STRATEGIC PLANNING

Many businesses – perhaps even most – open each day and serve the customers who show up. Their reason for existence is simply to stay in business. There is no overriding goal, no thought to strategy, and no consideration of where the marketplace is going. They may be lulled into thinking they are doing well because they are profitable. But businesses like that may be leaving dollars on the table because they aren’t taking advantage of opportunities. And as other businesses around them evolve, they can quickly find themselves behind the times.

Creating (and executing) a strategic plan helps you maximize the value of your business today and for tomorrow.

Strategic planning involves thinking about why you exist as a business, what you want to achieve, and how you want to achieve it. It takes into account the internal environment of your company (which you can control) along with the external environment (which you can’t). It looks at your strategy today in light of your competitors. Is this a winning strategy long-term? If not, what do you want your strategy to be, and how do you get there? All of those elements factor into a plan for the next 3-5 years.

Keep scrolling to understand the Strategic Planning Process.

THE PROCESS

Companies are sometimes uneasy about creating a strategic plan because they don’t know how – it’s different work than they typically conduct on a daily basis. Open Aperture leads companies through the process in a fun and painless 1 ½-2 day session. The end result is a plan that can flow down to all levels of the business.

How successful can you be if everyone on the team knows the goal and is working together to achieve it?

At the end of the process, companies will have:

  • Mission statement

  • Vision statement

  • Values statement

  • Analysis of external and internal environments

  • Analysis of current strategy and desired strategy

  • 2-4 big goals and specific objectives to achieve within each over the next 3-5 years

  • Assignments to execute the plan to avoid SPOTS (Strategic Plan on The Shelf) Syndrome where everyone gets excited in the planning process, and then no one does anything with it.