Strategic Planning 101
Strategic planning is the driving force in growing any company. How you deal with your customers, relate to the business environment and treat your follow man are all considered when looking at your strategic plan. Indeed there is no right way to do strategic planning. It is more like developing a road map towards reaching a goal. There are a number of concepts that you can use to help you develop a strategic plan.
What are your environment conditions?
The environmental conditions affect your strategic plan the most. These are the outside factors that will affect your ability to deliver on your strategic plan. Conditions such as the following:
Political influence/stability – Is there a stable government in place in your region? Is your industry a target for political lobbies, or activists? Does your project have political champions who can rally behind your cause?
Weather conditions – Do you live in a tornado or hurricane prone area? Could snow ice or other weather conditions affect power to your building or cause loss of productivity?
Economic conditions - The overall economy and the regional economy will affect your business and will change over time.
Human resources/employment conditions - Are there people in your area that can perform the work you need? Do you need to hire from outside of your region or train staff?
Competition - Do you know your competition? Do you regularly identify and monitor competitive influences. It is important to understand all of the competitors including direct and indirect competitors in order to develop a complete understanding of this influence.
There are many other outside influences that will affect your business. It is important to routinely survey the economic, political and social conditions that affect your business to understand how these outside influences will affect your business. A daily scan of the newspaper, stock market and other news sources are a great way of staying on top of the outside forces you cannot change.
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