Strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, establish agreement around intended outcomes and results, and assess and adjust the organization’s direction in response to a changing environment.

It is a disciplined effort that produces fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, who it serves, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future.

Effective strategic planning articulates not only where an organization is going and the actions needed to make progress, but also how it will know if it is successful.

At the end of this workshop, participants should be able to:

• Identify strategic planning issues in order to develop a unique competitive advantage
• Learn key analytical and conceptual approaches to expand your understanding of the marketplace
• Align your organization with your strategic planning goals by integrating strategy, objectives, metrics, and performance
• Identify evolving strategic patterns and generate ideas on how they can be applied to your organization
• Incorporate customer needs into your strategic planning
• Use a case study to examine the strategic planning process
• Recognize how the actions of customers, competitors, and your own company determine the outcomes in your markets
• Determine the best approach to effectively implement your strategic planning

Course Outline:

Strategic Planning Principle

• Determining a frame of reference for strategic planning concepts
• Schools of thought in strategic planning
• The evolution of strategy

An Overview of the Strategic Planning Process

• Basic elements of strategic planning
• Developing and managing the strategy formation process

Understanding Your Organization’s Mission

• Your organization’s core values
• Creating an inspiring mission statement for your own organization

Assessing the External Environment

• Identifying macro and micro factors
• Responding to changes in the environment
• The I/P (Importance/Performance) matrix as a competitive tool

Understanding Your Internal Environment

• How to become a high-performing organization
• Financial elements of developing strategy

Formulating Your Strategic Planning

• Data synthesis
• SWOT analysis

Competitive Strategic Planning

• Defining your competitive advantage
• The product/industry/life-cycle curve
• Understanding mega patterns

Ensuring Strategic Alignment

• Creating organizational accountability
• How to translate the grand design into well-executed strategic planning

Strategic Planning Execution

• Key building blocks
• Learning the three core processes
• Understanding resource allocation and strategy formation

A Strategic Planning Process

• Determining the best processes for your business