What is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is a detailed process that helps determine where an organization is going during a specific period of time and how it’s going to get there. The process usually involves the entire organization, or it can be focused on a division or an individual department.

The major activities in strategic planning include:

1. Strategic Analysis - This activity involves a top-to-bottom look at the entire organization. During this step many factors will be reviewed, such as increasing competition and changing demographics. The end result is the SWOT analysis, which identifies the various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding the organization.
2. Setting Strategic Direction - This step involves reaching conclusions about what the organization must do in response to the major issues and opportunities facing the organization. These conclusions are used to develop clear-cut goals and objectives that must be written down and monitored on a frequent basis.
3. Action Planning - This step involves planning the steps that must be taken to accomplish desired goals and objectives.
4. Take Action - Put the plan into action and work hard to achieve desired goals and objectives.
5. Measure Results - Measure and analyze progress to understand what additional actions may be needed to reach target objectives.

Benefits of Strategic Planning

• Clearly defines purpose of the organization in the form of realistic goals and objectives.
• Provides the ability to communicate written goals and objectives to all organizational members.
• Develops a heightened sense of control and ownership in terms of affecting the success of the organization.
• Provides the ability to best understand how to position an organization’s resources to accomplish key priorities.
• Establishes a metric by which progress can be measured.
• Creates a unified team approach as the plan can be easily communicated and understood by key personnel.
• Can help unite all members of an organization from upper management to lower staff level positions.
• Accelerates an organization’s ability to reach goals and objectives in a given period of time.
• Helps to solve major problems that face an organization.
• Provides a means of understanding and introducing the need to implement changes to the plan.

Overall strategic planning is the road map created and followed by an organization. It helps to ensure that an organization reaches its stated goals and objectives within a specified period of time. It also acts to provide a metric by which achievements can be measured.

For more information about strategic planning and how Rhythm Interactive can assist you in the process, please call us today at 949.215.1250!