Where to start strategic planning?

Strategic planning is a complex and strategically important process for any company. It differs from the creation of ordinary long-term plans and daily operational decisions, as it requires deep analysis and a long-term perspective.

To successfully launch a strategic process, it is necessary to identify several key stages that will help achieve the set goals. We propose to highlight 4 main steps for the effective implementation of the strategic process:

Step 1. Strategic planning

First of all, determine what type of strategy you currently need and which one you will stick to. There are several basic types of strategies:

The basic strategy describes the company's core business and general directions for its development. It includes the retention strategy, sales strategy, and leadership strategy. Start by answering the questions: do you want to maintain your current position or do you want to strengthen your position in the market, perhaps become a monopolist? Once you have determined this, you can choose a basic strategy and proceed to the next steps to implement it.
Competitive strategy focuses on interaction with competitors and influence on market consumers. The main goal of this strategy is to identify competitive advantages and disadvantages in order to achieve success.
A production strategy describes all the resources needed to produce a product.
The marketing strategy is aimed at developing advertising and is especially suitable for mass sales.
A financial strategy is developed to forecast the company's financial resources, evaluate and manage financial indicators.

Once you have determined the type of strategy, you should select strategic planning tools. For example:

Balanced Scorecard
Porter's Five Forces Analysis;
SWOT analysis;
PEST analysis;
and other tools that you think will suit you.

All these tools allow you to develop a plan for implementing the strategy, with specific steps.

Step 2. Developing a strategy implementation program

Before you begin implementing a strategy, it is important to identify the factors that will influence its success. Below are the top 7 factors that can have both a positive and negative impact:

Internal environment of the company.
The external environment of the company.
Technological progress: taking into account new technologies and their impact on business processes.
Financial resources: analysis of the company's financial condition and investment opportunities.
Strategic planning: developing a clear strategy, defining goals and mechanisms for achieving them.
Team and Management: Assessing the qualifications and experience of employees and the effectiveness of the management team.
Organizational culture: taking into account the values and principles that shape corporate culture and influence the success of strategy implementation.

Step 3. Developing a budget for implementing the strategy

To develop the strategy budget, it is proposed to use the BSC tool. The budget should include all stages of the strategy, taking into account their duration. It will be divided into administrative and investment costs.

Step 4. Resource Management

Implementation of the strategy requires mobilization of resources, including the involvement of the necessary people, finances, technological resources, and others. The completeness of all necessary resources makes the strategy accessible and feasible. To simplify the process, it is recommended to assign responsibility for each task, create a financial base, determine the technological base, and analyze all the necessary resources.

In conclusion, I would like to note that strategic planning includes specific actions and steps that an organization must take for its successful implementation, namely: