What Are The Phases Of The Strategic Plan?

A Strategic plan It is a document that synthesizes at an economic-financial, strategic and organizational level the current and future processing of a company. Its sole purpose is to ensure that the company obtains a reasonable advantage over its competitors as efficiently as possible.

If that plan is done correctly, it is very likely that it will be able to attract shareholders and stakeholders to align themselves around the priorities of your company, because a strategic plan is a very effective tool that can be applied when things are going well and also when they are going wrong.

Using a business strategy

The I use strategic plans or business strategies are increasingly common in the business world. A strategy shows a general direction of the company and involves the objectives of the organization, develops policies and plans to achieve those goals and allocates resources to execute the plan in a successful.

A well-formulated strategy helps to organize resources and its allocation in a viable and efficient way since it takes into account the internal capacities and shortcomings of the organization, which allows anticipating changes in the environment and eventual maneuvers by competitors.

A strategic plan is a set of competitive moves and actions that a business uses to attract customers, compete successfully, improve performance, and achieve the organization's goals. The strategy must be aligned with the objectives of the company, with the type of business it develops and with what you plan to incorporate.

Today, the business world has evolved so much that competition between companies is increasingly demanding which means that it is not only sufficient stay in time, but you also have to be alert which increases your desire to prosper, grow and be more effective to obtain greater cost effectiveness.

What are the key components of a Strategic Plan?

Entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs need to define the strategy and develop their respective plan. Business leaders increasingly emphasize the importance of a well-designed strategic plan whose components are as follows:

• Mission and Vision of the company: The Mission describes the general approach of your company, its objectives and what you hope it will be in the future. The Vision draws how your company will look or how you imagine it will be in an expected time.
• Core values: describe the values ​​that already exist as part of the company culture. It highlights those that have to be fulfilled without any doubt and also those that should not be "never" present.
• Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats: describe the current situation of the company from the perspective of these four aspects.
• Objectives, strategies and operational tactics: these are the objectives that are set and their strategies to achieve them in a period of time.
• Form of financing and its follow-up: incorporate means that allow controlling the execution and performance of each stage and the actions to be taken. Also carry out financial analysis of the process that is being developed.

Basic process when writing a Strategic Plan

Here are some basics to consider when writing a strategic plan.

• Before starting to write the plan, it is important to ensure that you have the buy-in of management, directors, and other leaders in the organization.
• Assemble your planning team which should be made up of staff from various departments and at different levels. This process must be open and encourage free discussion in the group.
• Designing a strategic plan is a process that takes time, but the rewards or benefits are considerable.
• Paying attention to all the details, no matter how small, is very necessary. The person planning should be able to follow the next steps and regularly update the process.
• Be aware that the plans are not static documents and can be modified at any time during their execution if new situations appear both internally and externally.

Phases of Strategic Planning

Basically the strategic planning it is a way of establishing a guide to improve organizational performance and is carried out continuously. It includes the following phases:

• Preparation phase. The vision and mission of the company, its objectives are analyzed and the inputs of internal groups and external stakeholders are evaluated and the planning process is implemented.
• Planning phase. Priorities are established considering the needs, strengths and threats, as well as the internal and external resources that are required. You define what you want to achieve, how it will be done and how to know if you are going on the right track and then the final document of the Plan is drawn up.
• Implementation phase. It is important to communicate and promote the Plan, manage, implementation, supervise current work, and monitor and report its progress.
• Review phase. It is present throughout the process in order to allow its continuous updating if necessary and thus keep the organization informed. In this phase of the Strategic Plan, it is allowed to make the changes that are the result of the evaluations and recommendations of the planning group.

Conclution:

A Strategic plan involves the formulation and implementation of the best initiatives and objectives defined by the top management level of a company for the benefit of the owners of an organization and based on evaluations of both the internal and external environment of the business.

The ultimate goal of an organization is achieve a competitive advantage and hence the importance of developing a strategic plan that allows us to develop activities to place our company in a good position in the market. It is also important that effective communication be given to guarantee that the indications of what is designed in the plan are fully complied with.

Finally, remember that the strategic management process is much more than following a set of rules. It is a philosophical approach to business so the top management has to think strategically very well in order to apply it. A strategic plan is best implemented when everyone involved in the business understands the strategy very well.