A strategic plan is a step-by-step guide, in which a company expresses its vision of the future and the achievement of the objectives to be achieved. The five main elements of the plan are mission, vision, essential success factors, strategies, and actions to achieve the objectives and the implementation of a schedule of priorities.
Step 1: The Vision
Write the vision of the company. How you imagine will be the company in the future. The vision is a statement that usually includes the values of the company. It is a statement of one or two sentences, which should inspire collaborators and serve as a reference to clients. For example, a mining company’s vision may be to gain recognition as a leader in the industry and in social responsibility.
Step 2: The mission
Mention the mission of the company. This is a brief description of one or two sentences of the company, including what type of company it is and how it plans to meet the needs of the target market when offering the products or services of the business. For example, the mission of a construction company can be to ensure that each family has a home that meets all safety and comfort requirements.
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Step 3: The Essential Success Factors
Note the essential success factors that the company must meet to achieve vision and mission. Essential success factors can vary from business to business, but some examples include achieving credibility in the industry, a financial plan that ensures positive cash flow and sufficient revenue to grow the business, conducting market research to meet the Desires and needs of clients and create a process to document company policies and processes to train employees.
In order to identify the success factors, it is necessary to take into account both the factors of the environment and the internal factors that can influence the performance of the company. The factors of the environment can be regulatory, social, environmental, technological, or also the dynamics between competitors, suppliers, customers and even the possibility of substitutes appear for the product offered by the company.
Step 4: Business Strategies
Collect company strategies. The strategies of the company are the set of coordinated actions that must be executed to reach a certain objective. The definition of the strategy should specify who in the company is responsible for completing the action.
Although a strategy can be a general action, it can also include a series of steps to complete the action. In the management literature, different types of strategies are considered, which can be grouped into 3 major strategies: those based on cost leadership; Those who seek the differentiation of the good or service; And niche strategies or approach, when targeting a specific segment of a market.
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For example, a generic marketing strategy can be to increase the number of email subscribers in the company database to 5000 people in three months. The task can be assigned to the marketing manager and the specific steps can include a list of ways in which the manager can drive targeted traffic to the website and encourage visitors to subscribe.
Step 5: The Timeline
Prioritize the schedule. A strategic plan covers at least 3 years, with periodic reviews; While a business plan usually covers one year. Because you can not implement everything at once, you must prioritize a list of actions. In addition, some tasks in the list must be completed before others. In a start-up company, if launching a website is on the to-do list, this must be done before the marketing manager can complete the work needed to drive targeted traffic to the site to increase the number of subscribers to the base Of company e-mail data.