How To Prepare A Strategic Plan Template
Today's article will be a continuation of the one we wrote last week about how to easily develop a strategic plan template for a company that is going to be created or for a company that is already established, that has been running for a season and that wants to put in order all its internal processes to achieve a relatively ambitious goal in the medium-long term.
To put ourselves in a situation, remember that the points in which we structured the article were:
1- Stages of the strategic plan:
To put ourselves in a situation, remember that the points in which we structured the article were:
1- Stages of the strategic plan:
- Introduction.
- Mission, vision and values.
- Analysis of the Current situation (PEST AND 5 Porter Forces).
- Diagnosis (SWOT-CAME diagrams).
- Strategic priorities.
- Action plan.
- Monitoring and evaluation.
2- Template example strategic plan template and explanatory video:
Today we continue through point 4 of the stages of the strategic plan and we will finish the set of articles, attaching the downloadable template and the explanatory video we go with it:
3- Diagnosis:
The diagnostic stage basically consists of identifying the critical points and grouping them according to whether they are Opportunities, Threats, Strengths or Weaknesses.
For this purpose, the SWOT analysis is used (Weaknesses, Threats, Strengths and Opportunities), which will be reflected in the SWOT matrix, in English SWOT.
Its objective is to specify in a summary table, the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the company (internally), as well as the threats and opportunities of the environment (externally).
INTERNALLY:
Weaknesses : They are from the company itself (or team) and negatively affect the expected results. They must be present at the present time, limit the development capacity of the company and may constitute a threat in the future. This is an area for improvement.
Strengths: Also of the company itself (or team) and present at the present time. These are capabilities, resources or competitive advantages that must be maintained to prevent them from disappearing and exploited to generate opportunities.
AT THE EXTERNAL LEVEL:
Threats: External forces that can impede the implementation of a business strategy, reduce its effectiveness or increase its risks. Its trend is increasing, so we must try to minimize it. It is a limitation to achieve the expected results.
Opportunities: Anything that could be an advantage for the company or a possibility to improve its profitability. In the same way as the previous one, it is dynamic and tends to disappear if we do not take advantage of it.
In summary,
Regardless of whether you or your team are planning a company project, personal project, work or any other area, the SWOT analysis process is the same:
Step 1 (The Here and Now): List the strengths that exist now, as well as the weaknesses. Be realistic and avoid modesty.
Step 2 (What could happen): Opportunities are potential future strengths and Threats are potential future weaknesses, list them.
The next step would be a CAME Analysis (Correct, Address, Maintain and Exploit), it is a diagnostic tool that is used to define the strategic plan template that should be carried out in a company after having identified, through a SWOT analysis , which are the key aspects that characterize that company from the external and internal perspective, as we have explained in the previous paragraph.
What the CAME analysis pursues is, fundamentally, to correct the weaknesses, face the threats, maintain the strengths and exploit the opportunities derived from the SWOT Analysis, more specifically:
- Correct Weaknesses by taking advantage of Opportunities.
- Tackling Threats by Not Letting Weaknesses Grow
- Maintain Strengths by Addressing Market Threats
- Exploit the Opportunities that Strengths Offer
Although all this may seem visually very simple, then it is not so easy to build. On the other hand, do not forget that these are static tools and that the environment is changing over time, it is convenient to do exercises of this style with certain frequency.
4 - Strategic priorities:
It is time to focus on the strategic lines. At this point the company will have to identify and differentiate the priority (or basic) strategic lines on which it will have to focus its efforts. The strategies will be obtained as a result of analysis of the previous point to enhance the strong points, improve the weak points, take advantage of opportunities and avoid threats.
It is possible that you detect many important strategic lines, even so you must focus on a reasonable number that your current or future company can assume (it will depend on its size and resources). For this reason we speak of basic strategic lines.
All this is much more complex than it seems and falls within the design of the strategic map (If you want to know more read this article ), since we simply want you to make a basic strategic plan template for your future or current company on the Internet, we will limit ourselves to detailing the different strategic perspectives, are these:
- Financial perspective : It should detail what we should finally achieve, the financial objectives serve as a focus for the objectives and measures of other perspectives.
- Customer perspective : Identification of the customer and market segments in which you want to compete.
- Perspective of Internal processes: Critical processes for the realization of the objectives of the clients and promoters of the project or company. That is, everything that has to do with the product or service offered and the operating rules that will facilitate the tasks and processes.
- Learning and growth perspective : The objectives of the learning and growth perspective offer the infrastructure that makes it possible to achieve the objectives set out in the other three perspectives. The ability to achieve ambitious goals depends on the organizational capacities for learning and growth. It is about what we have in the Organization and that will generate future value.
5- Action plan
It is time to implement the priorities identified in the previous steps, or at least, to translate them into a document for internal use and clarification of the personnel who will be in charge of carrying it out.