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Basically, strategic planning helps companies to identify critical success factors that set the track in motion for future growth and profits. The key to success is the effective implementation of plan, a competitive edge is created by companies who develop and execute their strategies to increase market share and higher gross profits. Critics of strategic plans look at the planning process, and ask question of its validity as a plan based on market assumptions, the questionable evaluation of depth of competitors and optimistic assessment of company’s strength and weakness. The criticism may be appropriate but it puts focus on the opposite side of the process. It is the implementation aspect of strategic plans that is critical to producing positive results and here most companies fail to realize it. Strategic plans that are poorly implemented will generate limited positive results and at same time highly optimistic strategic plans, effectively executed can generate results beyond business’ expectations as action of commitment. Commitment to planning process and strategies within the plan is built by companies that are good at strategic planning; being committed to the business functions from the onset to the outcomes and after the development of the strategic plans, your business start to win early in building commitment to strategic plan and sharing responsibilities for the implementation of the strategies. Key executives in businesses /companies should be encouraged to participate and contribute to the plan during planning sessions, since they help to develop strategies that are built on organizational strength and consider resources required to achieve those strategies; these key executives give great thought to resource planning. With the development of these executive plans, people responsible for the executions develop their own tactical plans; these action plans serve as major contributors to a successful strategic planning implementation when coupled with self directed work teams. Teams make use of their plans to manage, make decisions and to grow their business. Periodically, tactical plans should be reviewed to monitor and report on the growth of implementation thereby keeping plans alive in revisiting strategies and tactics. The planning process of a strategic planning should be worked on to assure the successful implementation, the planning group should continuously fine tune the planning process to make sure that input from the business functions are given the due consideration and assure the commitment to the final plan at all levels of the companies. People may then ask why most operations management teams are not inside the strategic planning process? Or why do many line managers tends to view strategic planning as a work project which produces little or zero value to customers? May be, it’s because they did not partake in its development nor did they see it validity, let alone committed to the course of execution the strategic objectives. In brief, they may not have been connected to the process at all. Executives and top managers need to assure the active participation by the operation management in the strategic planning process to achieve company’s full growth and potentials.
John Argenti is author of this article on Strategic Planning. Find more information about Strategic Planning System here.
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