Creating strategic plans may seem like a big step for many SME's, however they are no less important for creating value to an SME as they are in larger organisations.
A strategic plan is a blueprint for how your buisness will lever competive advantages in your industry and ensure you remain profitable and relevant to your customers. Put simply it defines where and how your business will compete. The how is the most difficult part of the strategic planning process and its where most businesses fall short. Unfortunately success makes us lazy and we tend to overestimate our strengths and underestimate the strengths of our competitors. We should never assume that the basis for our competitive advantage is our superior internal talent. It may sound harsh but your talent pool is average, the same as your competitors.
Having a strategic plan facilited can ensure that you are answering the right questions when developing your plan.
What makes you truely unique from your competitors?
What makes your product or service more valuble or attractive to customers?
How are you articulatately your unique value to the market?
It is also important to remember that we are not operating in a stable and consistent environment. Strategic planning needs to consider external forces that impact the environment in which you are operating, as well as your internal strengths. I like the Porter's 5 Forces Model to ensure that these considerations are factored into your strategic plan.
Another mistake I often see is that stragic plans are too detailed that they need to be reviewed too often. If you are having to revisit your plan more often than 4-5 years then there is an issue with your process. It needs to be high level enough to make decisions within the strategic plan's framework as the environment shifts. Leave the detail for your 2-3 year tactial plans where you are setting key deliverables. Many buinesses don't spend the time to create tactical plans, but this is a crucial step to ensure that you deliver on your strategic plan. I will do another topic on proper implementation of strategic plans as this is an area of failure I see often.
Remember that strategic plans are a blueprint for value creation. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that because you have been successful in the past you don't need to spend time and resources on developing and implementing a well thought out strategic planning process into your business. If you are not looking into the future your competitors will take the opportunity to exploit this.
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