Strategy Solutions Process 
Strategic Development, not just “strategic planning”

Strategic Planning serves as a cornerstone for helping organizations thrive, whether they are for profit or not-for-profit. In fact, it’s as essential as steering is to a ship, keeping the vessel on track until it reaches a desired destination.  What most leaders don’t know about strategic planning can severely hinder their outcomes. Strategy Solutions, Inc.’s strategic planning process is specifically designed to achieve results.

Carefully crafted strategic development encompasses both strategic planning and implementation management and produces a host of benefits. In fact, effective strategic planning will:

  1. Anticipate and meet the challenges of ongoing organizational, regional and global change.
  2. Introduce valuable knowledge about target markets and their real needs;
  3. Execute a process for developing an attainable, growth-oriented future vision;
  4. Evaluate organizations’ current product and/or service offerings and challenge leaders to think proactively about the future;
  5. Prioritize and develop action plans for introducing new programs, products or services;
  6. Create plans for new funding strategies and resource allocation;
  7. Develop an Implementation Action Plan and Calendar with clear directions on how to attain future visions;
  8. Build group consensus and buy-in into the planning process;
  9. Involve staff in supporting a future vision and attaining set goals and objectives to get there;
  10. Monitor setbacks and successes during implementation and respond accordingly;
  11. Offer a framework for board governance effectiveness, performance and evaluation in non-profits.

Five Phases of Effective Organizational Strategic Planning

The hallmark of effective strategic planning is its visionary aspect. Too often, executives mistake strategic planning for planning that involves developing specific programs or products, or for simply continuing to do what they have always done. Many organizations often write plans to outline how they will implement programs for which funding is currently available (they follow the money, in other words).

Taken as a whole, these examples of typical planning (often referred to as “strategic”) lack strategy and visionary thinking that look to the future and identify what organizations need to do differently to “get to the next level” to fulfill their missions and better serve customers. These types of plans also lack implementation systems that explain how goals and objective are to be accomplished with accountability and timeframes.

To address these issues and to ensure outcomes, SSI’s planning process encompasses a five-phase process, including:

  1. Where are we now: Environmental Assessment—An effective analysis includes developing a vision and mission; analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the context of your organization’s life cycle stage and capacity needs; determining if markets have a genuine need for currents products and/or services; identifying current resources, emerging customer needs, debt capacity, industry, government and policy changes that will affect your organization and other top priorities to ensure sustainability.
  2. Where do we want to be: Outcomes—includes identifying a future “strategic profile” of the organizations future products, markets, size and growth guidelines and identifies goals, objectives and new program possibilities.
  3. How do we get there: Action Planning—Often absent from planning processes, this phase  addresses organizational strategies for how to achieve established visionary goals and outlines the action plans as well as the human, capital and operating resources required to implement the plan. This phase also covers the development of funding strategies.
  4. Who will do what: Implementation – includes delegated objectives and defined action plans that are incorporated into individual and team performance expectations.
  5. How are we doing: Review—includes measures; reward and recognition strategies; and a process for systematic (and ongoing) outcome tracking.

Call Toll-FreeSSI’s Market Research services provide support for understanding customers and market needs to support strategic planning or product development needs and our Project Management services provide support for clients to implement key initiatives and achieve desired outcomes.