Fundamentals of Strategic Planning

The need for strategic planning

• Benefits of strategic planning
• Defining the strategic planning steps

Defining components of a strategic plan

• The "Who" and "What" of a strategic plan
• Communicating and implementing the strategy

Addressing your organisation's mission and vision

• Identifying your organisation's core competencies
• Differentiating your organisation in the marketplace

Detecting Opportunities and Threats

Operating in micro and macro environments

• Analysing how competitive and other environmental factors shape strategy
• Identifying the key activities in the value chain

Assessing external forces

• Analysing your operating and external environment
• Initiating a SWOT analysis

Recognising Strengths and Weaknesses

Applying a resource-based view analysis

• Mapping your internal value chain
• Identifying competitive differentiators
• Evaluating culture, human resources, skills, processes and structure

Auditing internal capabilities

• Profiling and benchmarking capabilities
• Identifying strengths by function
• Recognising vulnerabilities
• Expanding the SWOT analysis

Identifying Strategic Options

Evaluating factors for choosing strategy

• Mapping strategies to product or market life cycle
• Aligning strategies with capabilities of the organisation
• Choosing strategies to meet stakeholder expectations

Selecting appropriate strategic models

• Identifying sources of competitive advantage
• Implications of mergers and acquisitions
• Leveraging the power of expansion strategies
• Pursuing global strategies for sourcing, operations and marketing

Formulating Your Strategic Plan

Assessing the feasibility of alternatives

• Analysing and evaluating the options
• Ensuring participation and buy-in
• Satisfying stakeholder requirements

Conducting gap analysis

• Assessing organisation characteristics relevant to strategy execution
• Determining gaps between current and needed characteristics
• Closing the gaps through targeted practice

Linking strategy to actions

• Responsibilities of strategic plan formulation
• Designing the operating unit plan
• Establishing appropriate milestones
• Managing culture, human resources, skills, processes and structure for strategy execution
• Initiating programmes and projects from strategy

Executing Your Strategy for Success

Establishing effective communication mechanisms

• Aligning culture to strategic direction
• Synchronising skills and knowledge with needs
• Linking rewards to performance

Maximising results with applied processes

• Connecting people and their skills to the execution of strategy
• Establishing and maintaining communications
• Designing effective information systems
• Organising a structure to execute strategy
• Shaping your organisation's culture

Monitoring and Controlling Implementation

Establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Setting up metrics to measure performance
• Monitoring progress with dashboards
• Dashboards for visual presentation of KPIs to help decision makers take action
• Sensing and responding to change

Dimensions of strategic control

• Detecting changes in assumptions
• Coping with a dynamic environment
• Adjusting for unanticipated events