, competitive and internal dynamics change. For organizations working through the strategic management process, defining the strategic issue may not be simple. The planning team members may interpret data differently or through the lens of their own perspective. The CFO may see the strategic issue in financial terms, the marketing director as a marketing issue, and the human resources director as an issue with manpower and training. One process organizations can use to determine the strategic issue is for planning team members to study the data from the analysis and each draft and share their idea of the strategic issue. The team then has a process to prioritize these, dropping some, combining some, until they arrive at a consensus on the wording of the strategic issue (Ambler, 2020).

Section Video

Strategic Issues  [01:57]

The video for this lesson discusses Strategic Issues.

You can view this video here: https://youtu.be/Zj_dxbJpCqo .

Key Takeaway

• It is important to define the strategic issue of an organization using the information and data from the external and internal analysis and the SWOT framework. The strategic issue sets the strategic focus for the development of strategies. The strategies will address and attempt to resolve the strategic issue and move the organization toward accomplishing its vision.
• Suppose internal and external analysis data from Apple show an upcoming slump in sales of desktop and laptop computers and tablets for years to come. What might the strategic issue for Apple be?
• You are a college senior preparing to graduate in six months. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive furloughs and layoffs nationwide. What might be your strategic issue?

Ambler, T. E. (2020). Strategic issues: The pivotal process for strategic success . The Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, Inc. https://www.cssp.com/CD0799/ProcessForStrategicSuccess/ .

Image Credits

Figure 5.2: Morillo, Christina. “People on conference room.” Pexels license. Retrieved from https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-on-conference-room-1181427/ .

Video Credits

Gregg Learning. (2018, June 9). Strategic issues [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Zj_dxbJpCqo .

The primary matter faced by an organization that must be addressed for the organization to survive, excel, or achieve a major strategic initiative

Strategic Management Copyright © 2020 by Reed Kennedy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to make a business plan

Table of Contents

How to make a good business plan: step-by-step guide.

A business plan is a strategic roadmap used to navigate the challenging journey of entrepreneurship. It's the foundation upon which you build a successful business.

A well-crafted business plan can help you define your vision, clarify your goals, and identify potential problems before they arise.

But where do you start? How do you create a business plan that sets you up for success?

This article will explore the step-by-step process of creating a comprehensive business plan.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a formal document that outlines a business's objectives, strategies, and operational procedures. It typically includes the following information about a company:

Products or services

Target market

Competitors

Marketing and sales strategies

Financial plan

Management team

A business plan serves as a roadmap for a company's success and provides a blueprint for its growth and development. It helps entrepreneurs and business owners organize their ideas, evaluate the feasibility, and identify potential challenges and opportunities.

As well as serving as a guide for business owners, a business plan can attract investors and secure funding. It demonstrates the company's understanding of the market, its ability to generate revenue and profits, and its strategy for managing risks and achieving success.

Business plan vs. business model canvas

A business plan may seem similar to a business model canvas, but each document serves a different purpose.

A business model canvas is a high-level overview that helps entrepreneurs and business owners quickly test and iterate their ideas. It is often a one-page document that briefly outlines the following:

Key partnerships

Key activities

Key propositions

Customer relationships

Customer segments

Key resources

Cost structure

Revenue streams

On the other hand, a Business Plan Template provides a more in-depth analysis of a company's strategy and operations. It is typically a lengthy document and requires significant time and effort to develop.

A business model shouldn’t replace a business plan, and vice versa. Business owners should lay the foundations and visually capture the most important information with a Business Model Canvas Template . Because this is a fast and efficient way to communicate a business idea, a business model canvas is a good starting point before developing a more comprehensive business plan.

A business plan can aim to secure funding from investors or lenders, while a business model canvas communicates a business idea to potential customers or partners.

Why is a business plan important?

A business plan is crucial for any entrepreneur or business owner wanting to increase their chances of success.

Here are some of the many benefits of having a thorough business plan.

Helps to define the business goals and objectives

A business plan encourages you to think critically about your goals and objectives. Doing so lets you clearly understand what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there.

A well-defined set of goals, objectives, and key results also provides a sense of direction and purpose, which helps keep business owners focused and motivated.

Guides decision-making

A business plan requires you to consider different scenarios and potential problems that may arise in your business. This awareness allows you to devise strategies to deal with these issues and avoid pitfalls.

With a clear plan, entrepreneurs can make informed decisions aligning with their overall business goals and objectives. This helps reduce the risk of making costly mistakes and ensures they make decisions with long-term success in mind.

Attracts investors and secures funding

Investors and lenders often require a business plan before considering investing in your business. A document that outlines the company's goals, objectives, and financial forecasts can help instill confidence in potential investors and lenders.

A well-written business plan demonstrates that you have thoroughly thought through your business idea and have a solid plan for success.

Identifies potential challenges and risks

A business plan requires entrepreneurs to consider potential challenges and risks that could impact their business. For example:

Is there enough demand for my product or service?

Will I have enough capital to start my business?

Is the market oversaturated with too many competitors?

What will happen if my marketing strategy is ineffective?

By identifying these potential challenges, entrepreneurs can develop strategies to mitigate risks and overcome challenges. This can reduce the likelihood of costly mistakes and ensure the business is well-positioned to take on any challenges.

Provides a basis for measuring success

A business plan serves as a framework for measuring success by providing clear goals and financial projections . Entrepreneurs can regularly refer to the original business plan as a benchmark to measure progress. By comparing the current business position to initial forecasts, business owners can answer questions such as:

Are we where we want to be at this point?

Did we achieve our goals?

If not, why not, and what do we need to do?

After assessing whether the business is meeting its objectives or falling short, business owners can adjust their strategies as needed.

How to make a business plan step by step

The steps below will guide you through the process of creating a business plan and what key components you need to include.

1. Create an executive summary

Start with a brief overview of your entire plan. The executive summary should cover your business plan's main points and key takeaways.

Keep your executive summary concise and clear with the Executive Summary Template . The simple design helps readers understand the crux of your business plan without reading the entire document.

2. Write your company description

Provide a detailed explanation of your company. Include information on what your company does, the mission statement, and your vision for the future.

Provide additional background information on the history of your company, the founders, and any notable achievements or milestones.

3. Conduct a market analysis

Conduct an in-depth analysis of your industry, competitors, and target market. This is best done with a SWOT analysis to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Next, identify your target market's needs, demographics, and behaviors.

Use the Competitive Analysis Template to brainstorm answers to simple questions like:

What does the current market look like?

Who are your competitors?

What are they offering?

What will give you a competitive advantage?

Who is your target market?

What are they looking for and why?

How will your product or service satisfy a need?

These questions should give you valuable insights into the current market and where your business stands.

4. Describe your products and services

Provide detailed information about your products and services. This includes pricing information, product features, and any unique selling points.

Use the Product/Market Fit Template to explain how your products meet the needs of your target market. Describe what sets them apart from the competition.

5. Design a marketing and sales strategy

Outline how you plan to promote and sell your products. Your marketing strategy and sales strategy should include information about your:

Pricing strategy

Advertising and promotional tactics

Sales channels

The Go to Market Strategy Template is a great way to visually map how you plan to launch your product or service in a new or existing market.

6. Determine budget and financial projections

Document detailed information on your business’ finances. Describe the current financial position of the company and how you expect the finances to play out.

Some details to include in this section are:

Startup costs

Revenue projections

Profit and loss statement

Funding you have received or plan to receive

Strategy for raising funds

7. Set the organization and management structure

Define how your company is structured and who will be responsible for each aspect of the business. Use the Business Organizational Chart Template to visually map the company’s teams, roles, and hierarchy.

As well as the organization and management structure, discuss the legal structure of your business. Clarify whether your business is a corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, or LLC.

8. Make an action plan

At this point in your business plan, you’ve described what you’re aiming for. But how are you going to get there? The Action Plan Template describes the following steps to move your business plan forward. Outline the next steps you plan to take to bring your business plan to fruition.

Types of business plans

Several types of business plans cater to different purposes and stages of a company's lifecycle. Here are some of the most common types of business plans.

Startup business plan

A startup business plan is typically an entrepreneur's first business plan. This document helps entrepreneurs articulate their business idea when starting a new business.

Not sure how to make a business plan for a startup? It’s pretty similar to a regular business plan, except the primary purpose of a startup business plan is to convince investors to provide funding for the business. A startup business plan also outlines the potential target market, product/service offering, marketing plan, and financial projections.

Strategic business plan

A strategic business plan is a long-term plan that outlines a company's overall strategy, objectives, and tactics. This type of strategic plan focuses on the big picture and helps business owners set goals and priorities and measure progress.

The primary purpose of a strategic business plan is to provide direction and guidance to the company's management team and stakeholders. The plan typically covers a period of three to five years.

Operational business plan

An operational business plan is a detailed document that outlines the day-to-day operations of a business. It focuses on the specific activities and processes required to run the business, such as:

Organizational structure

Staffing plan

Production plan

Quality control

Inventory management

Supply chain

The primary purpose of an operational business plan is to ensure that the business runs efficiently and effectively. It helps business owners manage their resources, track their performance, and identify areas for improvement.

Growth-business plan

A growth-business plan is a strategic plan that outlines how a company plans to expand its business. It helps business owners identify new market opportunities and increase revenue and profitability. The primary purpose of a growth-business plan is to provide a roadmap for the company's expansion and growth.

The 3 Horizons of Growth Template is a great tool to identify new areas of growth. This framework categorizes growth opportunities into three categories: Horizon 1 (core business), Horizon 2 (emerging business), and Horizon 3 (potential business).

One-page business plan

A one-page business plan is a condensed version of a full business plan that focuses on the most critical aspects of a business. It’s a great tool for entrepreneurs who want to quickly communicate their business idea to potential investors, partners, or employees.

A one-page business plan typically includes sections such as business concept, value proposition, revenue streams, and cost structure.

Best practices for how to make a good business plan

Here are some additional tips for creating a business plan:

Use a template

A template can help you organize your thoughts and effectively communicate your business ideas and strategies. Starting with a template can also save you time and effort when formatting your plan.

Miro’s extensive library of customizable templates includes all the necessary sections for a comprehensive business plan. With our templates, you can confidently present your business plans to stakeholders and investors.

Be practical

Avoid overestimating revenue projections or underestimating expenses. Your business plan should be grounded in practical realities like your budget, resources, and capabilities.

Be specific

Provide as much detail as possible in your business plan. A specific plan is easier to execute because it provides clear guidance on what needs to be done and how. Without specific details, your plan may be too broad or vague, making it difficult to know where to start or how to measure success.

Be thorough with your research

Conduct thorough research to fully understand the market, your competitors, and your target audience . By conducting thorough research, you can identify potential risks and challenges your business may face and develop strategies to mitigate them.

Get input from others

It can be easy to become overly focused on your vision and ideas, leading to tunnel vision and a lack of objectivity. By seeking input from others, you can identify potential opportunities you may have overlooked.

Review and revise regularly

A business plan is a living document. You should update it regularly to reflect market, industry, and business changes. Set aside time for regular reviews and revisions to ensure your plan remains relevant and effective.

Create a winning business plan to chart your path to success

Starting or growing a business can be challenging, but it doesn't have to be. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting, a well-written business plan can make or break your business’ success.

The purpose of a business plan is more than just to secure funding and attract investors. It also serves as a roadmap for achieving your business goals and realizing your vision. With the right mindset, tools, and strategies, you can develop a visually appealing, persuasive business plan.

Ready to make an effective business plan that works for you? Check out our library of ready-made strategy and planning templates and chart your path to success.

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The pitfalls of strategic planning (and how to overcome them)

Reading time: about 7 min

Think about the planning that goes into a cross-country trip. While it's exciting to see where the road takes you, even the most spontaneous travelers have a destination and expected travel timetable in mind. 

So it goes with strategic planning. Whether your horizon for strategic planning is next month, next quarter, or next year, it's essential to define the actions today, next month, and next quarter to impact your desired destination and outcomes. 

"I find that many folks confuse strategic planning with tactical execution," says Mark Kelly, CEO of NewEdge Growth. "Too often, we get consumed with what we're going to do tomorrow, that we never raise our head above the trees to see if we're headed in the right direction.”

Let's take a look at some of the most common challenges and pitfalls of strategic planning — and how you can avoid and overcome them. 

Common challenges of strategic planning

There are four main challenges when it comes to strategic planning: lack of ownership, poor communication, lack of alignment, and slow adoption. It’s important to understand what’s at the core of these planning challenges before we dive into solutions.

Lack of ownership 

An effective strategy requires cross-departmental and cross-functional feedback from across the organization. However, to avoid creating a disjointed strategic plan, someone still needs to own the final compilation, documentation, and execution of the strategy. 

Kathleen Booth, VP of Marketing at clean.io, notes that one of the biggest disadvantages of strategic planning is lack of ownership and follow through, and that achieving the goals that are defined during the strategic planning process requires clear focus and a commitment to priorities. “In my experience, this is best achieved through an OKR (objectives and key results) framework where each objective and key results has an individual owner responsible for ensuring follow through,” says Booth. 

Poor communication  

Lack of alignment.

Even the most well-executed strategic plan won't be useful without strategic alignment. Yet a staggering 40% of executive leaders say their enterprise accountability and leadership are not aligned on strategy execution, according to the 2020 Gartner Execution Gap Survey. And this lack of representation from across the organization is one of the primary planning challenges.

As Charlotte Laing, Head of Marketing at Metrikus and AirRated, explains, "There must be input from all parts of the organization, at all levels, so that you can understand the landscape, the challenges, and the direction that makes the most sense.”

Slow adoption 

Let's say you've avoided every pitfall to this point and achieved buy-in on a rock-solid strategic plan for your organization. What happens if no one puts it into motion? 

Fast-growing companies often face near-constant changes to tasks, roles, teams, and strategies—with innovation at the forefront of it all. All too often, this translates into strategic plans that have taken weeks to finesse becoming obsolete soon after their inception. If your teams are slow to adopt the plan, it will quickly become outdated and irrelevant to everyday processes and priorities. 

Ways to avoid strategic planning problems 

Don’t worry. While there are definitely challenges to strategic planning, there are also plenty of solutions to those issues. Here are a few for you to try at your own organization.

Build and simplify business strategies visually 

There are many ways to build, visualize, and evangelize your business strategy. Some leaders swear by tools like GOST (Goals, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics) to create a structured strategic plan:

• Goals: What goals are you trying to achieve? A strategic plan without goals will only result in spinning wheels.
• Objectives: It's important to align clear objectives to your goals, and those objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timebound).
• Strategies: Set by the departments. For each objective, identify three methods to reach those objectives.
• Tactics: Set collaboratively by the department and individual groups and the strategy owner. For each strategy, set three tactics to execute during the timeframe. "This gives you a direct line of sight to how you impact the outcomes of the business and allows you to track your progress throughout the year," said Kelly.

Create a living, breathing strategy document 

Effective execution doesn't necessarily mean rigid execution. The "perfect" strategy document is a flexible one that can evolve. 

As you execute your strategy, market conditions might change, or some new information might inform one part of your strategic approach, but this doesn't mean your strategy needs to be abandoned. "When something comes up that alters your strategy, alter your plan," says Laing. "Don't hang on to sunk costs because it was perfect before: recognize that the equation has changed and move forward."

Use resources with scaling in mind

Speaking of flexibility, a strategic plan that can scale with company growth should be the goal of every forward-thinking business leader. In fact, according to Gartner, organizations that are able to successfully unlock capacity to execute new growth strategies increase profitability by 77% . As you build your strategic plan, consider how you'll use resources as you scale. Hopefully, your strategic plan results in growth and scale, but without starting with the goal of scale in mind, it's tougher to move a strategic plan past the pilot phase. 

Design and conduct training effectively

Strategy shifts can cause disruption and discord, or they can infuse new energy into your business. To ensure the latter happens, be sure to schedule education and training sessions to ensure your team and your new strategic direction are set up for success. Designing and conducting training sessions is a lot of work but will help avoid endless rounds of revisits to your company strategy. 

Don't rush it—use data and analysis to build a solid plan 

Strategic planning needs to incorporate data that instills confidence—a plan based on intuition alone can lead to wrong decisions. During times of uncertainty like COVID-19, data is harder to leverage as many older baselines are not relevant. The solution is to test data quickly and let the data guide the decisions you make regarding your target market and priorities. 

"A common pitfall is relying on older data that's not adjusted for a new reality. Past intuition is great, but data needs to help lead the discussion and decision," said Alon Waks, CMO, Advisor, and Consultant of Flywheel Consulting. "We're all writing a new playbook."

Collaborate and communicate 

Throughout the strategic planning process , make sure everyone's on the same page. Your team should be included in every strategic decision, no matter how small—and that doesn't mean just communicating the change, either. Set up a 30-minute call or meeting to discuss the proposed change and develop a new plan together. Hold it in a breakout room, assign a moderator, and record the session for those who can't attend in-person. "Not only will you end up with a team which is more on board with the strategy, but usually you'll make a better decision, too," says Laing. 

Effective collaboration and communication during the strategic planning process also ensure greater buy-in once the strategic plan is finalized and published. "Folks will feel they had a voice in where the company is headed," says Kelly.

Follow up and review after executing a strategy

No strategic plan is ever final. As you execute against your plan, it's important to review the results, iterate, and optimize. But don't jump the gun: Establish clear KPIs aligned to your company goals, and then set a realistic expectation of when you expect to see results. And make sure to budget time for reactive tasks. This way, you can act on new ideas and also clearly see when priorities need reshuffling.

Strategic planning is no easy task, and that's why it's so easy to fall into these common pitfalls of planning. However, with the right tools and a bit of forethought and strategic planning, you can beat the odds and execute strategic plans and shape your organization's future.

Take the next step and learn how to conduct your next strategic planning session in Lucidspark.

About Lucidspark

Lucidspark, a cloud-based virtual whiteboard, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This cutting-edge digital canvas brings teams together to brainstorm, collaborate, and consolidate collective thinking into actionable next steps—all in real time. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidspark.com.

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Business Development: Strategic Planning

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Instructor: Meridith Powell

Strategic planning is key to successful business development. If you plunge forward without clearly defining your goals and how you’ll meet them, you run the risk of misplacing your energy and failing to make the kind of progress you envisioned. In this course, Meridith Powell shares how to use strategic planning to work smarter as you develop your business. First, Meridith explains the purpose and power of a strategic plan, the foundational skills you need to develop, and how to build your strategic planning team. Then, learn how to clearly define your vision and long-term goals, how to implement and manage your plan, and assess the progress that you’re making (or not making) towards your goals. Plus, Meridith illustrates five mistakes often made in strategic planning in business development.

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Youngstown acts to boost economic development.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city is moving forward with two economic development initiatives — a $200,000 fund to help small businesses and hiring a firm for $50,000 to create a strategic plan to help Youngstown’s economy.

City council recently approved legislation to authorize the board of control to create the $200,000 Small Business Boost Program, that will be administered by Intentional Development Group Inc. — run by Carmella Williams, the city’s minority outreach coordinator — and to pay $50,000 to the Montrose Group LLC of Columbus for the economic development action plan.

Regarding the action plan, Nikki Posterli, director of the city’s community planning and economic development department, said: “The end goal is actionable steps that we can take to make sure we’re marketing the city right, that we’re offering the right tools and incentives and that we’re aligning ourselves with the right plan.”

Montrose’s plan states it will assess and analyze existing data, focus on business retention and attraction, workforce assessment, site and building inventory analysis and downtown office reuse strategy.

The firm will meet with the city’s economic development partners, including the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, Western Reserve Port Authority, Economic Action Group and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, Posterli said.

Montrose will start as soon as the board of control signs a contract with the plan taking six months to complete.

“The city has not had a strategic plan in economic development,” Posterli said.

She added: “We need help with a workforce development plan to make sure the businesses we’re attracting can be retained and to make sure that we are in the regional pool in what’s going on with economic development.”

The city needs its own economic plan rather than looking at what other cities do, Posterli said.

“What we’re saying is: can you take what we’re doing, look at it, give us some analysis and see if we’re on the right track?” Posterli said. “They’re taking some of the groundwork we’re doing and making it into a whole plan for us.”

In its proposal, Montrose said it would provide a workflow of how an economic development project finds and learns about market site, identify types of industries that should be targeted by the city, create a small and disadvantaged business development strategy, provide a roadmap for workforce development outreach marketing and services and recommend specific steps tied to the reuse of underutilized downtown office space and buildings.

SMALL BUSINESS GRANTS

The Small Business Boost Project will have a $200,000 pot of grant money with each eligible company able to get up to $10,000 each.

The city received federal COVID-19 funds to help small businesses, but the provisions from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development were “very restrictive,” Posterli said.

“We wished we could have awarded some businesses more funds than we were able to,” she said. “In one example, a business applied for $80,000. Because of all the restrictions with HUD we were able to give them only $300. So this gives us more flexibility because it takes those restrictions out.”

The money administered through HUD required companies to be in business for a specific number of years before the pandemic and use the funds for personal protection equipment, which is no longer relevant, Posterli said.

The new program “allows them to use the money to meet payroll obligations, mortgage and rent obligations and with equipment and marketing assistance,” Posterli said. “We need to give them support.”

Intentional Development Group will receive $10,000 from the city to administer the program.

To be eligible, a business must be for-profit and privately-owned. It cannot be a bank, credit union, adult entertainment establishment or franchised business not locally owned and independently operated, according to the program’s guidelines.

Have an interesting story? Contact David Skolnick by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @dskolnick.

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Business development manager.

DT Global is driven by a fundamental commitment to one goal: to work in partnership with communities, governments, and the private sector to deliver innovative, data-driven solutions that transform lives beyond expectations. DT Global—launched in 2019—is built on legacy companies AECOM International Development’s Services Sector, Development Transformations, IMC Worldwide, and Cardno International Development. To fulfill its profit-for-purpose mission, DT Global is a key donor to the DT Institute, an independent not-for-profit organization, in support of DTI’s efforts to test new ideas or expand on donor partner priorities with the aim to improve as many lives as possible.

Our global team of almost 2,500 staff and experts work in over 100 countries. We aim to maximize sustainable development impact across a wide range of practice areas, including Conflict Prevention, Stabilization & Transition; Economic Growth; Environment & Infrastructure; Governance; and Human Development. We meet communities where they are on the development spectrum and help them move to where they want to be. Together, we bring over 60 years of experience, relationships, and technical excellence to improve lives around the world on behalf of our partners, clients, and stakeholders.

Overview: DT Global is seeking a Business Development (BD) Manager to join the Business Development division. The BD Manager will lead new business efforts from capture planning to proposal submission for opportunities across multiple technical areas, including Conflict Prevention, Stabilization, and Transition (CPST); Environment and Infrastructure (E&I); and Economic Growth and Governance (EGG). Working in close collaboration with the Deputy Director of Business Development, the BD Manager will contribute to the overall business development strategy, scope out new potential bids, manage capture efforts and present teaming plans to the Deputy Director, lead proposals, provide technical writing support, and represent DT Global on partner calls and at business development related events.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

Business Development and Strategy

• In collaboration with the Deputy Director, contribute to the business development strategy for one- three-, and five-year plans. This includes monitoring developments in the sector, providing recommendations on future positioning, and flagging potential new bid opportunities to populate the pipeline
• Track business development forecasts and assist with go/no-go decision making
• Take a lead role in business intelligence collection efforts, including mapping programs due to end in the near future, tracking congressional budget hearings, monitoring future US spending trends in development, and utilizing GovTribe and GovWin to ensure the BD team is tracking all available opportunities within the technical space
• Manage the capture for multiple simultaneous bid opportunities including overseeing creation of capture plans that strategically assess bids and outline win strategies, planning and executing capture trips, leading recruitment, managing staff to pre-position and pre-write for bids before proposal release, and managing the internal DT Global processes involved in bid preparation – OAFs, Capture Plans, budget tracking for bids, and Netsuite entries. Bids could include USAID, FCDO, or other clients as needed.
• Lead proposal development, including technical approach, staffing, and partnering strategies and negotiations, and decisions on information gathering trips, and oversee cost development
• Lead scoping and information gathering trips for anticipated and live proposals and guide staff and consultants supporting research efforts
• Directly supervise BD team members, such as Proposal Coordinators and Senior Proposal Coordinators, and also manage inputs from various PMU members to advance high quality captures and proposals
• Lead live proposals, provide technical writing support, oversee budget development, or provide any other as needed support on live proposals
• Oversee staff managing logistics and administrative tasks for proposal cycles including oversight of consultants and travel
• Liaise with members of the technical practices, contracts, finance, and other DT Global departments as needed to ensure high quality bids
• Coordinate with members of DT Global corporate offices in London, Madrid, Adelaide, and Nairobi to provide support, mentorship, and technical input for their respective proposal efforts that overlap with the technical space
• Develop and cultivate relationships with technical specialists, subject-matter experts, and professional writers to contribute to technical solution designs, proposal reviews, and analysis of proposals and business development strategy within the practice
• Lead partner calls and recruitment calls to position DT Global strongly in the competitive landscape
• Represent DT Global at strategic BD related events

Leadership and Staff Management

• Provide guidance and mentorship to staff –including direct supervisees, other members of the BD team, and PMU members working on BD
• Create a collaborative environment that empowers staff to demonstrate the values of DT Global each day
• Coach direct reports on performance improvement across the full spectrum of program management, business development, and practice management
• Set an example as a leader by holding oneself and staff accountable, communicating professionally, being a team player, and supporting the development of staff

Learning and Innovation

• Proactively engage in self-driven professional development and growth activities
• Contribute to DT Global’s learning agenda; and innovation efforts
• Incorporate learning best practices into all aspects of work for broad organizational learning

Education & Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelors’ degree in international development or a similar field; or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Minimum 4 years of experience in international development programming
• Minimum 2 years of experience in a business development role writing, running capture, proposal development, and coordinating USAID bids; experience with USAID/OTI and USAID CVP strongly preferred
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Proven experience with MS Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• Strong analytical and conceptual skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills: ability to work independently and effectively lead multiple teams
• Strong communication, financial management and leadership skills
• Ability to travel up to 30% per year for capture trips
• Prior experience in the field, preferably in fragile states and/or post-conflict, post-crisis, or political transition environments

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in international development or a similar field
• Prior supervisory experience
• Fluency in a language other than English, preferably Arabic, French, or Spanish
• Experience working with multiple donors (USAID, MCC, FCDO, EU, DFAT)

Core Competencies:

• TEAMWORK: Works cooperatively and effectively with others to achieve common goals. Participates in building a culture characterized by inclusion, trust and commitment.
• COMMUNICATION: Effectively conveys information and expresses thoughts professionally. Demonstrates effective use of listening skills and displays openness to other people's ideas and thoughts.
• ADAPTABILITY: Adjusts planned work by gathering relevant information and applying critical thinking to address multiple demands and competing priorities in a changing environment.
• CUSTOMER/CLIENT FOCUSED: Anticipates, monitors and meets the needs of customers and responds to them in an appropriate and responsive manner.
• DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION: Conveys respect for diverse individuals and perspectives; models inclusive behavior and treats everyone fairly.
• PROFESSIONALISM: Displays appropriate and ethical behavior, integrity and personal presentation in the workplace always; demonstrates respectful communication for others, both verbal and non-verbal.

We thank all applicants for their interest. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

DT Global, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or national origin. DT Global, LLC prohibits discriminating against employees and job applicants who inquire about, discuss, or disclose the compensation of the employee or applicant or another employee or applicant.

How to apply

To be considered, please apply through the DT Global website . To view additional opportunities, please visit https://dt-global.com/work-with-us/ .

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