Erica Olsen

A strategic plan is essential for a successful business, and creating a strategic plan that you can actually use is key. Your plan should include certain elements, like mission, values, and vision statements. It should also avoid common pitfalls, like neglecting the specific needs of your organization, so it becomes your road map for success.

Strategy means consciously choosing to be clear about your company’s direction in relation to what’s happening in the dynamic environment. With this knowledge, you’re in a much better position to respond proactively to the changing environment. The fine points of strategy are as follows: Establishes unique value proposition compared to your competitors Executed through operations that provide different and tailored value to customers Identifies clear tradeoffs and clarifies what not to do Focuses on activities that fit together and reinforce each other Drives continual improvement within the organization and moves it toward its vision Knowing what strategy is can also be explained by looking at what strategy isn’t.

The goal of creating target markets in a strategic plan is to target specific customers who have similar needs and wants with the same message, products, and pricing and through the same distribution channels. When done correctly, your target market responds similarly to your marketing efforts. Think about your market as though you’re someone who’s interested in buying your product or service.

Government planning reaches farther than business planning because most strategic plans — whether community cultural plans, regional tourism plans, county plans, or neighborhood development plans — exist outside the realm of any single agency. Therefore, successful planning requires enough authority and resources to assure the plans’ intentions are fulfilled.

Fundamentally, a sustainable government organization has the capacity to fulfill the elected officials’ mission and objectives to provide necessary public services now and into the future. Tons of great resources for government strategic planning can help you in your planning efforts. Here are just a few recommendations: International City/County Management Association: This organization is the professional and educational organization for chief appointed managers, administrators, and assistants in cities, towns, counties, and regional entities throughout the world.

A company’s strategic plan is the game plan that management uses for positioning the company in its chosen market arena, competing successfully, satisfying customers, and achieving good business performance. Most business owners and executives have countless excuses for not having a formal strategic plan. I’ve heard everything from “We’re too new” to “We’re not big enough” to “We’ve never had one; why start now?

In order to put a strategic plan together that gets you from Point A to Point B effectively and efficiently, you need a system in place to help you achieve the end result. This process is continuous and cyclical, and in a disciplined mode, it requires a focus and pattern to stay on track and be productive while enjoying the journey along the way and learning from it.

Before you can really develop a strategic plan, you must know why you’re doing what you’re doing (your mission), where you’re trying to go (your vision), and how you’re going to go about it (your values). These are the glue that holds an organization together. You preserve these elements while your strategies and goals change and flex with the market.

The purpose of writing a positioning statement during strategic planning is to ensure that all your marketing activities for a customer group are consistent and clear. (And having a positioning statement saves you tons of time in the long run.) Initially, focus on writing a positioning statement that’s used only internally.