corporate planning and strategy

Corporate planning is setting long-term objectives and goals within the organization’s scope to enable an environment conducive to growth in terms of revenue and profit margins. It includes defining strategies, decision-making, and allocating resources. The corporate planning strategy aids the whole team to work in one direction- the organization’s goals.

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A corporate planning cycle is a dynamic and continuous process throughout the organization’s life. Through planning on a corporate level, hurdles that might hinder the growth towards the pre-determined goals come to light, and the management can provide solutions to solve them. Moreover, it allows the company to manage its resources more efficiently.

Corporate planning process explained.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

#1 – Information

The first step towards creating a foolproof corporate plan is collecting information, regardless of whether the data paints a good or bad picture of the company’s current status. Moreover, similar information about competitors gives an even better view of the areas that can be improved to gain a more significant market share .

#2 – Objectives & Strategies

Objectives refer to the overall outcome of the plan. On the other hand, strategies are specific steps taken to reach organizational goals. For example, objectives could be an increase in sales by 25% or responding to customer support issues within 2 hours. Making a product the market leader by the end of the financial year through influencer and social media marketing could be an example of a strategy.

#3 – Devising a Plan of Action

Once the objectives and goals are devised, the company must articulate a step-by-step plan that helps its employees gain significant insights into the plan’s intricacies. This part of the process could be fulfilled by employee training, a new approach to production, or a change in marketing strategy.

#4 – Implementation

The action is taken toward the objectives and goals of the pillars of the organization’s growth story. Irrespective of how well-planned a strategy is, it will deliver average results unless implemented or executed to perfection. The implementation comes in different forms depending on the specifics of the plan.

#5 – Monitoring

Once the implementation process is underway, the corporate planning manager monitors the progress or decline in following the procedure. Since the plan is not a one-time action, it must be supervised and monitored regularly.

#6 – Evaluation

After a certain period, the manager can check for differences after implementing the corporate planning strategy. The check will provide the management insights into the progress, decline, or stagnancy toward organizational goals.

Since each organization is bound to have different plans based on its organizational framework, management style, and product, naturally, they might want to implement a plan that fits their work style better rather than opting for a generic method. Therefore, let us discuss different types of corporate planning through the points below:

#1 – Tactical Planning

A tactical plan is usually implemented after a strategic plan has been set in motion. A tactical plan is a short-term goal to address immediate goals, which over time, contribute to the bigger plan. Typically, a short-term goal helps tackle hindrances that prevent the company from achieving its medium or long-term goals.

#2 – Contingency Planning

A contingency plan is when a company develops strategies that help them tackle an event from stopping its operations. This strategy is carried out in an adverse scenario, such as a natural calamity or pandemic. However, a contingency plan can also be initiated for positive events, such as a high inflow of unexpected client funds.

#3 – Operational Planning

Operational planning is a form of action where the daily tasks of each employee and manager are specified and monitored. It is usually planned for a period beyond one year. However, to reach short-term objectives that aid the enormous growth of the business, operation planning is a wise choice as it optimally allocates financial, physical, and human resources.

Let us understand the concept with the help of the examples below:

Audacity Corporation manufactures microphones and is one of the market leaders in the domain. They have produced studio and live performance microphones for over half a decade. Their CEO Brendon wanted to ensure that their range of microphones for streamers and gamers were market leaders by the end of the financial year.

To ensure their product was top-selling in the market, they studied their competitors in the domain and found that most of them produced these microphones in-house, and their cost of raw materials was high.

Audacity tied up with companies in China and Taiwan to procure raw materials at lower prices and trained their employees to assemble these products more efficiently.

That year, their streaming and gaming microphones sold 20% more than any competitor.

ExxonMobil is one of the largest oil and gas companies internationally. In their announcement about their corporate plans in 2022, they declared that they plan on increasing their investments in emission reduction solutions.

By 2027 , they plan to increase investments by $17 billion in this domain to gain a competitive advantage over other layers in the market and tackle climate change and carbon emissions.

Advantages And Disadvantages

The extensive planning for the future allows businesses to tackle quite a few situations better. However, they have their set of disadvantages too. Let us discuss the advantages and disadvantages of corporate planning through the points below:

Disadvantages

Difference Between Corporate Planning And Strategic Planning

Let us understand the difference between corporate planning and strategic planning through the table below:

Difference Between Corporate Planning And Functional Planning

Let us understand the difference between corporate and functional planning through the points below:

Functional Planning

A corporate plan is a process that maps out a path through which companies grow in terms of profits, brand identity, and revenue. It is a tool that organizations use to ensure an upper hand over their competitors. Moreover, a corporate plan is a foundation on which a macro-level strategy is built. This macro plan is called strategic planning.

It helps the organization face uncertainties in the future in a better manner as they have planned for contingencies well in advance. Moreover, a clear plan and an objective for each employee give them a sense of belonging and unity.

Since a corporate plan involves the organization’s overall growth, it is vital to ensure that the resources are being used efficiently and there is minimal to no wastage in the process.

The very nature of planning is to ensure the whole process is forward-looking. Moreover, it is a continuous process and a big goal consisting of smaller goals for the short-term that helps the employees and their managers to quantify the growth effectively.

This has been a guide to what is Corporate Planning & its meaning. We explain its process, elements, examples, and advantages and comparison with strategic and functional planning. You can learn more about finance from the following articles –

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Difference Between Corporate Planning and Strategic Planning

May 1, 2015 Posted by Admin

Corporate Planning vs Strategic Planning

In the surface level, strategic planning and corporate planning are interrelated though, there is difference between corporate planning and strategic planning in the sense that strategic planning refers to the larger extent when compared to the corporate planning. In simple, the strategic planning relates to the entire company, and the corporate planning relates to the specific functions of the company. Therefore, the corporate planning is less in extent. Furthermore, the strategic planning determines the overall direction of the company while the corporate planning determines and function on the foundations of the business. Also, the strategic planning says how to exist in the volatile business environments and it emphasizes ways and means of obtaining the competitive advantages over the competitors. In the mean time, the corporate planning helps to determine the internal functions and issues in the company. Interconnecting these two, the strategy is a definite part of corporate planning and the corporate plan incorporates the strategic related issues.

What is Corporate Planning?

Corporations are entities that are designed around a certain set of elements that determines the shape of a business . Among them, the core of the business is important. This refers to the major business activity. For an instance, it can be either producing a product, delivering a service , or a conjunction between the two. Depending on the product or the service the company produces, there is a set of buyers known as the target audience. So, all these elements are managed by the corporate plan of the company . Also, the corporate planning involves functioning the company as well. In this regard, determining the number of units of the company and assigning people to those units (i.e. departments) depending on their capabilities are also addressed under corporate planning. Therefore, almost all the internal functionality is handled by the corporate plan.

Difference Between Corporate Planning and Strategic Planning

Corporate Planning takes a short period into consideration

What is Strategic Planning?

By having a strategy plan, it is expected to determine a long-term direction of a company . Also, the competitive edge of the company is achieved by executing the strategy . Therefore, gaining competitive advantage is also addressed in this regard. These facts depict that strategic plan always address the entire company. Therefore, this involves observing the environment that is really volatile in nature and determining changes accordingly. This scanning aspect requires research and development in the company level. As strategic planning determines the long-term direction of the company, setting mission and vision is also addressed. Allocating resources among different projects in order to achieve the end state of affairs happens in the perspective of strategic planning. There are personnel called strategic managers in a company. They are responsible for scanning the environment and imposing alterations accordingly. This shows that they should possess business intuition .

Some acknowledge the strategic planning as a cycle. Determining the company-wide objectives, and ways and means of achieving the objective is highlighted in this cycle. Once the outcomes are observed, the measurement procedures are also set by the strategic plan. Finally, alterations in the observed results are applied, only if they are needed. Thus, this is acknowledged as a cycle since this a continuous process.

Corporate Planning vs Strategic Planning

A diagram of the (strategic) planning cycle

What is the difference between Corporate Planning and Strategic Planning?

• time factor:.

• Corporate Planning usually comprises of short time periods.

• Strategic planning comparatively comprises of long time periods.

• Corporate planning deals with the internal aspects of the company.

• Strategic planning deals with the overall business (i.e. internal and external) and external environments.

• Objectives:

• Corporate planning sets parameters and objectives within the company.

• Strategic planning sets the overall direction of the company.

• Response Nature:

• Corporate planning responds to the market segments which the company deals with.

• Strategic planning selects which market segments to deal with.

• Interconnection:

• Corporate plans facilitate or help to achieve strategic plans, and corporate plans are set according to the motives of the strategic plan.

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About the Author: Admin

Coming from Engineering cum Human Resource Development background, has over 10 years experience in content developmet and management.

October 9, 2021 at 12:43 pm

This is a good write up on differences. Matches with what I thought/guessed. I bumped on corporate planning need recently after two decades or so, had been working on strategic planning for a long time. Hence wanted to know the difference and got this. I just felt, corporate planning is an older concept still there in few organisations and not a general taught curriculum even in MBA courses. Strategic planning has replaced it more extensively in the industry as it is also a superset of corporate planning and and already takes care of that as part in its overall ambit. I suppose, this can be included as a difference above. The good part about your writing is, it’s short part at the end, point wise broken to different aspects and explanations given.

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Marketing91

Corporate Planning Definition – Strategy, Importance, Objectives and Elements

March 30, 2021 By Hitesh Bhasin Filed Under: MANAGEMENT

Corporate planning is a type of strategic planning, responsible for mapping out a course of strategies and their implementations to empower top-management. It optimizes exposure, reach, leads, sales, profits, credibility, loyalty, sustainability, and opportunities of a business.

With the help of corporate strategic planning, a business can efficiently channelize corporate management by leveraging its resources with better acumen than the other market players.

Businesses of any size should incorporate such strategic planning, as it offers-

All in all, corporate planning empowers any kind of business to accomplish its business goals in a more effective and organized manner.

Table of Contents

Corporate Planning Definition

Corporate Planning is defined as forming long-term goals and objectives within the organization’s strengths and weaknesses in the existing and prospective environment.

This is done to ensure the achievement of their plans by combining their short-term and long-term objectives or bringing amendments in the structural working in the organization’s composition.

In the words of David E. Hussey, writer of the book- Corporate Planning: Theory and Practice-

Corporate planning includes the setting of objectives, organizing the work, people and systems to enable those objectives to be achieved, motivating through the planning process and through the plans, measuring performance and so controlling progress of the plans and developing people through better decision-making, clearer objectives, more involvement, and awareness of progress.

What is Corporate Planning Strategy?

Corporate Planning is a strategic process applied by several business organizations to form a roadmap to grow in the market, enhance profits, gain industrial exposure, and strengthen brand identity.

It is a vital tool that successful business organizations use to leverage their existing resources better and more analytically than competitors.

It is the determination of business goals, formulation of diverse strategies for attaining objectives, transforming the goals into tactical plans, implementing and reviewing it to find out the progress of strategies, and finding out loopholes.

Different factors around which corporate planning is channelized via effective SWOT analysis and process of corporate management are-

Importance of Strategic Corporate Planning

In the current modern era, corporate planning holds a crucial position in a business organization, be it large-sized, medium, or even a new entrant.

The importance of corporate planning can be justified because some companies even hire departmental corporate managers to check the industry’s current scenario and the current status of the organization in the market.

Some of the points that describe the need and importance of corporate planning are mentioned below:

1. Long-term goals

Corporate Planning broadly focuses on long-term goals and sets a blueprint to achieve them in a stipulated period. Long-term goals help an organization keep its core focus on maintaining its efforts, workforce, and efforts on a pre-decided target.

Corporate Planning keeps the employees engaged in their respective tasks with deadlines and ensures effectiveness and efficiency. It also brings harmony, peace, and cooperation among the employees and supervisors in a firm as they all smoothly work towards a common objective.

A strategic business plan helps a business organization provide a focal point not to get deviated or distracted from its end goal. The first and foremost step of corporate planning involves devising a mission statement that tells the world its roles and objectives.

Formulation of a mission statement aids the firm stick to its focus, do all the requisite tasks, assign responsibilities to the employees, and evaluate their work to achieve that final destination.

3. Better Decisions

Developing a strategic plan helps a company make better decisions that are beneficial and helpful in attaining the mission statement. A corporate plan should be structured to spell all the information in the organization’s interest, like the skills required with the employees, machinery or equipment required, etc.

Forming a roadmap to achieve the final goal helps the business people hire the best personnel for their form, arrange funds according to the tasks, and further invest in the most viable propositions.

4. A Measure of Success

Corporate planning also acts as a yardstick to determine an organization’s success in achieving its goals. A firm shall periodically analyze its work to check its progress and make further amendments like replacing personnel, hiring more employees, arranging more funds, upgrading the machinery, etc.

Finding, evaluating, and analyzing the loopholes periodically that block the ways of achieving the mission statement helps in the upgradation of the work and ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the tasks devised. The touchstone function of corporate planning works best in the organizations that devise plans that allow for changes in attaining the tasks.

5. Saves money

The extra benefit associated with corporate planning is that it forms budgets that help save substantial sums. Budgeting allows a firm to allocate its financial resources to the projects that require it the most by cutting out unimportant expenses.

Having a detailed budget tells how much cash is earned, spent, or lent. This wipes out confusion regarding the amount of money allocated to different projects.

Objectives of Corporate planning in Management

Following are the basic objectives of corporate plans:

1. Setting a strategy

The fundamental objective of framing a corporate plan is setting a business strategy. At this stage, companies should look at the opportunities and analyze the threats in the market. For this, they can make a SWOT analysis and select viable propositions for investing their funds.

2. Planning the operations

Once a firm knows its mission statement, it can use these objectives and find ways of attaining them. The sole purpose of corporate planning is to help a firm plan and prepare a list of resources it requires to deliver to achieve its goals.

3. Monitoring and Control

There should be measurable indicators present in a strategic plan to evaluate the progress of the work rate vis-à-vis the initial plans. It mainly includes financial theory related to accounts, the value of output, etc.

Establishing and forming well-devised instruments to devise annual reports is a crux to a successful corporate plan. Since the market environment constantly changes with events happening in the economy, a company regularly needs to review its plans, policies, and even rules and regulations associated with the operations.

Elements of Successful Corporate Plan

There are six elements in a successful corporate plan:

1. Gathering information

Having all the information related to the firm, industry, and competitors are the primary step towards a well-defined corporate plan. Either a business is big or small, it should be aware of the happenings in the market in its sectors, find out opportunities, grab them at the right moment and beware of the threats.

2. Set the objectives of the plan

Having a well-devised mission statement helps a firm stick to its focus of achieving it and keeps all the strategic work smooth in operations. Setting objectives helps form a clear mind about the work done, and the purpose of doing the work makes it fascinating.

3. Devise strategies to meet goals

Having a blueprint helps in effectively achieving the objectives. Forming strategies define the work to be done by the employees. Managers and leaders mainly devise strategies considering the funds available, personnel in the organization, and the deadline to achieve the requisite target. It brings efficiency to the operations of a business.

4. Implementing the plan

The next step is to implement the plans effectively. It involves the execution of the assigned tasks by the personnel within the guidelines and deadlines set. It involves the execution of the assigned tasks by the personnel within the guidelines and deadlines set.

5. Monitor plan performance

An organization should monitor its work by forming progress reports, finding the drawbacks, and work on them immediately.

6. Evaluate the effectiveness of the plan

In the end, a firm should see if the corporate strategy devised by it is competitive or up to the market standards. A plan should be challenging to achieve. A plan that is easy to achieve may not be a viable option in the existing scenario. This may require the organization to reset its plans and considering the market standards.

What to include in a Strategic Corporate Plan?

1. vision statement.

The vision statement of a business talks about business goals that it is supposed to achieve. While planning your corporate strategy, it is important to focus on your vision statement. You should also plan as per your short as well as long term goals. Your goals should be backed for your strategic planning, plus your goals should also be SMART.

2. Mission statement

Next thing upon which you should pay heed while making corporate planning is a mission statement. It tells you how you are going to achieve your vision statement. It will let you know what you are planning to offer, the target market, and the USP of your company. It will offer an elevator pitch to your corporate planning just in a few lines.

3. Resources and scope

Your corporate planning should also pay attention to things that you have in your organization such as your systems, structures, employees, products, accounting, assets, divisions, programs, finance, etc that play a key role in accomplishing your goals. You need to map the current structural existence of your organization to have a proper view of things incorporated and associated with your organization.

4. Objectives

You should also include different business objectives and the ways you are going to measure success in your corporate planning strategy. Here, your objectives need to be measurable, strategic, realistic, achievable, and time-driven. Including vague objectives in your corporate planning statement is of no use here. Different types of objectives might include financial objectives, customer objectives, internal objectives, learning, and growth objectives.

5. Strategies

Finally, you should include strategies that will help you accomplish your business objectives. Such strategic planning can be for launching any new product, or decreasing labour costs by a certain percentage, but your strategies have to directly address the associated objectives. You should also chalk out a proper plan for implementing those strategies.

Here is a video by Marketing91 on Corporate Planning.

Corporate planning vs. Business Planning

Business planning involves strategies that a business uses and applies to attain its goals and objectives. Corporate planning consists of strategies that the employees follow to meet the objectives of an organization. The following points highlight the difference between corporate planning and business planning:

1. Interdependency

A business plan may exist without a corporate plan, but its strategies are linked with corporate plans. Without business planning, the goals and objectives of a firm would be ambiguous. Thus, both business plans and corporate plans are complementary to each other.

A planning process aids a business to succeed in the market and suggests new directions and amendments as per the industry’s short as well as long-range requirements. Thus, there can be several diversified effects on business and corporate plans.

3. Considerations

Corporate planning reviews each step of the working of an organization devised for achieving the mission statement. However, a business plan focuses on the organization’s overall goals, objectives, and progress. To evaluate the tasks, a business should consider several factors such as progress rate, personnel performance, requisite funds for further operations, and many more.

Corporate Planning Jobs in an Organization

Corporate Planning jobs fall under the broader career category of Chief Executives. Corporate planners are responsible for determining and formulating policies and strategies to offer an overall direction for the companies as per the guidelines suggested by the board of directors.

Strategy planning in such jobs revolves around planning, directing, and coordinating different activities at the top-most level of management by taking the services of staff managers and subordinate executives. Corporate planner jobs are also understood as strategic planner jobs.

Common corporate planning jobs are-

Wrapping Up!

The corporate planning process is an activity that involves a series of steps to be followed to achieve the end goal. Specifically, it involves a process that personnel in an organization does to achieve the mission statement.

The process to attain the end goal involves strategies at each level or department with clear and detailed tasks assigned to them within stipulated deadlines. The employees then execute the tasks assigned by their leaders and mentors following some guidelines.

Then managers and leaders analyze the work, make amendments to that, and suggest further improvement guidelines. The organization then check the viability of its plan in terms of its difficulty, market standards, and check whether it is practically achievable or not. Further changes to plans are made after evaluating previous plans to upgrade the formation of plans.

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About Hitesh Bhasin

Hi, I am an MBA and the CEO of Marketing91. I am a Digital Marketer and an Entrepreneur with 12 Years of experience in Business and Marketing. Business is my passion and i have established myself in multiple industries with a focus on sustainable growth.

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Business Planning Process and Strategy - Steps & Plan

The business planning process needs a thorough and deep understanding of the market and customers to make appropriate predictions that can be applied in the planning process. When developing a business plan, organizations identify their goals. A business planning strategy involves establishing a method and sequence to achieve these goals for the business to arrive at its intended vision.

What is a Business Plan?

All businesses require a business plan or a business planning strategy to be successful. A well-defined business planning strategy is the most fundamental step in setting up a business. A business planning process is a documented road map to the success of a company that includes detailed plans about the process of achieving the objectives.

Objectives of a Business Plan

When it comes to business planning process, an entrepreneur has to be concerned about every aspect of the business and should have clear goals set for success. The essential objectives of any business planning strategy include the following elements:

Sustainable Growth

Adapting to Change

How to Prepare for a Business Plan

The first step of the business planning process should be spending some time determining what the essential goals for your business are and chalk out the business planning strategy according to that. Identify the company's strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities and lay down all the steps necessary to initiate the proposed business.

Preparing a business strategy for growth involves the following steps:

Preliminary Investigation

Businesses must review the available business plans and scan the market for threats and opportunities to create an effective business planning process and strategy. Seeking professional advice in the form of consultants and experts will go a long way in assessing the future of the business.

Idea Generation

Idea generation is a creative process that businesses use. It is an integral part of any business planning process. In this stage, ideas are developed and created, or solutions to perceived or actual problems are generated. Idea generation can be a powerful tool to solve problems, collaborate and generate new thoughts.

Sources of New Ideas

Businesses can obtain ideas through a variety of sources. The most significant ones are:

Methods of generating New Ideas

Environmental Scanning

The success of every business planning process depends on several internal and external factors. You must study your business's external environment to stay ahead. An environmental scan is necessary to make the right choice for your business and obtain knowledge about the factors that directly or indirectly affect your business.

External Environment

The external environment can be identified as competitors, customers, suppliers, demographics, socio-political situation, economic condition, technology, and all other factors directly related to the company's operations.

Internal Environment

The internal environment includes factors that exist within the business. These factors include the capital, technological, financial and human resources present in the company, the company culture, the organization structure, and the availability of tools and equipment. Any change in these factors will directly affect the company's performance.

Feasibility Analysis

Feasibility Analysis is one of the essential business plan steps. It is the analysis of different alternatives to achieving business success. A feasibility analysis addresses the critical question of "Is this business venture viable?" It narrows down the scope of the business to identify the best situations and the worst scenarios in which the company can be.

The different variables included in a feasibility analysis are:

Market Analysis

Market analysis provides data on the niche that the business wants to explore. It forms the base on which a company's marketing and sales plans are laid down – critical to make the ideal business planning strategy. The core elements of a market analysis are industry analysis assessing the industry, target market analysis that evaluates the targeted audience, and a competitive analysis that identifies the competition and their strengths and weaknesses.

Operational Analysis

This part of the feasibility analysis is operational. It analyses the operational aspects required to carry on the business successfully. For instance, an idea discussed might have great potential. Still, it may not be feasible when it comes to operational costs. That is when the significance of operational analysis comes to the fore.

The primary parameters examined during the operational analysis are – location to carry out the business, processes to be put in place to carry out operations, physical resources, raw materials and assets required to carry out the business, and assessing the distribution channels to deliver services or products to your customers.

Financial Analysis

Financial analysis is carried out to assess the business's financial issues, including monthly operating expenses, forecasted income statements, cash flow, balance sheet, and capital expenditure. Estimates of land, building, machinery, production and initial costs have to be carried out in the feasibility analysis.

Functional Plan

In a business planning process, the top executives must ensure that the functional business strategic planning and process sync with the business goals. Once the feasibility analysis gives the go-ahead, a business plan draft is drawn up.

This draft involves preparing the following functional plans:

Marketing Plan – Business strategy for growth or marketing the product or service involving the four Ps of Product, Price, Promotion and Place.

Production/ Operation Plan – Production plans are for businesses involved in the manufacturing industry, while operation plans are for those in the service industry.

Organizational Plan – This plan deals with the organizational structure and the guidelines that focus on the organization’s culture.

Financial Plan – The financial plan deals with projected cash flows, projected break-even points, and projected balance sheets.

Human Resource Plan – This plan consists of details about staffing requirements, recruitment, selection, salaries and budget.

Project Report Preparation

Project report preparation is a crucial part of every business planning process. Experts prepare the project report. This report acts as a plan of action that describes the goals and objectives of the business. It is a document that includes all relevant information regarding the proposed business and is a step-by-step description of the strategies involved in commencing and operating the business.

Project reports allow the business idea to take shape and turn into a productive venture with clear-cut business planning strategy. It helps track the progress of the business planning process and compare it with the original plan. It also identifies any risks or challenges and helps take corrective action whenever necessary.

The project report is prepared once the environmental scanning and feasibility analysis have been completed.

Plan Your Marketing Strategy

A well-planned marketing strategy and business development plan will help the business reach its target audience. Without a defined marketing strategy, you will be experimenting to find what works. Remember, this is costing you time, resources, and money.

A marketing strategy aligns your team to the specified goals and allows your business to identify your target audience.

To create an effective marketing strategy that contributes to the business planning process, follow the below steps:

Evaluation, Control and Review

The final part of your business planning strategy is evaluation and review. All the strategies prepared for a business are open to modifications due to internal and external factors. Managers need to determine whether the current strategy helps achieve the organization’s goals and objectives.

The critical evaluation, control and review activities include measuring performance based on the current strategy and taking corrective action to enhance or improve the business goal.

What is Business Strategic Planning?

Business strategy planning means defining a company's goals and developing a plan to achieve those goals. Identifying the required resources, allocating the responsibilities and setting deadlines are essential parts of the business strategy planning.

Successful businesses continuously work to re-evaluate their business strategy and innovate to ensure that they are constantly delivering the results as promised to the stakeholders.

Leveraging Analytics

A lot of planning is based on past performance and present trends. Thus, it is vital to consider various analytic data while planning a Business Strategy.

Risks of the Operation

Comparing past and present data can give you a good idea of the risks involved in turning your dreams into reality.

After analyzing ample data, you will be able to predict or forecast, with high accuracy, the outcomes of carrying out the steps you are planning to take.

Decision-making Using Data

Analytics will help you make decisions based on precise data instead of gut feelings. It will present you with an added advantage over your competitors.

Analyzing Your Staff

When it comes to a group of personnel retiring or resigning, how do you ensure the business doesn't suffer? This question can be best answered by data-driven analytics. Only the data will tell you how to mix hiring and layoffs, retirements and inexperienced new joiners to stay on firm grounds.

Insightful Analysis of Market Dynamics

Strategic Business Planning requires you to analyses the past demand and supply fluctuations due to different forces. It will help you insightfully forecast market dynamics and prevent massive business disruption.

Follow a Unique Planning Approach

Consider all the readily available options and create a unique system that works best for your business.

Scenario Analysis

Businesses must investigate and test different probable future events that may impact the company's value.

Preventative Risk Mitigation Measures

It is paramount that businesses plan for different measures to mitigate future risks. It will save the company from suffering massive losses during challenging times.

BMGI's Approach to Strategy Planning

After working with different kinds of businesses, BMGI has developed a robust process for business strategy planning. It encompasses all the aspects required for the best business strategy planning.

For the long-term goals, BMGI focuses on the following three aspects:

BMGI has a process in place for businesses to define how to implement their strategy as follows:

External Assessment

BMGI recommends the analysis of-

Internal Assessment

Discover your business's SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and compare them against various scenarios to determine your position.

The assessments mentioned above, along with the understanding of its impact, in the long run, enable businesses to plan their business strategy efficiently.

Impact Areas of Strategic Planning

The strategy used by BGMI focuses on specific parameters to efficiently organize and implement business plans for numerous companies. It enables BGMI to deliver consistent results. The impact of BGMI's strategies can be mainly attributed to the following vital areas:

Organic Growth

A solid foundation to enable slow but steady growth for businesses. Many organizations succumb to the challenges presented by the organic growth strategy. But those who can endure it become industry leaders.

Business Unit

This growth route focuses on analyzing and implementing strategies for each business unit individually. It is a time-taken process, but the results can be brilliant in the long run.

This strategy is risky and requires the utmost knowledge of the running of the whole business. In this method, the senior management steers the direction of the entire organization based on its core principles and values.

Emerging Markets

Businesses look out for opportunities in places with potential for promising growth in the near future. Companies are finding such promises mostly in third world countries.

Taking small steps toward the uncertain future allows stable growth despite waves of changes. These models tend to stand the test of time.

Examples of Successful Business Planning Process and Strategy

Toyota's US invasion in the '70s

Cars have had an enormous impact on Americans since the good old days. The three biggest American car companies ruled over the car market in the US. However, the Japanese car manufacturer, Toyota, did market analysis and started selling cheaper and more efficient cars during the '70s.

The US car companies did not worry about Toyota at first. They thought that Toyota must be losing money exporting their vehicles into the US at such low prices. However, within a few years, Toyota started production in the US.

Toyota soon became the largest car company in the US. But what was their business strategy for growth?

Of course, Toyota was using the cost leadership strategy. However, Toyota's manufacturing process was so efficient that it cost them far less to produce cars than American companies. Besides, Toyota’s supply chain management made a crucial difference in their survival, and it was a part of their business planning process.

The multi-billion-dollar idea began with the founders of Airbnb renting their mattresses to strangers. It was a business space no one had explored before.

They struggled to make ends meet initially, but they saw potential in their idea. So, the founders created a website where people could rent out their mattresses to travelers and strangers.

There were some scattered online bookings, but they were not enough to be a sustainable business. The founders conducted operational analysis and discovered that the problem was with poorly presented listings.

They visited all the nearby locations where people were renting out their mattresses. They moved things around to make them look more pleasing and clicked photos. After adding images to their website, the bookings started pouring in.

Then, they hired professional photographers to click photos of all the listings and their owners. The online orders kept skyrocketing.

The founders of Airbnb analyzed data to discover the one problem that was keeping them from succeeding in their revolutionary idea. Airbnb is now valued at over 100 billion Dollars!

Strategizing a Business Plan is the most important step a business can take to see real growth. It allows companies to be updated about upcoming opportunities and risks. It can provide companies with clarity on how they should steer their business for significant success.

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What questions should be asked in a business plan?

The vital questions to ask in a business plan are as follows: a) What makes you different? b) Who is your audience? c) How will you make profits? d) How will you promote your business? e) How will you get started?

What is the most crucial part of any business plan?

The executive summary is the most important part of your business plan. It contains the overview of your entire business plan and everything it encompasses.

How many years should a business plan cover?

How do you overcome lack of planning?

a) Automate repetitive tasks such as data entry

b) Set up a network between all your software so that your position is constantly getting updated

c) Improve the communication between all the departments in your company

d) Deploy cloud-based technologies for effectively sharing information

What are the barriers to planning?

Here is a list of things that pose as barriers to planning: a) Incompetent leaders b) Continuous distractions c) Limited resources for task completion d) Impractical expectations in senior management

How to define a company’s Vision and Mission?

A company's vision statement lists what an organization wants to represent in society. A mission statement lists the things a company does to achieve its vision.

Who benefits from a good business strategy?

A good business strategy can benefit both the business and the consumers.

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More From Forbes

How to plan a business expansion in 2023.

By Nellie Akalp

Consult knowledgeable legal, accounting, and human resource experts when expanding a company.

If you plan to expand your business—by serving new markets, extending your portfolio of products or services, or adding staff—you have much to think about. In this article, we’ll discuss a few talking points business owners should consider as they strive to grow their companies.

5 key considerations when growing your business

1. forming an llc or corporation.

Many small businesses start as sole proprietorships or general partnerships because those business structures offer administrative simplicity and no statutory compliance requirements. However, they do not provide protection for business owners’ personal assets or give any tax treatment flexibility.

Business growth aspirations prompt many entrepreneurs to change from a sole proprietorship or partnership to a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation.

Rightly so! Forming either of those business structures creates a separate legal entity for the company. That means the owner’s personal assets (home, vehicles, retirement investments, etc.) receive protection from the debts and legal liabilities of the business.

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Also, LLCs and C Corporations that meet the IRS’s qualification criteria may choose to be taxed as S Corporations. In the case of an LLC, the S Corp election helps minimize a business owner’s self-employment tax obligations. The primary benefit of S Corporation election for a C Corp is that it avoids the double taxation of income distributed to shareholders.

2. Getting the required licenses and permits

If you’re expanding your product or service lines or extending your reach to other locales or market areas, you may need to apply for new licenses or permits. States and local government agencies’ rules and regulations vary for different types of business activity. Examples of the possible licensing requirements include the following:

As you can imagine, there are many more applicable to different industries and business activities. Entrepreneurs need to research the requirements for any locations where they will conduct business.

3. Hiring employees

If you can no longer do everything on your own—or you want to do more but don’t have the time or specific skillset to accomplish it—it’s time to get help. Hiring employees can take some of the administrative and operational pressures off of you. Of course, adding employees to the payroll adds some new responsibilities, which includes:

Processing payroll

Here’s a summary of what most companies need to handle payroll:

Managing payroll, particularly handling payroll taxes properly, is essential for ensuring employees get paid accurately and on time. Moreover, it’s critical for keeping a business in good standing with federal, state, and local tax agencies.

Employers must withhold certain taxes and other payments from employees’ pay and then submit those monies to the appropriate tax agencies or organizations. Also, some employment-related taxes are paid directly by employers.

Payroll withholdings from employees’ pay

4. Outsourcing to independent contractors

Working with independent contractors and freelancers can improve your business’s efficiency and productivity by bringing in people with specialized skills and expertise to handle tasks you aren’t personally proficient in. However, it's important to be aware that independent contractors are NOT employees. Businesses must not mistakenly treat individuals as independent contractors when they should be classified as employees.

So, what’s the difference? The IRS has classification rules for differentiating between independent contractors and employees. Some states have even more definitive parameters for distinguishing the two. Generally, independent contractors are self-employed professionals who enter into an agreement (written or verbal) with a business or individual.

When working with independent contractors, there are two tax-related forms businesses must pay attention to.

5. Expanding your business out of state

What if you want to expand your business operations beyond your home state (where you initially formed your business)? When a business created in one state meets the definition of “conducting business” or “nexus” in another state, it must seek authorization to operate in the new state. Typically, that means completing a process called “foreign qualification.”

A business is considered a domestic entity in the state where it’s initially registered and a foreign entity in any state where it’s foreign qualified.

Definition of conducting business

What constitutes “conducting business” varies by state. Generally, states consider that a company is conducting business if it meets one or more of the following criteria:

The following activities alone usually do not qualify as doing business in a state:

What does nexus mean?

Nexus implies that a business has a physical or economic connection to a state. Determining nexus can get complicated because different states have their own interpretation of what nexus is.

General characteristics of nexus

The rules for determining nexus change often and vary from state to state. So, it’s critical for business owners to research and stay on top of nexus rules in any states where they have staff, physical locations, or sell their products and services.

Where to turn for guidance

Most state and local government websites provide business registration, licensing, and tax information. They also post contact information for the agencies that oversee business activity in their jurisdictions. For federal tax-related information and employer issues, the IRS and Department of Labor websites are excellent resources.

Business owners should also consult knowledgeable legal, accounting, and human resource experts when expanding a company. Every business’s situation is unique from others in some way, and trusted professionals can offer insight and information tailored to your specific circumstances.

About the Author

Nellie Akalp is a passionate entrepreneur, business expert, professional speaker, author, and mother of four. She is the founder and CEO of CorpNet.com , a trusted resource and service provider for business incorporation, LLC filings, and corporate compliance services in all 50 states.

Strategic Planning

The art of formulating business strategies, implementing them, and evaluating their impact based on organizational objectives

What is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is the art of creating specific business strategies, implementing them, and evaluating the results of executing the plan, in regard to a company’s overall long-term goals or desires. It is a concept that focuses on integrating various departments (such as accounting and finance, marketing, and human resources) within a company to accomplish its strategic goals. The term strategic planning is essentially synonymous with strategic management.

The concept of strategic planning originally became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, and enjoyed favor in the corporate world up until the 1980s, when it somewhat fell out of favor. However, enthusiasm for strategic business planning was revived in the 1990s and strategic planning remains relevant in modern business.

CFI’s Course on Corporate & Business Strategy is an elective course for the FMVA Program.

Strategic Planning Process

The strategic planning process requires considerable thought and planning on the part of a company’s upper-level management. Before settling on a plan of action and then determining how to strategically implement it, executives may consider many possible options. In the end, a company’s management will, hopefully, settle on a strategy that is most likely to produce positive results (usually defined as improving the company’s bottom line) and that can be executed in a cost-efficient manner with a high likelihood of success, while avoiding undue financial risk.

The development and execution of strategic planning are typically viewed as consisting of being performed in three critical steps:

1. Strategy Formulation

In the process of formulating a strategy, a company will first assess its current situation by performing an internal and external audit. The purpose of this is to help identify the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats ( SWOT Analysis ). As a result of the analysis, managers decide on which plans or markets they should focus on or abandon, how to best allocate the company’s resources, and whether to take actions such as expanding operations through a joint venture or merger.

Business strategies have long-term effects on organizational success. Only upper management executives are usually authorized to assign the resources necessary for their implementation.

2. Strategy Implementation

After a strategy is formulated, the company needs to establish specific targets or goals related to putting the strategy into action, and allocate resources for the strategy’s execution. The success of the implementation stage is often determined by how good a job upper management does in regard to clearly communicating the chosen strategy throughout the company and getting all of its employees to “buy into” the desire to put the strategy into action.

Effective strategy implementation involves developing a solid structure, or framework, for implementing the strategy, maximizing the utilization of relevant resources, and redirecting marketing efforts in line with the strategy’s goals and objectives.

3. Strategy Evaluation

Any savvy business person knows that success today does not guarantee success tomorrow. As such, it is important for managers to evaluate the performance of a chosen strategy after the implementation phase.

Strategy evaluation involves three crucial activities: reviewing the internal and external factors affecting the implementation of the strategy, measuring performance, and taking corrective steps to make the strategy more effective. For example, after implementing a strategy to improve customer service, a company may discover that it needs to adopt a new customer relationship management (CRM) software program in order to attain the desired improvements in customer relations.

All three steps in strategic planning occur within three hierarchical levels: upper management, middle management, and operational levels. Thus, it is imperative to foster communication and interaction among employees and managers at all levels, so as to help the firm to operate as a more functional and effective team.

Benefits of Strategic Planning

The volatility of the business environment causes many firms to adopt reactive strategies rather than proactive ones. However, reactive strategies are typically only viable for the short-term, even though they may require spending a significant amount of resources and time to execute. Strategic planning helps firms prepare proactively and address issues with a more long-term view. They enable a company to initiate influence instead of just responding to situations.

Among the primary benefits derived from strategic planning are the following:

1. Helps formulate better strategies using a logical, systematic approach

This is often the most important benefit. Some studies show that the strategic planning process itself makes a significant contribution to improving a company’s overall performance, regardless of the success of a specific strategy.

2. Enhanced communication between employers and employees

Communication is crucial to the success of the strategic planning process. It is initiated through participation and dialogue among the managers and employees, which shows their commitment to achieving organizational goals.

Strategic planning also helps managers and employees show commitment to the organization’s goals. This is because they know what the company is doing and the reasons behind it. Strategic planning makes organizational goals and objectives real, and employees can more readily understand the relationship between their performance, the company’s success, and compensation. As a result, both employees and managers tend to become more innovative and creative, which fosters further growth of the company.

3. Empowers individuals working in the organization

The increased dialogue and communication across all stages of the process strengthens employees’ sense of effectiveness and importance in the company’s overall success. For this reason, it is important for companies to decentralize the strategic planning process by involving lower-level managers and employees throughout the organization. A good example is that of the Walt Disney Co., which dissolved its separate strategic planning department, in favor of assigning the planning roles to individual Disney business divisions.

An increasing number of companies use strategic planning to formulate and implement effective decisions. While planning requires a significant amount of time, effort, and money, a well-thought-out strategic plan efficiently fosters company growth, goal achievement, and employee satisfaction.

Additional Resources

Thank you for reading CFI’s guide to Strategic Planning. To keep learning and advancing your career, the additional CFI resources below will be useful:

Strategic Planning in Business

What is business strategic planning, the strategic planning process in 3 steps, what is a business strategic plan, key components of a business strategic plan, business strategic plan example, strategic plan vs. business plan.

Strategic planning is key for success in business. By planning strategically for the future, a business can achieve its goals. It’s easier said than done, but the more you know about strategic planning, the better chance you have at succeeding.

Business strategic planning is the process of creating a business strategy and an accompanying business strategic plan to implement a company’s vision and achieve its goals over time. The main goal of strategic planning is to take a company from its current state to its desired state through a series of business actions.

The business strategic planning process usually consists of defining business goals, doing a SWOT analysis to assess the company’s business environment and developing a business strategy. The leadership team is in charge of business strategic planning, as it has a very important impact on the overall direction of a company.

To oversee the execution of a business strategic plan, managers need to manage time, costs and tasks. ProjectManager is a project planning tool that allows managers to plan, schedule and manage their team’s work. Plan your work with professional tools such as Gantt charts, kanban boards, task lists and calendars. Then track your progress in real time to stick to your strategic plan. Get started for free.

Strategic planning is very important, but it doesn’t need to be overly complex. Let’s simplify this process by breaking it down into three simple steps.

1. Set Business Goals

A business goal is simply an accomplishment that a company wants to achieve in the short, medium or long term. Business goals can take many forms such as increasing sales, revenue, customer satisfaction levels and brand positioning, among many other things.

2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

The goal of a business strategy is to leverage the strengths of a business and minimize the impact of its weaknesses. Those two things are internal factors. The strengths of a company can become competitive advantages that can lead to business growth. There are many types of business strengths and weaknesses such as scale, speed, or R&D, just to name a few.

Threats and opportunities refer to external factors such as competitors or an untapped market. A successful business strategy considers all of these factors to define how a product or service will be created, marketed and sold, and a SWOT analysis is a great starting point.

3. Develop a Business Strategy & Strategic Plan

Once you’ve completed your SWOT analysis, you can create a business strategy that’s designed to help position your company in the market. Your business strategy guides how you produce, market and sell your product or service based on internal and external analysis.

Then, you’ll need a strategic plan to explain how you plan to execute that business strategy.

A business strategic plan is an implementation plan that’s meant to turn a business strategy into action items that can be executed over time. Business strategic plans are usually executed over the course of 3-5 years.

How to Develop a Strategic Plan

To develop a strategic plan, you should ask yourself the following three questions.

Once you’ve answered the above questions and have a way to achieve the long-term goals laid out in the strategic plan, the next step is making sure you have the right person to manage all of its moving parts. They must be analytical, a creative thinker and able to grasp operational detail.

That doesn’t mean the strategic plan is led by one person. It’s best to not do it alone; seek other opinions. The people in your organization, from bottom to top, are all great resources to offer perspectives from their standpoints. Don’t forget to take in the advice of stakeholders, including customers, clients, advisors and consultants.

To create a strong strategic plan, one must first have a strong understanding of the business that is to expand. How does the business work? Where does the business stand in relation to competitors in the marketplace? A strategic plan is built on the bones of the following foundational elements:

Never forget to check your strategic plan against reality. In addition to being achievable, it must be practical for your business environment, resources and marketplace.

Now let’s look at a simple business strategic plan example. This is a strategic plan for a small construction company.

1. Mission, Vision & Core Values

2. Business Objectives

3. SWOT Analysis

4. Action Plan

Strategic Plan Template

Our free strategic plan template helps leadership teams gather important information about their business strategy, which makes it the perfect tool to start shaping a strategic plan for your business or project.

A strategic plan is a type of business plan, but there are distinctions between the two. Whereas a strategic plan is for implementing and managing the strategic direction of a business, a business plan is more often the document that starts a business.

A business plan is used primarily to get funding for the venture or direct the operation, and the two plans target different timeframes in business history. A strategic plan is used to investigate a future period, usually between three-to-five years. A business plan is more routinely a year out.

A Different Intent

A strategic plan offers a business focus, direction and action to help the business grow from the point it presently resides to a greater market share in the future. A business plan, on the other hand, is more focused on offering a structure to capture and implement ideas that initially define a business.

With a strategic plan, existing resources are prioritized to increase revenue and return on investment. The business plan is different in that it’s seeking funding for a venture that doesn’t yet exist. Where a strategic plan is building a sustainable competitive advantage in the future, a business plan is designed to take advantage of a current business opportunity.

So, a strategic plan is communicating direction to teams and stakeholders in order to achieve future goals. A business plan isn’t talking to staff, which is likely nonexistent or minimal at this point. It’s speaking to banks and other financial supporters.

Strategic planning, like any planning, requires keeping a lot of balls in the air. That means having the right tool to plan, monitor and report on all the various tasks and resources. ProjectManager is online project management software that gives you control over every aspect of creating and implementing a strategic plan. Try it today with this free 30-day trial.

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What is corporate planning?

It might seem frivolous to generate business plans for the next three to five years when it seems like we’re facing a new disruption every three to five days. But during times like these, intentionality and planning are most important. When faced with uncertainty, a comprehensive, flexible corporate plan can actually help the business and its various branches stay on course.

The corporate planning process is essential to executing your business plan. Here’s what you need to know to engage in corporate strategic planning.

Why Corporate Strategic Planning Matters

There are different types of planning in the business world, and they can sometimes run together. But a corporate plan isn’t just a business plan by another name: They’re two separate items, and each one plays an essential role in moving your company forward.

Here are some of the differences between business planning and corporate planning, as well as why corporate planning is essential for bringing the business plan to life.

Business Planning vs. Corporate Planning

The business plan typically covers the business’s long-term goals, especially concerning the industry and other external forces. The business planning stage often occurs at the company’s inception or before a significant change is made. The business plan should be reviewed and updated frequently (at least once every one or two years).

Exercises like strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis are deployed at the business planning stage to get a sense of the business compared to competitors.

Corporate planning , on the other hand, looks internally. Corporate planning answers the question of how you’ll carry out the business plan. Corporate plans should span three to five years. Their goal is typically to align business units that have traditionally operated in silos and govern core services like HR, payroll, accounting, IT, and security.

Corporate strategic planning uses similar exercises (such as the SWOT analysis ) to arrive at broad operating principles and strategic actions to carry out the business plan.

The Importance of Corporate Planning

Your corporate plan may seem less important than the broader vision set out in the business plan. But without the corporate plan, the business plan has no movement. The principles and actions laid out in the corporate plan are necessary to bring the business plan to life.

If one of your business goals is to increase company profits by 25% within the next five years, for instance, you need a corporate plan to visualize the steps you’ll have to take internally to get there. One key aspect of turning a profit is reducing operating costs. HR can work with other department heads to evaluate employee efficiency, spot weaknesses, and develop a plan to increase profit per employee.

3 Types of Corporate Planning

Your overarching corporate plan should connect areas that have historically existed in silos. Develop corporate plans that cut across and pull together the different types of work within the company.

Here are three types of corporate planning to implement at your company.

Strategic Planning

The corporate strategic planning process evaluates the resources available to the company and identifies gaps that you will need to fill to drive business results. These could be gaps within tangible resources (inventory, technology, or headcount) or intangible (institutional knowledge or role-specific skills).

Strategic planning usually starts in the same place as the business plan: the C-suite, with critical internal stakeholders present. Business and department leaders need to have a conversation to identify the resources the company will need to carry out the business plan.

The strategic planning process provides a high-level blueprint of your corporate plan and feeds into the operational and project planning processes.

Operational Planning

Operational planning takes the business plan and lays out the actions you’ll need to take internally to reach those goals. Within the operational plan, you’ll assign individual people to take ownership of those actions.

An objectives and key results (OKR) framework can help take the high-level business plan down to the level of individual actions. Using this model, business leaders set strategic goals at the top, moving down the organization from corporate management to individual team members.

At the team level, managers and employees review the business’s strategic goals and craft their objectives that drive these priorities forward. This process results in clear ownership over each smaller objective feeding into the company’s larger business goals.

Additionally, bringing employees into the process to identify how they can support the business strategy often results in creative solutions to challenging problems. Employee innovations can be standardized and fed into the next round of corporate planning.

Project Planning

Project planning breaks down the business plan into individual projects with defined objectives. The project plan provides a blueprint for project managers to keep costs, schedules, and resources on track to deliver the plan’s results. Where operational planning bridges the strategic and project planning processes, project planning is purely tactical.

With your company OKRs in place, bring project managers on board to help execute them efficiently and effectively. Work with your project managers to evaluate your resources and create a realistic plan for achieving company priorities.

3 Stages of Corporate Planning

Corporate planning is a complex process that requires time and dedication at each stage. The corporate planning process follows three defined stages:

Formulation

Forming the corporate plan is the first step. It should build on the business plan and will require input from critical stakeholders. At this stage, be sure to incorporate some scenario planning. The process of setting long-term objectives for the business plan should have anticipated potential future scenarios. Work contingencies into your final result to account for these scenarios as you form your corporate plan.

You need to create a plan that can flex without breaking, so return to the different types of corporate planning as you form your plan. What skill gaps might be amplified, for example, if the economy rebounds and the demand for your product or service doubles? How might that scenario change the actions you’ll have to take or the resources at your disposal?

Formulating a flexible plan on the front end requires a lot of work but improves your ability to implement and execute successfully.

Implementation

Putting the plan into action requires clear roles and defined ownership over each objective. Before you can implement your corporate plan, you need to confirm buy-in and commitment from each person involved. Without a firm commitment, implementation often fails.

Implementing the plan comes down to setting all of the processes into motion at a high level. This could include authorizing the use of agreed-upon resources, for example, or consulting with team leads as they begin to execute their portions of the plan.

Your job isn’t complete just because you’ve set the plan into motion. You must constantly evaluate your corporate plan as it’s in progress and after it’s done. Check in frequently with department heads and managers to monitor their progress toward their portions of the plan.

Once you have completed your corporate plan, conduct a post-mortem to review what worked and what you need to improve as you design and implement your next plan. At this point, it’s a good idea to revisit your SWOT analysis. How have your strengths and weaknesses shifted? How have your opportunities and threats evolved?

The answers to these questions can feed into the next planning round, providing essential data and a frame of reference from previous experience executing a corporate strategy.

5 Elements of Successful Corporate Plan

The stages of corporate planning inform your process at a higher strategic level. But taking that process down to the tactical, day-to-day level is as important (if not more so) as the process of setting the plan at the top.

Drafting and implementing a successful corporate plan requires a steady tactical process and effective communication across organizational levels. Here’s a framework for outlining and executing your corporate plan.

Establish the Plan’s Objectives

Start with the business strategy and plan. What are the business objectives that the corporate plan needs to achieve? Drive these objectives down to the lowest levels of the company. Everyone must get an opportunity to think strategically and offer suggestions for achieving the larger business strategy.

Don’t be too proud to consult employees on the front lines regarding better and more effective working methods. Front-line employees often have the most significant insights into the processes and actions that bring the most value and drive the best results.

Develop Strategies for Achieving Goals

Break the larger plan down into specific projects and actions, with metrics indicating the success or failure of each venture. Using an OKR framework, each objective should have defined key results that show whether the company has met its objectives. This makes it easy to track progress toward larger business goals.

This is where you can get creative with operations and resources, especially human resources. Don’t confine your objectives to existing teams or departments. One of the keys to harnessing enterprise agility is assembling cross-functional teams to cut across silos.

Cross-functional teams can be risky, especially if the team members have never worked together. Such teams bring together different viewpoints and ways of working that can cause friction. But with the right facilitator, that healthy conflict can bring your corporate plan to life.

Implement Your Corporate Plan

Successfully implementing a corporate plan requires effort and input from every team member. To get that buy-in, employees at all levels — especially the front lines — need to see their role in moving the plan forward.

An OKR framework gives the sense of a flattened hierarchy where individuals can see their roles much more clearly. And when employees can see how they move the needle on business results, they bring more engagement and productivity to achieving them.

However, poor management can snuff out that engagement. To support the plan’s tactical implementation, train managers to manage work by outcomes rather than managing the employees themselves.

Keep Track of the Plan’s Performance

Just because you’ve implemented the plan doesn’t mean you’re done with it: Consult each team lead with ownership over each objective. Ask for their honest input on how the plan is progressing. Make sure that the owner of each objective knows that it’s better to admit that something isn’t working than to keep concentrating employee efforts on the wrong results or no results at all.

With a flexible corporate plan, you can course-correct if it isn’t producing the results you anticipated. In this case, you may need to implement one of your scenario plans to keep things moving forward and in the right direction.

One clear metric for tracking a plan’s performance is to align the key results with employee performance metrics. If employees are achieving their outcomes and are connected with the plan’s outcomes, you can see at a glance when something is off track.

Analyze the Impact of the Plan

After you have executed the plan, spend time analyzing its impact. Did it create the intended results at each point? What could you and your team have done differently to make a more significant impact?

Bring individuals in from across the organization to help with this post-mortem. Ask them to share their insights and experiences regarding the plan’s strengths and where it was weakest. Then, gather input on overcoming these challenges in future corporate plans.

Once you’ve gathered input from a representative slice of the workforce, sit down with the leadership team to apply these insights to the next planning process.

Achieve Your Vision

We can’t know the future, but we can set clear directions we want our companies to take. And, with a clear sense of our business plan and desired business outcomes, we can anticipate the potential challenges to getting there. The corporate strategic planning process takes our vision for the business and makes it possible to achieve.

Corporate planning isn’t an easy process: It forces you to be intentional, seek out new perspectives, and implement innovative ideas. But when successful, your corporate plan drives actual business results, helping you turn your business vision into reality.

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Key Differences

Know the Differences & Comparisons

Difference Between Planning and Strategy

Last updated on February 7, 2023 by Surbhi S

In business, one might come across with the terms planning and strategy, end number of times. Planning is the basic function of management that tries to take a peep into the future. On the other hand, strategy is one of the components of planning and is also known as interpretative planning. The two terms have different meanings and usage in the business world. So, have a glance at the article that explains the difference between planning and strategy.

Content: Planning Vs Strategy

Comparison chart, definition of planning.

Planning is an organized process of thinking in advance about a future action. It means the preparation of the plan, i.e. the sequence of steps which will help in achieving organizational objectives. Planning is among the five management functions apart from organizing, controlling, motivating & leading and decision-making.

Planning is a future-oriented activity that takes place in routine decisions of a family, a friend group, a college, government and most importantly, in business management. It requires good judgment skills to choose which action is to be done earlier or later to avoid overlapping in actions.

Planning process

Planning needs goal setting for which planning needs to be done. After that, alternative courses of action are found, and finally, deciding which plan will lead to your destination successfully. It doesn’t mean that everything will go according to your plan, or it may also happen that the plan may fail midway, so the second list of plans is also prepared, which act as a complementary plan to the original plan if it fails, for achieving the goals successfully in the limited time.

The creation of complementary plans is also a part of the planning procedure. Planning needs to be flexible in nature so that any change can be done if required by the organization. With the help of planning, an organization can exercise control over the action, i.e. whether everything is going as per plan or not.

Video: Planning

Definition of Strategy

The strategy is a master game plan designed to achieve the objectives of an organization. It is a mix of competitive moves and actions made by the top-level management for the accomplishment of goals successfully. They are dynamic and flexible in nature. Strategies are based on practical experiences, not on theoretical knowledge, i.e. they are realistic and action-oriented activities. It requires deep analysis of the managers on any move or action, implementation timing, the sequence of actions, outcome, competitors’ reactions, etc.

In the business world, corporate strategies are made for the expansion and growth of entities, which include mergers, diversification, divestment, acquisition and many others. Strategies are made according to the present situations and conditions prevalent in the business environment, but it can’t be said that they are perfect because of the changing needs and demands of the people; strategies may fail.

Moreover, the market scenario will take an unexpected turn any time in the blink of an eye, and nothing lasts forever. Therefore the organization has to be ready for such unpredictable changes and develop a strategy for overcoming these situations. So, the organisation’s corporate strategy combines proactive and reactive strategies.

Video: Business Strategy

Key Differences Between Planning and Strategy

The major differences between Planning and Strategy are as under:

Planning is a forethought of what is to be done in future, but Strategy is a blueprint of what you want to be and where you want to be. Both Planning and Strategy are made by the top-level managers as they know the mission and vision of the organization clearly, so they will make their plans and strategies to take a step forward towards their mission and vision. Planning is preventive in nature, whereas Strategy is quite competitive, but both aim at the optimum utilization of scarce resources.

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UCHENDU I. M. WOGU says

March 29, 2017 at 8:11 pm

Good explanation!!

Arun Kumar says

May 19, 2017 at 10:13 am

Thank you for sharing.

Dr. C. H. Rao says

December 21, 2017 at 7:03 pm

Very explicitly detailed and easily understood

Behailu says

March 27, 2019 at 1:20 pm

Good clarification!!

mikael ahmad says

May 25, 2019 at 4:19 pm

thanks for your effort.

Mohammad Halla says

June 14, 2019 at 5:42 pm

simply explained as insprational as any knowledge seeker requires to delve deeper. thank you so much

Kamaraj says

December 4, 2021 at 10:17 pm

Good comparison and examples

Denise says

June 12, 2022 at 9:56 pm

Great comparisons and examples. Simplified and made easy to understand

muhdin says

December 13, 2022 at 8:23 pm

really a good explanation

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5 essential tips for creating a strong corporate plan

3-minute read

It’s a common conundrum for many companies with multiple business units or subsidiaries : how do you get everyone on the same page? How do you coordinate all of their activities, get the most of synergies and herd the entire organization toward common goals?

The answer starts with a corporate plan. Corporate plans are often confused with strategic and business plans, but they’re not the same thing. Mature or complex companies often need all three. But creating and implementing a strong corporate plan is a knotty process that often goes awry.

You want to make sure at the corporate level that you are leveraging each business .

Rony Israel

Senior Business Advisor, BDC Advisory Services

“It’s common for business units or subsidiaries to be left operating in silos,” says Rony Israel , a Senior Business Advisor with BDC’s Advisory Services, who specializes in strategic planning advice. “A successful corporate plan breaks the silo mindset, supports collaboration and synergies, and unites the whole business around a long-term vision.”

Israel offers five essential tips for creating a strong corporate plan:

1. A corporate plan is not a strategic or business plan

A business plan explains how a new or existing company or project brings in money and how the business is run on a daily basis, including the budget and needed resources.

Meanwhile, a strategic plan is a blueprint for where the company is going. It describes its current state, a desired future state and how to get from here to there.

A corporate plan is similar to a strategic plan, but the difference is that a corporate plan guides a more complex company with multiple business units or subsidiaries. It describes where the overall business is headed and outlines a roadmap to get there. It has the same components as a strategic plan, but pertains only to the broader company and any shared services used by the various business units, such as marketing, human resources and finance.

It also sets out broad guiding principles for each business unit or subsidiary, which the latter then uses to develop its own strategic plans.

2. Corporate plan example

Corporate planning starts with the company’s senior leadership or management team, typically comprised of the CEO and heads of each unit and any shared services. This group develops a vision and goals for the overall business and shared services, and an action plan to achieve them.

Unit heads then take the corporate plan to their teams to develop a strategic plan to achieve the broader company’s vision and goals. Finally, these strategic plans are brought back to the leadership team for validation and approval.

It’s important to have a longer view for the entire organization.

Imagine a construction company with three divisions. One is dedicated to demolition and removing construction waste; a second provides cement to construction sites; the third supplies landscaping material.

Senior leaders create a corporate plan with the vision of becoming a one-stop shop and top construction provider in the province. Projects in the plan include developing synergies between the units, such as:

The organization will also acquire a snow removal company that will be turned into a fourth business unit.

Each unit head then works with their team to develop the unit’s own strategic plan with initiatives to support the corporate plan. Initiatives in the various strategic plans include updating the truck fleet, doing an operational efficiency exercise and acquiring a competing demolition company to expand market reach (Mergers and acquisitions can happen at both the corporate and strategic levels).

The same process would apply if the business was structured as a holding company with independently operating subsidiaries.

“You want to make sure at the corporate level that you are leveraging each business,” says Israel.

3. How to make a corporate plan

A corporate plan typically consists of the same elements as a strategic plan:

4. How to implement a corporate plan

The implementation process for corporate plans is similar to the process for strategic plans and faces the same challenges, which often derail even the best plans.

One of the most common problems is lack of follow-up . Senior leadership should hold regular meetings (monthly is typical) to review progress on the action plan and KPIs, take note of deviations, recognize successes and make needed course corrections.

A deeper dive should happen quarterly, and each year the plan should be thoroughly reviewed and updated with a new action plan for the next 12 months . The corporate-level meetings should also review progress on the strategic plans of each unit or subsidiary.

It’s also important to measure and incentivize progress. For example, KPIs could measure the number of clients each unit refers to sister units, or the number of staff assigned to sister units for personal development.

Incentive pay can be split into three portions: one tied to meeting one’s own unit targets, another to those of the corporate plan and a third to targets of sister units. “This will encourage the leader of each unit to be in regular contact with other unit heads to see how they’re doing and if they need any help,” says Israel. “Measurements and incentives drive behaviour.”

5. A final note on corporate plan timeframe

The timeframe for a corporate plan is generally longer than for a strategic plan. For example, if the units or subsidiaries have strategic plans for two to three years, the corporate plan may cover three to five years. If the smaller entities plan for three to five years, the corporate plan may go out to five or 10 years .

“The corporate plan is always looking a little bit beyond,” Israel says. “It’s important to have a longer view for the entire organization. Units can adjust more quickly than the larger business.”

Strategic Planning in Diversified Companies

The widely accepted theory of corporate strategic planning is simple: using a time horizon of several years, top management reassesses its current strategy by looking for opportunities and threats in the environment and by analyzing the company’s resources to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Management may draw up several alternative strategic scenarios and appraise them against the long-term objectives of the organization. To begin implementing the selected strategy (or continue a revalidated one), management fleshes it out in terms of the actions to be taken in the near future.

In smaller companies, strategic planning is a less formal, almost continuous process. The president and his handful of managers get together frequently to resolve strategic issues and outline their next steps. They need no elaborate, formalized planning system. Even in relatively large but undiversified corporations, the functional structure permits executives to evaluate strategic alternatives and their action implications on an ad hoc basis. The number of key executives involved in such decisions is usually small, and they are located close enough for frequent, casual get-togethers.

Large, diversified corporations, however, offer a different setting for planning. Most of them use the product/market division form of organizational structure to permit decentralized decision making involving many responsibility-center managers. Because many managers must be involved in decisions requiring coordinated action, informal planning is almost impossible.

Our focus in this article is on formal planning processes in such complex organizations. However, the thought processes in undertaking planning (as described in the opening paragraph) are essentially the same whether the organization is large or small. Therefore, even executives whose corporate situation permits informal planning may find that our delineation of the process helps them clarify their thinking. To this end, formalizing the steps in the process requires an explanation of the purpose of each step.

Three Levels of Strategy

Every corporate executive uses the words strategy and planning when he talks about the most important parts of his job. The president, obviously, is concerned about strategy; strategic planning is the essence of his job. A division general manager typically thinks of himself as the president of his own enterprise, responsible for its strategy and for the strategic planning needed to keep it vibrant and growing. Even an executive in charge of a functional activity, such as a division marketing manager, recognizes that his strategic planning is crucial; after all, the company’s marketing strategy (or manufacturing strategy, or research strategy) is a key to its success.

These quite appropriate uses of strategy and planning have caused considerable confusion about long-range planning. This article attempts to dispel that confusion by differentiating among three types of “strategy” and delineating the interrelated steps involved in doing three types of “strategic planning” in large, diversified corporations. (Admittedly, although we think our definitions of strategy and planning are useful, others give different but reasonable meanings to these words.)

The process of strategy formulation can be thought of as taking place at the three organizational levels indicated in Exhibit I: headquarters (corporate strategy), division (business strategy), and department (functional strategy). The planning processes leading to the formulation of these strategies can be labeled in parallel fashion as corporate planning, business planning, and functional planning. We have to define these notations briefly before constructing the framework of the planning process:

Exhibit I Structure of a divisionalized corporation

Corporate planning and strategy —Corporate objectives are established at the top levels. Corporate planning, leading to the formulation of corporate strategy, is the process of (a) deciding on the company’s objectives and goals, including the determination of which and how many lines of business to engage in, (b) acquiring the resources needed to attain those objectives, and (c) allocating resources among the different businesses so that the objectives are achieved. (See the sidebar, “Objectives and Goals,” for definitions of objectives and goals as used in this article.)

Objectives and Goals

It is worth differentiating between objectives and goals, since these terms are used separately here.

Objectives are general statements describing the size, scope, and style of the enterprise in the long term. They embody the values and aspirations of the managers, based on their assessment of the environment and of the capabilities and health of the corporation. For example, the financial objective of a large, diversified, multinational corporation might be to rank in the top 10 % worldwide in compound rate of growth in earnings per share.

Goals are more specific statements of the achievements targeted for certain deadlines. At the corporate level these statements are likely to include such aspects as sales, profits, and EPS targets. Annual budgets constitute goals at all levels in the organization.

Business planning and strategy —Business planning, leading to the formulation of business strategy, is the process of determining the scope of a division’s activities that will satisfy a broad consumer need, of deciding on the division’s objectives in its defined area of operations, and of establishing the policies adopted to attain those objectives. Strategy formulation involves selecting division objectives and goals and establishing the charter of the business, after delineating the scope of its operations vis-à-vis markets, geographical areas, and/or technology.

Thus, while the scope of business planning covers a quite homogeneous set of activities, corporate planning focuses on the portfolio of the divisions’ businesses. Corporate planning addresses matters relevant to the range of activities and evaluates proposed changes in one business in terms of its effects on the composition of the entire portfolio.

Functional planning and strategy —In functional planning, the departments develop a set of feasible action programs to implement division strategy, while the division selects—in the light of its objectives—the subset of programs to be executed and coordinates the action programs of the functional departments. Strategy formulation involves selecting objectives and goals for each functional area (marketing, production, finance, research, and so on) and determining the nature and sequence of actions to be taken by each area to achieve its objectives and goals. Programs are the building blocks of the strategic functional plans.

Obviously, these levels of strategy impinge on each other to some extent—for example, the corporation’s choice of business areas overlaps the scope of division charters, and the delineation of the markets by the division can dictate, at the department level, the choice of strategy in the marketing function. But the distinction remains valid and useful.

Three-Cycle System

An important point to note about the planning process is that it requires formal interaction among the managers at different times. The more formal aspects—business planning, functional planning, and budgeting—are a way of organizing the interaction among managers at different levels in the hierarchy; one way of conceptualizing the planning process is as a series of meetings where executives are trying to arrive at decisions about actions to be taken. In each meeting, obviously, the basic question being addressed is the same: “What should we do?”

A detailed answer to that question is best developed by breaking it into a series of more specific questions dealt with in several meetings. These questions include: What are the objectives and goals of our company? What sort of environment can we expect to operate in? What businesses are we in? What alternative strategies could we pursue in those businesses? What other businesses should we enter? Should we make entry through an acquisition or through our research? What is the best combination of existing and new businesses to achieve corporate goals? What programs should the divisions undertake? What should each division’s operating budget be?

The series of agreements among individuals in the corporate hierarchy begin on a very broad level and then are framed in progressively more detailed terms. The options are numerous in the early stages of this ordering process but narrow gradually to the final choice: a set of specific goals (budgets) for each responsibility center in the corporation. Initially, only a small group of corporate executives is involved in the process; later, more and more managers at lower levels become involved. The process eventually engages all the managers who must be committed to making the strategy work.

The reason companies adopt a complex planning process such as that shown in Exhibit II is made clear by the example of a multibillion-dollar, diversified corporation, headquartered in Europe and multinational, which had a well-established budgeting process but found “negotiating” the final budget in the closing months of each year to be difficult. The company was divisionalized, but it had decentralized very little initiative for examining strategic options.

Exhibit II Steps in the planning process

Top management, increasingly uneasy over its ability to resolve all the strategic issues implicit in the budget, decided to ask the divisions to prepare formal five-year plans for its approval before drawing up the final corporate budget. The controller’s department was to coordinate the preparation of the detailed plans. The company moved from a one-cycle planning system to a two-cycle system, as shown in Exhibit III. The result was a flood of paper work and very little strategic thinking on the division managers’ part.

Exhibit III Examples of one-, two-, and three-cycle planning processes

When top management reviewed the first set of five-year plans—a 20-pound packet of neat notebooks—it decided the results were unacceptable. It made suggestions to the divisions and requested a new set. This process was repeated no fewer than five times during the summer and early fall before all sides reached agreement and the budgeting could proceed.

After this experience corporate management agreed that the procedure needed much improvement. So in the following year the company installed a three-cycle system. The first step required no comprehensive financial projections; instead, each division manager was asked to identify three or four strategic issues for presentation and discussion at headquarters. Agreement on those issues set the stage for orderly functional planning and budgeting, which had been so cumbersome before.

An important point to note about Exhibit II is its demarcation vertically, by cycles, and also horizontally, by activities at the three managerial levels. The degree of involvement at these levels is different in each planning cycle.

In the first cycle, corporate executives and division managers are primarily involved. A division manager draws his functional subordinates into discussions about the unit’s strategy, but the functional managers’ role usually remains informal. At this point the division manager regards the strategy as “his”; then, seeking the head office’s endorsement, he formalizes it for better communication.

Once the division’s strategy is set, the second cycle begins; here functional managers play a much more important part. In both that cycle and the budgeting cycle, they have the primary responsibility for developing detailed programs and budgets. The division manager and his staff are involved more or less actively in these two cycles, while top management limits itself to a review of division proposals.

Exhibit II, of course, makes no pretense of depicting the planning process as it is universally practiced; it is only illustrative. Nor is the process as neat and orderly as it appears here. For one reason, the process does not start from scratch each year; the previous year’s efforts feed into the first cycle. Moreover, while managers plan, the world keeps turning; so during a cycle events may oblige them to hold many meetings involving two levels.

First Cycle

The first cycle of a formal planning process serves a dual purpose: (1) to develop a tentative set of agreements between corporate management and the division managers about overall strategy and goals, and thereby (2) to provide focus for the more detailed planning in the next cycle. The process of reaching these initial agreements requires three discrete activities: establishing corporate objectives, drawing up division charters, and setting corporate goals. The ensuing discussion centers on these activities in a hypothetical (but representative) corporation whose fiscal year corresponds with the calendar year.

Establishing Corporate Objectives

In the initial dialogue between corporate and division management—starting in early February—the two groups form a statement of the corporation’s purpose and objectives. Naturally, its scope and the degree of detail provided vary greatly from one company to another. Company X prepares a detailed statement, starting this year with the general assertion that it is a “systems-oriented, high-technology, multinational, and socially conscious company.”

The principles set out mainly for strategic planning include breakthrough strategies (such as “seek projects, internal or external, waiting for application rather than invention”), resource management (such as “continuous emphasis on market orientation as opposed to product orientation”), financing (“utilization of the borrowing power of subsidiaries to escape the provisions of the debentures and foreign investment regulations”), public relations (“genuine concern for the quality of life, inside and outside the company”), acquisitions, joint ventures, licensing (“export and import technology in the form of licenses or joint ventures, including third countries”), and so on.

The preparation of such a statement gives division managers guidance as they begin strategic planning for their businesses. So as a minimum the statement must include the intended company policies for allocating resources among the divisions. In effect, such policies constitute a statement of strategy for the entire corporation—although many businessmen are uncomfortable using the term “strategy” in such an abstract sense. Therefore, the delineation of an explicit statement of corporate strategy is often deferred until the final step in the first cycle.

Whether corporate strategy should be enunciated early or late in the planning process depends primarily on the degree of diversity in the company’s businesses. In general, the more diverse the corporation, the less feasible it is to develop an explicit, cohesive strategy for its businesses and, therefore, the more desirable it is to make the resource allocation policies explicit at an early stage. On the other hand, less diversified companies frequently delay preparing a strategy statement until the division heads have developed strategic proposals for their own businesses. Many large corporations are divisionalized, but not so many are highly diversified. The more common practice is to delay the definition (or redefinition) of corporate strategy until it can be stated in fairly explicit terms.

Drawing Up Division Charters

In mid-March headquarters calls on each division manager to (a) write or review the “charter” of his division, specifying the scope of its activities and his objectives for the business as he defines it, and (b) propose a strategy for the business and a tentative set of goals for the coming year.

Giving the initiative to the division manager at this step challenges him to think strategically about the scope of his activities and then propose a charter broad enough to permit him to contribute significantly to achieving corporate objectives. Formalizing this step in the planning process is an important device by which corporate management widens the horizons of division heads. An explicit charter also serves two secondary purposes: (1) it increases the likelihood of clear agreement between the top executives and the division manager about the scope of his activities, and (2) it reduces the risk of redundant efforts or competition between divisions.

Establishing a division’s charter is not a discrete activity; it is inextricably connected to the task of identification and analysis of alternative strategies that exploit the charter selected. Obviously, the decision based on this analysis is crucial because the long-term performance of any division is a function of the strategy it adopts, and the performance of the company as a whole is likewise a function of the strategies of its particular businesses.

Although the initiative for identifying and analyzing strategic options lies with the division manager, guidelines that headquarters gives him for presentation of his proposals affect the way he pursues the task. Increasingly common is a request by corporate management that when he proposes a strategy and specifies goals, at the same time he also present a statement of the alternative strategies which he has evaluated and rejected. The intent is not to permit the head office to second-guess the division manager’s thinking, but to ensure that he used strategic thinking in arriving at his recommendations.

In mid-May, four to ten weeks after headquarters presents its request for division proposals, the unit’s manager presents his recommendations to the corporate management group. The presentation consists at least of an integrated proposal for the division’s charter, its objectives, the strategy to be pursued, and tentative goals. The recommendations may also include a general statement of the action programs that would be developed to implement the strategy (developed in more detail in the second cycle) and a crude estimate of the resources that would be required. Detailed financial data are usually not included at this step because such information is not necessary to evaluate the strategy and because the effort of preparing it may go to waste if the recommendations are modified.

In the ensuing discussions, which extend over several meetings in late spring, corporate management and each division chief work toward reaching an agreement about the appropriate division strategy and goals.

Setting Corporate Goals

By the middle of June top management has prepared an explicit statement of corporate strategy and goals. In some companies this document is, in effect, a set of decisions on how resources are to be allocated among the divisions, as well as a forecast of the results expected from each. In most cases, however, the statement is not intended to constitute a final resource allocation decision; rather, it is designed to provide feedback to the division managers about the corporate implications of the agreed-on business strategies. The presentation and discussion of corporate strategy and goals are also commonly used as a device to initiate the second cycle of the planning process.

The sum of the recommended division goals is likely to be inadequate to achieve the goals envisioned by headquarters for the entire organization. In trying to close this “planning gap,” corporate management has only three choices:

1. It can improve division performance by pressing, during the review of division recommendations, for more aggressive strategies and more ambitious goals.

2. It can divert company resources into more promising businesses. This move may give rise to an acquisition program.

3. It can decide that the corporate goals are unrealistic and scale them down.

The fact that the corporation’s goals normally are more or less the sum of those division goals sought by top management implies that headquarters is concerned with rather minor adjustments of this portfolio of goals. If so, the first cycle of formal planning has the salutary effect of providing an annual “mid-course correction” to the trajectory of the combined businesses. Momentum is a factor in the continued success of a diversified corporation—as with a rocket headed for the moon—and a wise chief executive does not dissipate it needlessly. Rather, he nudges the bundle of energies represented by his division managers, trying to make minor adjustments early enough to be nondisruptive and at the same time affect the corporation’s position several years ahead.

Occasionally—perhaps inevitably—a major corporate shift is necessary, affecting one of its businesses. Care must be taken to isolate the effect on the remaining businesses. In late spring a couple of years ago, for example, top management of a major diversified corporation went through its usual review of division strategic plans. One operation, created to develop a substantial new business for the corporation, presented its usual story: “Buying market share in this high-technology business is very expensive, break-even is still two or three years away, and additional investment of several hundred million dollars is required. But the eventual profits will be enormous.”

The division’s management concluded that it was progressing about as expected and that its strategy was sound, and it recommended continued aggressive investment. With minor modifications, top management approved the proposal. Three months later the company abruptly announced that the business would be discontinued and the investment written off.

Poor planning? Obviously, the decision to enter the business was a mistake. But implementation of that decision, and the planning done to minimize the investment exposure without compromising the chances for success, were probably sound. There are two important lessons here about the process of corporate planning:

1. Strategic decisions—like this divestment—are not made in accordance with some precise timetable. They are made whenever top management reaches the conclusion that interference in a unit’s affairs is necessary.

2. Formal planning procedures are not intended to facilitate strategic decisions such as this—if only because a division manager rarely recommends the disposal of his operation. Rather, formal corporate strategic planning has the more modest, if no less crucial, purpose of seeking to optimize the collective thrust of the continuing businesses.

Approving a division’s strategic plan but closing the unit three months later is not hypocrisy or poor planning. The ax is much more merciful than the slow strangulation of providing inadequate resources. In the meantime, until the ax falls, division management must prove the viability of its business. For its part, headquarters must not fail to recognize the difference between a sound plan and a sound business. A sound plan deserves approval, but only top management can decide whether the business is sound enough to continue implementation of that plan.

Second Cycle

The second planning cycle also has two purposes. First, each division head and his functional subordinates should reach tentative agreement on the action programs to be implemented over the next few years. Second, the involvement of functional managers in the long-range planning process should deepen and sharpen the strategic focus of the business and thus provide a better basis for the even more detailed budgeting task to follow.

The division manager in Company X initiates the functional planning process in the middle of June after reaching tentative agreement with top management about his organization’s charter, objectives, strategy, and goals. In the first planning meeting with subordinates, he briefly reviews the corporate/division dialogue that has just concluded and describes the approved division objectives and strategy.

At this time he usually does not make explicit the sales or profit goals, even though tentative agreement on targets has been reached. There are two reasons for dealing in generalities at this point. First, being specific might constrain the thinking of the functional managers, who have the chance in this cycle to make a creative contribution toward achieving the division’s objectives. Second, division goals will become final only when corporate management has approved the unit’s programs and allocated resources to implement them.

Long-range planning by functional managers is conceptually a simple process, being limited by the tentative agreements reached in the first cycle. It is operationally more complex than the planning activity in the first cycle, however, since it requires substantially more detailed plans and involves many more people. The purpose of such “programming”—so called because the activity focuses on specific programs—is to translate the division’s externally oriented business strategy into an internally directed, coordinated set of activities designed to implement it. Inasmuch as the resources available for implementation are always limited, programming must help ensure their optimal use.

Obviously, the scope, magnitude, and duration of a program depend on the nature of the goal. In the broadest sense, a product division of a diversified corporation might be conceived of as a “program.” The division manager’s goal may be stated in simple financial terms and extend over several years, and his discretion may be constrained only by a charter for his product line and the availability of corporate resources. In such a situation, the division program may be international in scope, almost unlimited in breadth of product line, and may involve hundreds of millions of dollars in expenditures. At the other end of the spectrum, the sales manager for a district in the northeast region of that division may have been charged with improving market penetration by 10 % over the next 18 months. His actions also fulfill the definition of a program.

Formalized Programming

The need to formalize the programming process grows as functional interdependence in the business increases and as more time is required to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative functional plans. Formalization is designed to improve the specification of programs and the matching of programs and goals.

The charter and strategy for the business and the objectives and goals that top management has set for it limit the functional manager’s strategic planning. Within those constraints, however, he may still enjoy very broad discretion concerning the best course to take. His challenge is to devise more effective ways to combine the available resources in order to achieve his goals. A useful way to look at the specification of programs is in terms of the chronology for involvement of the functional departments. In a typical manufacturing enterprise there are four types of programs to be developed:

The programming process, even when formalized, is inevitably haphazard because it requires repeated interaction among the departments. The intended result is a plan that is integrated like the two sides of a coin. On one side is the set of action programs and on the other a coordinated statement of the resources needed by each functional manager to execute his part of the program.

A major purpose of the formal programming process is to review the ongoing programs to see whether they can be expected to fulfill the goals for which they were designed. Or, if more effective programs have been devised, the existing ones must be modified or discontinued. At the same time, some “old” programs may be nearing completion, and new ones will need approval if the goals are to be met. Programming also involves coordination of functional activities to ensure that the selected programs can be implemented efficiently. Each functional department must understand the implications of a set of programs for its own activities, and the department manager must accept the tasks assigned him and the resources to be made available to him.

In our mythical Company X, after much analysis and discussion the division manager and his functional subordinates finally agree by the end of August on a set of programs to recommend to headquarters. This time, in contrast to the first, a more elaborate presentation is in order and a large number of managers—corporate and division, line and staff—may attend.

Third Cycle

The third cycle of the formal planning process needs little explanation. Naturally, throughout the planning process top managers and division executives often discuss the allocation of resources among the divisions. But it becomes the focus of attention in the last step of the second cycle, when the divisions have completed their program proposals and sent them to the head office for approval. At this point (mid-September at Company X), decisions on allocation of resources can be made, subject to final approval when the detailed budgets are submitted (in mid-November). These general points are worth making here:

Raising the Odds

The formal long-range planning process in large, diversified corporations is both simple and complex. Conceptually, the process is very simple—a progressive narrowing of strategic choices—although it may involve many steps along that path. Operationally, the process is far more complex than the activities we have described because the formal part of the process is only the tip of the iceberg. Good strategic planning can take place only when qualified managers engage in creative thinking—and creativity, by definition, cannot be produced on a schedule.

Yet there is little doubt that formalizing the planning process is worthwhile; it ensures that managers at all levels will devote some time to strategic thinking, and it guarantees each of them an audience for his ideas. While formal strategic planning cannot guarantee good ideas, it can increase the odds sufficiently to yield a handsome payoff.

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CIO strategy

strategic planning

What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is a process in which an organization's leaders define their vision for the future and identify their organization's goals and objectives. The process includes establishing the sequence in which those goals should be realized so that the organization can reach its stated vision.

Strategic planning typically represents mid- to long-term goals with a life span of three to five years, though it can go longer. This is different than business planning, which typically focuses on short-term, tactical goals, such as how a budget is divided up. The time covered by a business plan can range from several months to several years.

The product of strategic planning is a strategic plan. It is often reflected in a plan document or other media. These plans can be easily shared, understood and followed by various people including employees, customers, business partners and investors.

Organizations conduct strategic planning periodically to consider the effect of changing business, industry, legal and regulatory conditions . A strategic plan may be updated and revised at that time to reflect any strategic changes.

list of what CIOs should have in a strategic plan

Why is strategic planning important?

Businesses need direction and organizational goals to work toward. Strategic planning offers that type of guidance. Essentially, a strategic plan is a roadmap to get to business goals. Without such guidance, there is no way to tell whether a business is on track to reach its goals.

The following four aspects of strategy development are worth attention:

What are the steps in the strategic planning process?

There are myriad different ways to approach strategic planning depending on the type of business and the granularity required. Most strategic planning cycles can be summarized in these five steps:

Identify. A strategic planning cycle starts with the determination of a business's current strategic position. This is where stakeholders use the existing strategic plan -- including the mission statement and long-term strategic goals -- to perform assessments of the business and its environment. These assessments can include a needs assessment or a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to understand the state of the business and the path ahead.

Prioritize. Next, strategic planners set objectives and initiatives that line up with the company mission and goals and will move the business toward achieving its goals. There may be many potential goals, so planning prioritizes the most important, relevant and urgent ones. Goals may include a consideration of resource requirements -- such as budgets and equipment -- and they often involve a timeline and business metrics or KPIs for measuring progress.

Develop. This is the main thrust of strategic planning in which stakeholders collaborate to formulate the steps or tactics necessary to attain a stated strategic objective. This may involve creating numerous short-term tactical business plans that fit into the overarching strategy. Stakeholders involved in plan development use various tools such as a strategy map to help visualize and tweak the plan. Developing the plan may involve cost and opportunity tradeoffs that reflect business priorities. Developers may reject some initiatives if they don't support the long-term strategy.

Implement. Once the strategic plan is developed, it's time to put it in motion. This requires clear communication across the organization to set responsibilities, make investments, adjust policies and processes, and establish measurement and reporting. Implementation typically includes strategic management with regular strategic reviews to ensure that plans stay on track.

Update. A strategic plan is periodically reviewed and revised to adjust priorities and reevaluate goals as business conditions change and new opportunities emerge. Quick reviews of metrics can happen quarterly, and adjustments to the strategic plan can occur annually. Stakeholders may use balanced scorecards and other tools to assess performance against goals.

Who does the strategic planning in a business?

A committee typically leads the strategic planning process. Planning experts recommend the committee include representatives from all areas within the enterprise and work in an open and transparent way where information is documented from start to finish.

The committee researches and gathers the information needed to understand the organization's current status and factors that will affect it in the future. The committee should solicit input and feedback to validate or challenge its assessment of the information.

The committee can opt to use one of many methodologies or strategic frameworks that have been developed to guide leaders through this process. These methodologies take the committee through a series of steps that include an analysis or assessment, strategy formulation, and the articulation and communication of the actions needed to move the organization toward its strategic vision.

The committee creates benchmarks that will enable the organization to determine how well it is performing against its goals as it implements the strategic plan. The planning process should also identify which executives are accountable for ensuring that benchmarking activities take place at planned times and that specific objectives are met.

How often should strategic planning be done?

There are no uniform requirements to dictate the frequency of a strategic planning cycle. However, there are common approaches.

Timetables are always subject to change. Timing should be flexible and tailored to the needs of a company. For example, a startup in a dynamic industry might revisit its strategic plan monthly. A mature business in a well-established industry might opt to revisit the plan less frequently.

Types of strategic plans

Strategic planning activities typically focus on three areas: business, corporate or functional. They break out as follows:

In most cases, a strategic plan will involve elements of all three focus areas. But the plan may lean toward one focus area depending on the needs and type of business

What is strategic management?

Organizations that are best at aligning their actions with their strategic plans engage in strategic management. A strategic management process establishes ongoing practices to ensure that an organization's processes and resources support the strategic plan's mission and vision statement .

In simple terms, strategic management is the implementation of the strategy . As such, strategic management is sometimes referred to as strategy execution. Strategy execution involves identifying benchmarks, allocating financial and human resources and providing leadership to realize established goals.

Strategic management may involve a prescriptive or descriptive approach . A prescriptive approach focuses on how strategies should be created. It often uses an analytical approach -- such as SWOT or balanced scorecards -- to account for risks and opportunities. A descriptive approach focuses on how strategies should be implemented and typically relies on general guidelines or principles.

What is a strategy map?

A strategy map is a planning tool or template used to help stakeholders visualize the complete strategy of a business as one interrelated graphic. These visualizations offer a powerful way for understanding and reviewing the cause-and-effect relationships among the elements of a business strategy.

While a map can be drawn in a number of ways, all strategy maps focus on four major business areas or categories: financial, customer, internal business processes (IBPs), and learning and growth. Goals sort into those four areas, and relationships or dependencies among those goals can be established.

For example, a strategy map might include a financial goal of reducing costs and an IBP goal to improve operational efficiency . These two goals are related and can help stakeholders understand that tasks such as improving operational workflows can reduce company costs and meet two elements of the strategic plan.

A strategy map can help translate overarching goals into an action plan and goals that can be aligned and implemented.

Strategy mapping can also help to identify strategic challenges that might not be obvious. For example, one learning and growth goal may be to increase employee expertise but that may expose unexpected challenges in employee retention and compensation, which affects cost reduction goals.

Benefits of strategic planning

Effective strategic planning has many benefits. It forces organizations to be aware of the future state of opportunities and challenges. It also forces them to anticipate risks and understand what resources will be needed to seize opportunities and overcome strategic issues.

Strategic planning also gives individuals a sense of direction and marshals them around a common mission. It creates standards and accountability. Strategic planning can enhance operational plans and efficiency. It also helps organizations limit time spent on crisis management , where they're reacting to unexpected changes that they failed to anticipate and prepare for.

Information technology is a key part of developing an effective strategic plan. Look at these six free IT strategic planning templates that can help make IT a driving force in a business.

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7 Proven Strategies for Launching a Successful Ecommerce Business

Whether you're planning to set up a dropshipping business or intending to develop, produce, and sell products, having the right knowledge about creating a successful ecommerce business is imperative. Discover the 7 proven strategies you need to know to launch and grow your online business faster and easier.

By Christina-Lauren Pollack • Mar 2, 2023

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If you aspire to be a successful entrepreneur in today's digital landscape, having an online presence is essential. Whether you're planning to set up a dropshipping business or intend to develop, produce and sell products, having the proper knowledge about setting up your business for success is imperative.

As an entrepreneur and executive with a background in manufacturing consumer goods, distributing products globally through mass retailers (like Walmart, Dollar Tree, etc), and building ecommerce businesses , I have 20 years of experience creating, launching and growing brands as well as advising entrepreneurs through my coaching business, Inspiring Brands Academy .

To help get your ecommerce business off the ground and running, here are seven proven strategies for launching a successful ecommerce business.

Step 1: Start with a clear business plan

If you plan to launch an ecommerce business, your roadmap for success must be laid out in a business plan . Here's an overview of the fundamentals that must be contemplated.

Executive summary — The executive summary should explain your company's purpose and vision, mission statement, target market audience, products or services offered and desired goals. Additionally, the overview should include information about key members of the team as well as financial estimates and any funding requirements.

Market analysis — The market analysis should describe your target customer, including demographics, actions, purchasing preferences, etc. Additionally, research competing businesses, uncovering their strengths while noting any disadvantages.

Product and service description — This section should provide an in-depth overview of all features, advantages and benefits to customers. Additionally, include details about the process used to develop products and any associated intellectual property.

Marketing and sales strategy — This part of your plan should detail how you will market and sell your product or service. Include pricing strategies to maximize profits, cost-effective distribution methods and promotional techniques such as advertising campaigns or loyalty programs.

Operations plan — Your business plan should include a fifth section dedicated to your operations strategy. This section should explain how you will manufacture products, organize logistics and manage customer service. Furthermore, details about who is on your team and any collaboration with vendors or partners should also be included.

The great aspect of an ecommerce business is that you can use website plugins or apps to easily integrate with your facilities, such as third-party warehouses that ship orders on your company's behalf and logistics programs. For example, one of my businesses, a photography print company, uses Etsy to sell products. Since I utilize a print-on-demand facility, when a customer places an order, it gets sent directly to my printing facility, producing and fulfilling the shipment.

Bottom line: I don't have to do anything other than market the business. This is a major benefit of using technology and systems to integrate so that it makes the scalability of your operation faster and easier.

Financial projections — The final section of your business plan should be the financial projections. This should provide a detailed forecast of your revenue and expenses, including your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. You should also include information about your funding needs and any potential sources of financing.

Step 2: Choose the right platform

Having drawn up a comprehensive business plan, the next logical step is to select an appropriate ecommerce platform to run your online business. It is important to evaluate all your options when selecting an ecommerce platform. Though Shopify , WooCommerce and Magento (now known as Adobe Commerce) are popular choices, each has unique advantages and drawbacks. Evaluate your company's needs and wishes, and compare various platforms to decide which ecommerce platform is ideal for your online business.

Step 3: Invest in a strong brand

Crafting a powerful brand is pivotal for any ecommerce business if you want to stand out from your rivals and acquire steadfast customers. Here are tips to get you started.

Step 4: Focus on search engine optimization (SEO)

If your goal is to attract more leads and customers, you need search engine optimization (SEO). Optimizing your website for higher rankings on SERPs allows potential visitors to quickly find what they're looking for when searching with keywords related to your business. To achieve this success, focus on developing compelling content that people want to read and share. Keyword optimizes the pages of your website and earns high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites.

Step 5: Use social media to your advantage

Leverage the power of social media (like TikTok, Instagram, etc.) to promote your ecommerce business and reach potential customers. Establishing a strong presence on platforms where your target audience is active will help you develop brand recognition, generate leads, and drive website traffic.

Step 6: Leverage influencer marketing

Another great way to grow your company is to use influencer marketing . All you need is to uncover influential figures in your niche that fit with what you are trying to promote and reach out with a clever partnership offer.

I've worked with hundreds of leading brands and retailers on sponsored campaigns, helping them drive brand awareness and boost product sales. Given my experience as an influencer, I've not only assisted brands around the world, but I've also learned how to tap into this knowledge to benefit my own companies and small businesses through influencer marketing strategies that result in viral content (1M+ views) and driving massive brand awareness for national product launches.

To make the most out of influencer marketing, consider these key steps:

Step 7: Focus on customer service

When launching an ecommerce business, providing superior customer service is paramount. Promptly reply to inquiries and criticisms professionally, offer precise product information and give customers easy return options. If you provide them with a great customer experience, they're more apt to rave (rather than rant) about your company.

Ultimately, launching a profitable ecommerce business necessitates thoughtful preparation and well-executed strategies. Utilizing these seven proven strategies for launching a successful ecommerce business will help you launch and grow your business more easily and quickly.

Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor

Entrepreneur, Executive, Influencer & Business Branding Coach

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Strategic Planning Consultant

Strategic planning is important for small businesses to achieve their goals and compete in the market. It involves setting long-term objectives, developing strategies to achieve them, and implementing action plans to execute those strategies. Small businesses can use strategic planning to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and develop plans to address them. This helps businesses make informed decisions, allocate resources effectively, and adapt to changes in the marketplace. Ultimately, strategic planning can help businesses improve their performance and achieve sustainable growth.

How Strategic Planning Consultants Help

A strategic planning consultant assists companies in developing and executing a strategic plan. They can provide objective insights and expertise to help a company identify their strengths and weaknesses, assess the market and competition, and formulate a plan to achieve its goals.

Some ways in which a strategic business consultant can assist companies:

Overall, a strategic planning consultant can bring a fresh perspective and outside expertise to the company’s strategic planning process, helping the company to develop a clear, achievable, and effective plan for success.

What is a strategy map?

For example, a strategy map might include a financial goal of reducing costs and an IBP goal to improve operational efficiency. These two goals are related and can help stakeholders understand that tasks such as improving operational workflows can reduce company costs and meet two elements of the strategic plan.

A strategy map can help translate overarching goals into an action plan and goals that can be aligned and implemented.

What Are Key Strategic Goals and Objectives?

“Goals” and “objectives” are two interchangeable words that mean almost the exact same thing and could be used in the same way. However, there are some important differences between the two: Goals are long-term, general, and achievable. Objectives, on the other hand, are specific and measurable.

Strategic goals are the specific financial and non-financial target and outcome a company aims to accomplish over a specific period of time, usually the next three to five years.

Strategic objectives are purpose statements that help shape an overall vision and set goals and measurable steps for a company to help achieve the desired results. A strategic objective is most effective when it is measurable either by analytics or observable data.

A business that is set to success develops strategic objectives to advance the company vision, align company goals and drive decisions that impact daily productivity from the top levels of the organization to all other employees.

The Top Strategic Planning Firms on Earth

There are many strategic planning firms around the world, and the “top” firms can vary depending on factors such as industry focus, geographic reach, and the specific services offered. Here are some of the well-known strategic planning firms based on various factors:

McKinsey & Company – One of the largest and most well-known strategic consulting firms globally, with a focus on a wide range of industries.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) – Known for its expertise in strategy consulting, with a focus on topics such as growth, innovation, and digital transformation.

Bain & Company – Specializes in strategy consulting, with a focus on private equity, M&A, and corporate renewal.

Deloitte – One of the “Big Four” accounting and consulting firms, providing a wide range of strategic planning services.

PwC – Another “Big Four” accounting and consulting firm, providing strategic planning services such as growth strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and digital transformation.

Accenture – A global consulting firm with expertise in digital, technology, and operations consulting, providing strategic planning services across a range of industries.

BSBCON – is one of the fastest growing consultancies, specializing in business plan writing, strategy consulting, financial forecasting, pitch decks and SOPs.

Other firms that may also be considered among the top strategic planning firms include Oliver Wyman, Strategy&, EY-Parthenon, and Roland Berger.

What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is important in identifying where your organization is going and how you are going to get there. It’s a process for every business, big and small.

A strategic plan describes who you are as a company and creates a clear direction to achieve your goals. When unforeseen events occur, a strategic plan helps find new opportunities while staying firm to your values and mission.

On top of that, creating a strategic plan is a company’s team-development exercise that can unite employees and improve how they communicate.

What is a strategic planning consultant?

A strategic planning consultant helps organizations to perform efficiently by leading them towards the best use of company resources, while achieving its mission, goals and objectives through a structured approach.

It is so crucial for businesses to know where they stand, realize their path of success, and be able to strategically determine the course of action to reach there. A growth-oriented business clearly identifies specific processes that are preventing it, and identifies areas that need improvement. A strategic planning expert can help explore the available options and to work with the business to work out a comprehensive, achievable, and profitable course of action at minimal risk.

The strategic planning consultant also helps to set direct progressive plans, improve employees confidence and productivity, and develops future business strategies that aim at achieving company long-term goals. For better strategic planning, design, implementation, and performance management, you need an experienced consultant to manage your strategic planning needs to establish growth and sustainability.

What are the steps in the strategic planning process?

There is no single approach to creating a strategic plan, most approaches can be summarized to five overarching steps:

1. Define your vision Start with communicating the organization’s vision for the future then make a mission statement expressing organizational values and how you intend to reach the vision. A purpose-driven strategic goal sets forth the “why” of what the company is doing. It connects the vision statement to specific objectives.

2. Make a strategic assessment This stage includes analyzing an organization’s strategic position and gathering data from internal and external factors. One of the most common ways to conduct a comprehensive assessment is a SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis is an exercise where you define the following:

3. Determine your priorities and objectives After you have defined your vision and evaluated your current standing, you’ll be in a strong position to start organizing and ranking your priorities, and the specific objectives tied to those priorities.

4.Define methods and responsibilities

At this stage, it’s important to note that these may change over time, as you launch and gather initial data about your project. For this reasons it’s recommended that you:

5. Manage, measure, and assess Before launching your plan, prepare a method to assess success or failure, so that everyone is well-oriented on progress and can agree to evaluate your initiative at regular intervals. Determine an interval so everyone can go over the results — this can take place weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on the nature of the project.

How often should you update a strategic plan?

There is no such thing as a universal strategic planning timeline. Whether you conduct a strategy facilitation every month, every quarter, or every few years, completing the document itself is less important than the purpose and process of strategic planning. Strategic planning is not a one-time or static event – it is recurring and requires ongoing strategic thinking. By understanding its purpose and process, you can ensure your company’s strategy is always updated and remains relevant in an ever-changing world.

Who does strategic planning in a business?

The company’s board of directors or management team commonly leads the strategic planning process. Strategic business consultants recommend the board of directors to get representatives from all departments within the business and work in an open and transparent way where information is documented from beginning to end.

The company’s board of directors gathers the information needed to understand the company’s current status and factors that will affect it in the future. The board of directors should solicit input and feedback to confirm or challenge its evaluation of the information.

They can choose to use one of many techniques or strategic plans that have been developed to guide leaders through this process. These techniques take the board through a series of steps that include an analysis or assessment, strategy formulation, and the articulation and communication of the actions needed to move the company toward its strategic vision.

How much should I pay for a strategic plan?

There is no absolute answer to this question as the price of preparing a strategic plan would really depend on the size and complexity of the company and the level and amount of data required. However, a rough estimate would be in the range of $8,500 – $100,000 USD.

Strategic plan creation should be considered as an investment rather than an expense. A well-executed strategy can help an organization achieve its goals and objectives, leading to increased profits and improved performance. Therefore, the benefits outweigh the price to pay for a strategic plan.

If you’re looking for help preparing a professional strategic plan, contact our strategic planning consultants today. Strategic planning is an essential process for any business, and a solid long-term investment.

Request a Quote

Factoring in your past, present, and future, our team of financial forecast consultants will guide you through the process of creating forward-looking projections. By understanding your business needs, we create financial projections that can aid in the identification of persistent issues that may arise in the future, find solutions and improve your company layer by layer.

A precise estimate will help determine whether (and by how much) your business will expand or contract. As a result, you can moderate your expectations and set goals which are practical.

Look no further if you want to find out how to create financial projections. Here are a few specific categories of drawing financials for a business plan that you should know of. Each of the following categories are included in our financial forecast services.

Income Statements

A key element of forecasting happens via income statement development, also known as the profit or loss statement. Here it illustrates how a business makes a profit or loss over time and how it forecasts future revenues, expenses and net earnings. The estimate in this statement is heavily reliant on budgets, and as such our team works directly with you to build custom financial projections.

Revenue, cost of goods sold (COGS), cost of sales, operating expenses, EBITDA, depreciation, amortisation, interest, and net income are all components of our completed financial forecasts for a business plan.

Cash Flow Statements

Cash Flow projections are made to evaluate your businesses cash position as you invest, pay dividends and grow year over year. Calculating your cash flow comes after creating your income statement. This starts with your cash position and includes the inflow and outflow of funds including dividend payments and the repayment of debt.

You can identify a future cash position for your business by calculating your income over a specific period and deducting expected and scheduled expenses. Businesses can then control their liquidity and determine if they will have the necessary cash to meet their debt obligations.

You may gain a more accurate insight into your company’s financial situation by using cash flow forecasting. In addition, you will be able to forecast if your business runs the risk of negative cash flow at any time in the future, which is inherently important for all responsible businesses to identify long before it ever potentially happens.

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Balance Sheet

A company’s financial health is often determined through its balance sheet. A balance sheet should be balanced between total assets and total liabilities + shareholders equity.

Assets in a balance sheet may include cash on hand, inventory, property, plant and equipment (PPE), prepaid expenses, accounts receivable and intangible assets including patents, copyrights and goodwill.

Liabilities in a balance sheet may include long-term debt owing, short-term debt owing, accounts payable, wages owed, sales taxes payable, or corporate taxes payable.

Shareholders equity in a balance sheet includes invested equity, and the cumulative sum of all retained earnings.

Financial Projection Services

Important financial parameters, including sales, income, and future revenues are anticipated in financial forecasting. These metrics are essential for financial activities like budgeting and overall financial planning. In the end, forecasting serves as a compass for your business, so you can mitigate challenges and steer your ship closer and closer to success.

If you are looking to work with America’s leading financial forecast consultants, contact us today. Our financial projection services will help you secure financing and become aware of potential challenges in the future, so you can mitigate them. Lets build custom financial projections for your business plan and get your startup, SMB or established business on the right track.

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COMMENTS

Strategic Planning: 5 Planning Steps, Process Guide [2023 ...
A strategic plan is a tool to define your organization's goals and what actions you will take to achieve them. Typically, a strategic plan will include your company's vision and mission statements, your long-term goals (as well as short-term, yearly objectives), and an action plan of the steps you're going to take to move in the right direction.
7 strategic planning models, plus 8 frameworks to help you get ...
Now that you know the difference between the two, learn more about the seven strategic planning models, as well as the eight most commonly used frameworks that go along with them. 1. Basic model. The basic strategic planning model is ideal for establishing your company's vision, mission, business objectives, and values.
The Strategic Planning Process in 4 Steps
Strategic Planning Phase 1: Determine Your Strategic Position Want More? Deep Dive Into the " Evaluate Your Strategic Position " How-To Guide. Action Grid Step 1: Identify Strategic Issues Strategic issues are critical unknowns that are driving you to embark on a strategic planning process now.
Corporate Strategy
The main tasks of corporate strategy are: Allocation of resources Organizational design Portfolio management Strategic tradeoffs In the following sections, this guide will break down the four main components outlined above. #1 Allocation of Resources The allocation of resources at a firm focuses mostly on two resources: people and capital.
Business Planning and Strategy: A Comprehensive Guide to Success
Here are some key steps to creating a winning business strategy: 1. Define your vision and mission: Your vision and mission statements are the foundation of your business strategy. Your vision ...
What is Corporate Strategic Planning?
Corporate Strategic Planning is a companywide approach at the business unit and corporate level for developing strategic plans to achieve a longer-term vision. The process includes defining the corporate strategic goals and intentions at the top and cascading them through each level of the organization.
What is Corporate Strategy? The Four Key Components
Corporate strategy planning is the topmost level of strategic planning within a business or organization. As a result, the corporate planning process is the most sophisticated level of strategic planning and must take into account a huge number of variables. Defining a Mission Reducing complexity is a must.
Corporate Planning
A corporate plan is a process that maps out a path through which companies grow in terms of profits, brand identity, and revenue. It is a tool that organizations use to ensure an upper hand over their competitors. Moreover, a corporate plan is a foundation on which a macro-level strategy is built. This macro plan is called strategic planning. 2.
Difference Between Corporate Planning and Strategic Planning
• Corporate planning deals with the internal aspects of the company. • Strategic planning deals with the overall business (i.e. internal and external) and external environments. • Objectives: • Corporate planning sets parameters and objectives within the company. • Strategic planning sets the overall direction of the company. • Response Nature:
Corporate Planning Definition
Corporate planning is a type of strategic planning, responsible for mapping out a course of strategies and their implementations to empower top-management. It optimizes exposure, reach, leads, sales, profits, credibility, loyalty, sustainability, and opportunities of a business.
Business Planning Process and Strategy
Business strategy planning means defining a company's goals and developing a plan to achieve those goals. Identifying the required resources, allocating the responsibilities and setting deadlines are essential parts of the business strategy planning.
How To Plan A Business Expansion In 2023
5 key considerations when growing your business. 1. Forming an LLC or corporation. Many small businesses start as sole proprietorships or general partnerships because those business structures ...
Strategic Planning
The development and execution of strategic planning are typically viewed as consisting of being performed in three critical steps: 1. Strategy Formulation In the process of formulating a strategy, a company will first assess its current situation by performing an internal and external audit.
Business Strategy vs. Corporate Strategy: What's the Difference?
A corporate strategy is a plan that helps an organization decide what markets it wants to enter and how. Businesses often use corporate strategies when they are trying to diversify, or enter a new market. This strategy guides a company's growth. A corporate strategy typically includes: What market the organization wants to compete in
Strategic Planning in Business
The business strategic planning process usually consists of defining business goals, doing a SWOT analysis to assess the company's business environment and developing a business strategy. The leadership team is in charge of business strategic planning, as it has a very important impact on the overall direction of a company. ...
What Is Corporate Planning? Benefits, Types and Tips
Corporate planning is the process by which businesses create strategies for meeting business goals and achieving objectives. It involves strategy definition, strategy direction, decision-making and resource allocation. Corporate planning ensures that business operations are orderly and that the team works towards the same goals.
What is corporate planning?
The strategic planning process provides a high-level blueprint of your corporate plan and feeds into the operational and project planning processes. Operational Planning Operational planning takes the business plan and lays out the actions you'll need to take internally to reach those goals.
Strategic Plan vs. Business Plan: What's the Difference ...
A strategic plan is a business framework that existing companies implement when they want to improve their business processes and streamline their operations. The strategic plan helps companies focus their efforts on transitioning the organization into a new direction, one that will hopefully bring about positive and long-lasting results.
Difference Between Planning and Strategy (with Comparison Chart)
Planning is an organized process of thinking in advance about a future action. It means the preparation of the plan, i.e. the sequence of steps which will help in achieving organizational objectives. Planning is among the five management functions apart from organizing, controlling, motivating & leading and decision-making.
5 essential tips for creating a strong corporate plan
"It's common for business units or subsidiaries to be left operating in silos," says Rony Israel, a Senior Business Advisor with BDC's Advisory Services, who specializes in strategic planning advice."A successful corporate plan breaks the silo mindset, supports collaboration and synergies, and unites the whole business around a long-term vision."
Strategic Planning in Diversified Companies
Corporate planning and strategy—Corporate objectives are established at the top levels.Corporate planning, leading to the formulation of corporate strategy, is the process of (a) deciding on the ...
What is Strategic Planning? Definition and Steps
Strategic planning is a process in which organizational leaders determine their vision for the future as well as identify their goals and objectives for the organization. The process also includes establishing the sequence in which those goals should fall so that the organization is enabled to reach its stated vision .
7 Proven Strategies for Launching a Successful Ecommerce Business
Step 3: Invest in a strong brand. Crafting a powerful brand is pivotal for any ecommerce business if you want to stand out from your rivals and acquire steadfast customers. Here are tips to get ...
Strategic Planning Consultant
A strategic planning consultant assists companies in developing and executing a strategic plan. They can provide objective insights and expertise to help a company identify their strengths and weaknesses, assess the market and competition, and formulate a plan to achieve its goals. Some ways in which a strategic business consultant can assist ...
PDF Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Memphis strategic plan goals enrollment recruitment
By Stephen MacLeod. - Reporter, Memphis Business Journal. Mar 3, 2023. The University of Memphis revealed its new strategic plan on March 1. The plan, which covers 2023-28, has seven objectives ...
PDF Strategic Business Planning Guide
• Informs transition planning for next generation management, leadership and ownership. The process of defining roles and responsibilities involves taking an inventory of all key tasks in the business. While this process can feel long and tedious, it is an important step to enable planning for a gradual transition of management and