What is the strategy? What are the challenges to achieving the strategic aims and  objectives? How will you overcome them?

The reason we have this in the same section as the organisational culture material is that we believe there has to be an alignment between the two. If the culture is not right for the strategy,it will be very difficult to achieve the intended objectives! Thinking of it logically:

The strategy looks at where you are now - and to the future and where you want to be and how you will get there.

The culture has evolved through time and brought the organisation to where it is now.

When doing the strategic plan - how much attention is really paid to where you are now, and why?  Will the present support the future?

Just how thorough is the strategic planning process in your organisation?  Do you have a process?!? Too many organisations base their plan on setting the desired objectives and direction - using the financial criteria as the key rationale!

The real issues are often overlooked because:

The effectiveness of any plan is dictated by the amount of work which goes into the planning process.

"One always has to balance conflicting objectives, conflicting opinions, and conflicting priorities. The best strategic decision is only an approximation - and a risk."
Peter Drucker

"An effective strategy is an integrated array of distinctive choices about which markets a company serves, what unique value proposition it offers to the customers, and how it arranges its functions to deliver that value."
Prof Jan Rivkin

A good strategy will have 3 key elements:

Creating a clear strategy for an organisation has many advantages - it provides a sense of direction and purpose behind which all activities can be aligned. The ideal aim is to establish a unique and valuable proposition involving the activities of the organisation. It also can cause some internal conflicts - often the decisions about what business to NOT compete for or activities to NOT do.

The constantly fast-changing world we live in demands a clear organisational strategy. The need to keep thinking about your business and how it is equipped to cope with the demands of the market and customer needs and expectations, technology, competition puts extra pressure on top management.

The more successful organisations are those that gather, manage and use information into targeted, actionable activities. It is just as important to include the ''soft'' views and intuitions of those in key positions throughout the organization as the traditional hard data.

Strategic v Managerial and operational thinking

There is no one perfect way to present a strategic plan. There are a number of key elements that need to be contained - the actual format or style needs to be one that you feel is usable within your environment.

The general consensus is that you state the overall aim and direction of the business, then give some indication of the analysis and background before committing to the way ahead with the objectives and action plans.

These can be listed as:

There are a variety of ways an organization can approach their strategic planning. Just doing the plan is not enough - to be effective it requires implementation. A way of working towards this is can be to follow the "Strategic implementation process." The downloads section has some further support material to help you.

We firmly believe that for successful strategic planning and to have a winning strategy you need to start by assessing your organisational and corporate culture. Is it supporting your strategy - or sabotaging it? To find out how we can help you, contact us.