Sunday, August 5, 2012

Strategic Planning for Better Profitability

Strategic planning is an organization's method of defining the various factors that affect profitability and establishing the necessary steps to achieve both short and long term business goals. The process of planning starts with a clear vision of where the company intends to go. It should then look into the present business conditions including current practices, financial resources, and competitive landscape. From this information, the company's think-tanks can put together a plan of action to give direction to the company as a whole.
In general, strategic planning deals with these questions:
• What does the organization want to achieve?
• How much resources does the organization have?
• How are these resources being used?
• Who are the company's competitors?
• What kind of business environment is the company operating in?
• What steps can the company take to rationalize its use of resources and increase its profitability?
For many organizations, it is typically viewed as a continuous process of determining the organization's plans in the next 4 - 6 years.
How It Works
The goal of strategic planning is to develop an action plan with short, medium or long-term milestones that are measurable. The members of the management team typically all have their own specific areas of accountability. All these, however, are geared towards the completion of the plan. In most cases, these accountabilities are interrelated and the various teams and divisions should therefore coordinate with each other.
It takes into account all business areas including: staffing & team management needs, sales & marketing, R&D technological development, financial & accounting control/operations and product/service development. These plans are effective for any type of business and can be customized based on varying business environments.
Uses of Strategic Planning
• Serves as a structure for securing approval, support or decisions
• Assists performance monitoring and benchmarking
• Gives employees a clear idea of the company's business direction
• Allows the management to motivate and innovate
• It can be used as a blueprint in helping leaders run the business or company
• It is used to articulate the company's vision and value proposition
• Gives a clear sense of focus in terms of priorities among the management team
Actions, strategies, objectives, goals, policies, plans and desired end-states are among some of the terms commonly used in creating a plan. All of these should be defined based on each company's own business circumstances.
Strategic plans for companies and entrepreneurs are vital for the future of their business. Putting these plans together takes time and effort. These plans should not be done haphazardly. Companies need accurate and reliable data in both internal and external aspects of their business in order to devise a good strategic plan. There are strategic plan consultants that can ensure that all the necessary components of a workable and effective strategic plan are present.


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