Fresh Thinking - Strategic Planning 2008

DEFINING THE STRATEGIC PLANNING
PROCESS:
A TOOLKIT FOR EFFECTIVE
IMPLEMENTATION
PREPARED BY
FRESH THINKING CAPITAL PTY LTD
396 Florida Road

Fearie Glen
Pretoria East
0043
Tel : 012-991-4490
Fax: 086-610-7174
Email: info@freshthinking.co.za
2008
© Fresh Thinking Capital Pty Ltd 2008 info@freshthinking.co.za 1

DEFINING THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS
Our aim in this Strategic Planning Work Book is to give you the tools to which
will assist you in developing your own Organisation's strategic plan.
TABLE OF CONTENT
1 Chapter One - Benefits & Limitations of Strategic Planning............................ 3

1.1 What Is Strategic Planning? ............................................................................ 3
1.2 What Are Its Benefits? ..................................................................................... 4
1.3 What Strategic Planning Is And Is Not .......................................................... 5
2 Chapter Two - Debunking Eight Strategic Planning Myths................................ 6
3 Chapter Three – Overview of the Strategic Planning Model............................. 7
3.1 Meaning of the Strategic Plan........................................................................ 7
3.2 Strategic Planning Team ................................................................................. 7
3.3 Thoughts About the Strategic Planning Process ......................................... 8
3.3.1 Openness.................................................................................................... 8
3.3.2 Iterative ..................................................................................................... 8
3.3.3 Time commitment.................................................................................... 8
3.3.4 Big thoughts .............................................................................................. 8
4 Chapter Four – Strategic Planning Bedrock: Vision............................................ 9
5 Chapter Five – Strategic Planning Bedrock: Values ......................................... 10
6 Chapter Six – Strategic Planning Bedrock: Mission........................................... 11
6.1 What is Strategic Thinking? .......................................................................... 11
6.2 Clarifying Your Organization's Mission........................................................ 11
7 Chapter Seven – Determining Organizational Driving Force........................... 13
8 Chapter Eight – Organizational Strategy ............................................................ 14
9 Chapter Nine - Situational Assessment .............................................................. 15
10 Chapter Ten - Critical Issues Analysis............................................................. 17
11 Chapter Eleven – Defining Strategic Objectives ........................................... 18
11.1 Defining Strategic Objectives ...................................................................... 18
11.2 Developing Your Strategic Objectives ........................................................ 18
12 Chapter Twelve - Strategic Action Milestones.............................................. 20
12.1 There is one SAM summary for each SO..................................................... 20
12.2 Responsible person ........................................................................................ 20
12.3 Schedule .......................................................................................................... 20
12.4 Resources required........................................................................................ 21
13 Chapter Thirteen - What to Do When the Strategic Planning is Done? .... 22
13.1 Implement ....................................................................................................... 22
13.2 Communicate .................................................................................................. 22
13.3 Monitor. ........................................................................................................... 22
13.4 Update. ............................................................................................................ 23

1 Chapter One - Benefits &
Limitations of Strategic Planning
Our goal in providing you with the Strategic Planning Tool kit is to allow you
sketch a template for your own organization's strategic plan.
Strategic planning is a powerful tool for laying out the template or roadmap for
future success and should be in every manager's toolkit.
In the chapters that follow we shall look at:
What strategic planning is and is not

Organizing the strategic planning process
Who does it and how
How long it takes
End products
Drafting and refining the plan
Centrality of values, vision, mission & strategy
Doing a SLOT situational analysis (strengths, limitations, opportunities,
threats)
Setting the strategic objectives (SO) which define the future state of the
organization
Developing strategic action plans (SAP’s) to lead to the achievement of these
SO’s
Communicating the completed plan to the organization
Implementing and monitoring the plan
Reviewing progress and revising the plan
1.1 What Is Strategic Planning?
Strategic planning is a disciplined, creative process for determining how to

take your organization from where it is today to where you wish it to be in
the future.
Strategic planning is fundamentally a decision making process, based on asking

simple (but deep) questions, analyzing the range of answers, and choosing
among them:
What do we do? Where are we going?

Where are we now? How will we get there?

How did we get here? When will we get there?
Why are we in business? What will it cost?
This process encompasses the entire spectrum of issues an organization faces,

ranging from the big ones of who you are, what you do, and what your
corporate values are to the smaller but equally important ones that connect
the focus on the future with the work that must be performed soon to move
the organization forward.
1.2 What Are Its Benefits?
The benefits of strategic planning are manifold since it:
1) Asks and answers questions of key importance to the organization

2) Provides a framework for decision making throughout the organization
3) Reveals and clarifies future opportunities and threats
4) Sets specific objectives for achievement
5) Provides a basis for measuring performance
6) Serves as a channel of communication
7) Develops a team which is focused on the organization's future
8) Provides managerial training
The above benefits can be encapsulated in a single statement:
Strategic planning aligns the total organization – people, processes, and

resources – with a clear, compelling, and desired future state.
What Are Its Limitations?
While the benefits are manifold, unfortunately so its limitations:
The future is uncertain and might differ substantially from expectations on

which parts of the plan may be built.
There will be internal resistance to formal planning due to multiple factors:
a. Information flows, decision making, and power relationships will
be perturbed.
b. Conflicts within organization are exposed.
c. Current operating problems tend to drive out long-term planning
efforts.
d. There are risks and fears of failure.
e. New demands will be placed on managers and staff.
f. Most people wish to avoid uncertainty.
Planning is difficult, messy, hard work.
Planning is expensive - in time and money.
The completed plan limits choices and activities for the organization in the
future.

1.3 What Strategic Planning Is And Is Not
"Strategic planning determines where your organization should be going so that

all organizational efforts can be pointed in that direction."
STRATEGIC PLANNING IS STRATEGIC PLANNING IS NOT

Human-based Process-based
People's minds Set of rules
Principles Platitudes
Collective vision Personal vision
Commitment to planning Commitment to plan
Done by executives Done by planners
Risk enhancer Risk eliminator
Decision oriented Task oriented
Done in open Done behind closed doors
Messy & controversial Smooth & harmonious
Proactive Reactive
Deliberate Quick
Focused Diffuse
Way of life Single activity
Roadmap to the future Next year's business plan
Creative Mandate

2 Chapter Two - Debunking Eight
Strategic Planning Myths
Below are brief summaries of the eight myths.
Myth 1. You need a documented plan. The value of planning is not the plan
itself, but rather in developing a common language, articulating assumptions,
and learning to make decisions together.
Myth 2. A plan can describe all the things that must be done to succeed.
Strategy sets the direction and context for subsequent actions and decisions by
all in order to close the gap between where the organization is now and where
it would like to be.
Myth 3. Strategic planning is a formal, analytical process. Strategy is

inherently a creative process, dealing with complexity and ambiguity. The plan
is never finished - it is a living document.
Myth 4. Plans are built solely on facts and hard data. A strategy is a set of
assumptions about how the world behaves. Facts and hard data are used to
test its validity.
Myth 5. The planning cycle runs on your financial calendar. While planning
may be part of an organization's annual cycle, whenever major events and
changes occur, the plan should be immediately reexamined to test for the
continued validity of its underlying assumptions.
Myth 6. The work is over when the plan is done. Strategy must be
communicated, put into action, and integrated with daily decision making.
Myth 7. There is one right strategy. Strategy is about identifying and creating
choices through conversations between stakeholders.
Myth 8. There is one best process for building strategies. The key to
successful planning is fitting the tools and techniques of planning with the
organization's culture, capabilities, business environment, and desired outcome
and then sticking with those tools and techniques for an extended period.

3 Chapter Three – Overview of the
Strategic Planning Model
We outline a basic strategic planning model, suggest the composition of the
planning team, and comment on the process.
The strategic planning model we have found useful for most organizations has
three phases:
1. Strategic thinking concentrates on establishing the planning bedrock of

values, vision, and mission and on setting the grand strategy. This
phase encompasses 40-50% of the planning effort. Resolving these "big"
issues at the start gives a solid basis for smooth planning and for dealing
with strategic issues as they arise during implementation.
2. Strategic planning assesses the Organization's current ability to reach its
desired future in light of its competitive landscape, identifies the critical
issues it faces, sets strategic objectives to address these issues, and
outlines strategic action plans to realize these objectives.
3. Tactical planning focuses on the specifics of implementation and
explicitly connects people and budgets with the strategic action plans.
This phase is virtually synonymous with the annual planning and
budgeting cycle.
3.1 Meaning of the Strategic Plan
The plan focuses on the future. It provides a common direction for everyone,
is an effective recruiting tool, can be shared with clients and prospects for
marketing and with suppliers for effectiveness, and gives you the ability to
track progress.
A strategic plan is a living document, not something to be thrown on a shelf.
3.2 Strategic Planning Team
The ideal size of a strategic planning team is 6-12 members plus an outside
facilitator. Each team member should be chosen to represent different
segments of the Organization, not just direct reports to the Director General.
All members should have the respect of their peers. Senior, middle, and front
line management should be represented. Members do not wear their
"departmental hats;" they wear the "Organization hat" during the planning
deliberations.
One member, probably a younger one on the "fast track," should be charged
with handling the internal logistical details for the planning process.

An outside facilitator should be used to bring experience in the planning
process, to give perspective on the future, and to allow all team members to
work as equals.
The Chief Director has a prominent role in the planning team, sets the context,
endorses the result, but remains enough in the background that the ideas of
others may emerge. This is not an easy task for most Chief Director/Head's and
is another compelling reason for using a skilled outside facilitator.
3.3 Thoughts About the Strategic Planning Process

3.3.1 Openness
The strategic planning process should be an open one within the Department.
While it is usually not practical to have everyone who wishes to attend the
planning meetings, the ongoing results should be available to all employees, for
example, via the Organization's intranet, through broadcast e-mail, or simply a
loose-leaf binder at the receptionist's desk. Critiques and suggestions should
be welcomed from all.
3.3.2 Iterative
While there is an underlying logic and flow to the strategic planning process,
the plain fact is that planning is a highly iterative process. Almost at every
step, the team must revisit earlier steps to ensure consistency and revise
accordingly.
3.3.3 Time commitment
For a typical Organization, 3-6 months is required to develop a strategic plan,

with 6-10 all-day meetings and a couple two-day retreats. Team members
must also work on the plan between meetings, so the Director must ensure
they are given the "space" to permit their concentrated efforts and to
encourage their personal commitment to both the process and the end
3.3.4 Big thoughts
If there is ever a time to decouple everyone from the everyday concerns of

running the normal business and to think truly big thoughts, this is the time to
do it. The Chief Director and outside facilitator both have an obligation to see
this is done by all.

4 Chapter Four – Strategic Planning
Bedrock: Vision
Clarifying your Organization's vision creates a lodestar to lock onto, inspire
your efforts, and give meaning to your very existence.
Strategic thinking - the first of three phases in the strategic planning model -
provides the basis for subsequent planning and guides you in dealing with
strategic issues as they arise later. It embraces the planning bedrock of vision,
values, and mission and the grand strategy.
Vision is the first element in the planning bedrock. It is the fundamental

reason your Organization exists - the why of your being. Vision is crucial in
laying a solid foundation to guide the future development of the Organization.
Vision is the concrete statement of your ultimate dreams for the

Organization or for the world that you can impact through it.
Clarifying one's vision is a deceptively difficult task. Ideally, it should be:
Future oriented
Easy to understand and remember
Reflect your Organization's uniqueness
Ambitious
Creative
Inspiring
Brief - try for ten words or less.

5 Chapter Five – Strategic Planning
Bedrock: Values
Ultimately your Organization rises or falls by the values you live by in all
circumstances.
Values are the second element in the planning bedrock. They reflect your
character and your corporate culture - the how you do what you do. Values
are long-lasting. They affect all that you do.
Values are your convictions on how business is to be conducted and people

are to be treated, inside and outside the Organization.
Organizations are like people. The good ones stand for something positive and
know why they stand for it. They live out their values consistently day to day,
impacting others by their example. Ideally, values should be:
Few in number
Shared by all
Inspiring
Clearly understood
It is relatively easy to develop a list of important values. It is hard to home in

on the few that make a difference in your Organization. It is harder still to
capture the nuances these values evoke in the minds of your employees.

6 Chapter Six – Strategic Planning
Bedrock: Mission
Your Organization's mission clarifies what you do and guides your everyday
efforts and decision making.
6.1 What is Strategic Thinking?
Mission is the third element in the planning bedrock. It translates your vision
and values into something tangible - the what of your existence. Mission guides
your everyday efforts and is the touchstone for decision making.
Mission is the products or services you provide, for whom, where, and how.
Clarifying your mission is vitally important, precisely because it forces you to

state unambiguously what you do. Equally important, it also defines what you
do not do!
Ideally, your mission should be:
Focused
Clear
Specific
Distinctive
Short
6.2 Clarifying Your Organization's Mission
Perhaps the easiest way to put your arms around what your mission should be is
by answering a series of questions.
1. What business(es) are we in?

2. What business(es) could we be in?
3. What business(es) should we be in?
4. What business(es) should we not be in?
5. What is unique or distinctive about us?
6. Who are and should be our principal customers, clients, or users?
7. What are and should be our principal market segments?
8. What are and should be our principal products and services?

9. How do we and should we distribute our products and services?
10. How has our business changed in the last three to five years?
11. How has our industry changed in the last three to five years?
12. How is our business likely to change in the next three to five years?
13. How is our industry likely to change in the next three to five years?
14. What are the key measures of our success and how do we use them?

7 Chapter Seven – Determining
Organizational Driving Force
Your Organization's driving force is the dominant factor influencing your
decision making and central to setting your strategy.
A powerful technique for determining your organization’s strategy (the

ultimate goal of strategic planning) is to consider its driving force. They define
the driving force as “the primary determiner of the scope of future products
and markets.”
Your driving force is the dominant factor that most influences the making of
major decisions. In our own strategic planning engagements, the following 8
driving forces seem to cover most organizations, with examples of
organizations allied with each driving force.
1. Products offered – produces specific products (things) for its markets.

2. Services offered – delivers specific services (human efforts) for its
market.
3. Market needs – focuses on meeting the needs of specific markets.
4. Customer needs – focuses on meeting the needs of specific set of
customers.
5. Technology – applies its technological capabilities in innovative products
or services.
6. Human resources – leverages its employees’ specific qualities, skills, or
training.
7. Service capability – leverages the depth or uniqueness of its employees.
8. Image – seeks to maintain a specific organizational image within its
markets and the products or services it produces.
It is a rare Organization that can look at the above list and say, "Of course, it's
obvious that our driving force is ___." The discussion might start that way, but
you can bet that someone else will jump in to throw cold water on that driving
force and suggest another. Indeed, our experience is that some of the richest,
most vigorous, and deeply contentious debates in the entire planning process
take place when the planning team tries to identify their driving force.

8 Chapter Eight – Organizational
Strategy
Your organization’s strategy is the direction you choose to follow to reach
your vision and is central to all business decisions.
Formulation of your strategy is the last of the four "big" statements that
constitute the strategic thinking portion of strategic planning. They set the
stage for the more analytical portion of planning and ultimately for the setting
of strategic objectives.
Let's review the three elements of the planning bedrock first:
Vision - the concrete statement of your ultimate dreams for the

Organization or for the world that you can impact through it.
Values - your convictions on how business is to be conducted and people are
to be treated, inside and outside the Organization.
Mission - the products or services you provide, for whom, where, and how.
It is strategy that connects the present to the future. Strategy is a direction, a

pathway, chosen from amongst many possibilities. It is intimately connected
to, indeed, it is based on your planning bedrock:
Strategy is the particular means by which you seek to fulfill your mission
and to move toward your vision, within the context of your values.
Your strategy flows from your driving force. Your driving force is the dominant
factor in making your major decisions. The secondary or tertiary driving forces
can legitimately be considered as decision influencers and can find their way
into your strategy statement if they are strong enough.
The driving force analysis is not the only way to determine strategy, but it
certainly is the most thorough and analytical, even if only to confirm the
obvious. Experience, however, suggests that the "obvious" isn't always so. The
extra time expended to be more analytical is usually worthwhile.
Even with a sure confidence in the validity of your driving force, it is still a
matter of great creativity to select a strategy that is consistent with your
vision, values, and mission.
In future Chapters, we'll take a detailed look at your internal and external
influences, so that you can determine which factors are most important in
setting your strategic objectives.

9 Chapter Nine - Situational
Assessment
Once the big issues of vision, values, mission, and strategy have been
determined, it is time to assess the internal and external factors affecting
your business.
A situational assessment requires a hard-headed look at all the factors

affecting the future success of your business, as they relate to your vision,
values, mission, and strategy. Once these are identified, you then select those
factors which are most critical and develop long-term objectives to address
them.
There are several approaches we could use for the situational assessment. In
this Chapter, however, we will follow the SLOT assessment, the most popular
situational assessment method and the most highly structured. It looks at all
the positive and negative factors inside and outside your organization that
affect your success. By definition, strengths and limitations are considered to
be internal factors, over which you have some measure of control. Also by
definition, opportunities and threats are considered to be external factors,
over which you have essentially no control..
Internal factors: External factors:

Strengths Opportunities
Limitations/Weaknesses Threats
Strengths are the qualities that enable you to fulfill your organization’s
mission. They can be either tangible or intangible. They are what you do well,
the qualities your employees possess (individually and as a team), and the
unique characteristics that give your organization its coherence. They fall into
four broad categories:
Human competencies
Products & services
Process capabilities
Financial resources
Limitations/Weaknesses are the qualities that keep you from fulfilling your
mission and reaching your full potential. They are those activities, services, or
other factors that do not meet the standards you feel should be met. They are
controllable. You want to eliminate or minimize them. They fall into the same
four broad categories as above.

Opportunities are presented by the environment within which your
organization operates. Selecting the targets that will best serve your clients
while bringing you the results you desire is not an easy task. Developing plans
to address opportunities begins with a list of those available to you. They fall
into four broad categories:
Markets/customers
Competition
Industry/government
Technology
Threats are external to your organization. They compound your vulnerability

when they relate to your limitations. They are not controllable. When a
threat comes, your stability and survival can be at stake! They fall into the
same four broad categories as above.

10 Chapter Ten - Critical Issues
Analysis
A simple process for selecting your 5-7 critical issues to focus your strategic
plan is presented.
Last time we used the SWOT (strengths, limitations, opportunities, threats)

methodology to conduct a situational assessment. It's common to produce many
dozens of issues that need addressing, variations of which may be found on
several of the four categories.
You must now winnow these many dozens of issues to a half dozen critical
issues in order to tighten the focus of your strategic plan. If you select too
many, this focus is severely diluted and subsequent actions will bear less fruit.
Step 1. Discuss
At this stage there are probably 10 or 15 sheets of butcher paper stuck on the
walls full of issues for all to see. Discuss the similarities and contrasts of the
issues listed to ensure everyone understands what is behind each. This will
usually lead to some consolidation or restatement of issues.
Step 2. Stabilize the critical issues
The facilitator restates the 5-7 critical issues and stresses that all subsequent
planning will be done solely around these issues. No other issues will be the
subject of the Organization's strategic focus, nor will they be discussed during
the remainder of the strategic planning process.

11 Chapter Eleven – Defining Strategic
Objectives
The strategic planning tire meets the road when you develop 6-8 strategic
objectives to pursue in the coming years.
11.1 Defining Strategic Objectives
You have come a long way in your planning process and are nearing the finish
line. In the last Chapter you identified 5-7 critical issues facing your
Organization. In this Chapter you will develop specific, measurable strategic
objectives to pursue in the coming years which address these critical issues.
Most authors refer to these as "long-term objectives,".
Strategic objectives typically, though not always, have multi-year timeframes

for their achievement and are multi-functional, i.e. they require concerted
efforts by people from many different parts of your Organization.
Strategic objectives (SO's) begin with such words as "to have," "to be," "to
become," or "to achieve" and end with a specific year by which the SO will be
met.
11.2 Developing Your Strategic Objectives
You develop your strategic with reference solely to the critical issues you
identified in the last Chapter. Begin with the highest priority critical issue and
discuss ways to address it. When your ideas begin to gel, write an SO in the
above format. Make them positive in concept and wording. Focus on the
achievement to come, not on the shortcoming or problem in the present.
Since you might draft two or three SO's for each critical issue, you can easily
end up with 15-25 potential SO's. Once again, you must prioritize them and
choose 6-8 SO's to drive the future development of your Organization. This
discussion and prioritization process is markedly similar to the one you used in
settling on your critical issues, so we advise following that technique.
When you have completed this prioritization, you may well find that one or
more of the critical issues has no associated strategic objective. Don't worry!
If you have followed the process well, then the 6-8 SO's you chose are the best
ones. Resist with a passion the temptation to add more SO's so that all critical
issues are addressed, which can easily balloon the SO's to a dozen or more.
There is no quicker way to kill the vitality of a strategic plan than this! The
only way for SO's to be special and to serve as focal points for your

Organization's development is to have few of them. Otherwise, efforts are
diluted, and achievements are diminished.
We suggest validating your SO's against six criteria:
1. Is it measurable or verifiable?
2. Is it achievable or feasible?
3. Is it flexible or adaptable?
4. Is it consistent with the rest of your strategic plan.
5. Does it stretch your people without breaking them?
6. Is it clear, easy to understand, and inviting to achieve?

12 Chapter Twelve - Strategic Action
Milestones
The strategic action milestones link your objectives to your people and your
resources.
Strategic planning sets the context for the organization to do certain things.
These are ultimately encapsulated in strategic action milestone summaries
(SAM’s) which identify the 4-8 milestones – major events, phases, or
accomplishments – that must take place in an orderly fashion for the SO’s to be
met, who will be responsible for each, when they are to be accomplished, and
what they will cost in both time and money. SAM’s provide the final link from
mission, strategy, and objectives to two vitally important factors:
Development and deployment of your people

Expenditure of financial resources
12.1 There is one SAM summary for each SO
With most of our clients, a “Strategic Action Milestone Summary” template

based on a simple spreadsheet format helps to visualize and organize the flow
of effort and resources to achieve each strategic objective. Some
organizations who routinely use project management software find a project
management template better meets their needs. (We would be happy to
provide these templates to anyone interested.)
12.2 Responsible person
While each milestone (by definition) represents a significant accomplishment

and will in all likelihood involve many people, one person is to be charged with
orchestrating its achievement.
12.3 Schedule
Each milestone’s achievement needs to be scheduled. In early drafts, one

normally targets quarters for starting and completing one. When all SAM’s
have been drafted, then the personnel and financial resource loading can be
determined and adjusted accordingly.

12.4 Resources required.
Capital resources are equipment, facilities, acquisitions, or other major

investments not covered in the normal budget. Operating resources are other
needed monies not covered in the normal budget. Consultants and other
outside service providers would fall under operating resources. Human
resources refer to the internal hours to complete the milestone. If staff must
be added to the organization, their costs must be included in the operating
column.
Report progress to the person or, in some cases, the board or other policy
group that the responsible person will periodically report progress to and
receive support and resources from.

13 Chapter Thirteen - What to Do
When the Strategic Planning is
Done?
The objective of strategic planning is ultimately to act. Here's what to
consider as you roll out your plan for implementation.
13.1 Implement
This point seems to be obvious, but is terribly important. The hardest part of
strategic planning is to do what you planned and to be alert to the inevitable
opportunities for action that are clearly better than your plan (and to adjust
your plan accordingly).
Implementation takes a certain amount of discipline, will, and change from

your usual business practices. The aim is to have your strategy deeply and
seamlessly embedded in your daily, weekly, and monthly routine. The plan
should guide your activities, underlying all you do.
13.2 Communicate
The strategic plan should be shared with everyone in your Organization, as well
as with other stakeholders – suppliers and subcontractors, customers and
clients, alliance partners, community and government Organizations. The
more people who know what you are trying to achieve, the more ideas will
bubble up, sometimes from unexpected places.
Appendices which might include your strategic action milestones or budgetary

information are not part of the public document.
13.3 Monitor.
The monitoring process needs to be institutionalized as much as possible.

Specific tasks should be part of the agenda of relevant management meetings.
At the least, it should be part of a monthly agenda.
A formal progress review should be held quarterly. This should include not only
the obvious checking of progress against the plan, but also testing of the
underlying assumptions of the plan, the continued validity of the objectives,
and unanticipated events which might need to be reflected in the plan.

13.4 Update.
A more thorough review and update should take place annually, preferably in a
retreat setting, so that it can provide the backdrop to the annual budget
process most organizations engage in. In effect, the strategic plan becomes a
“rolling three to five year plan.” In practice, however, most organizations do
not need to do a thorough update and republish the strategic plan annually.
If well executed, a strategic plan starts becoming “stale” about the third year
and should be redone entirely from scratch. If this is not done, a planning
mindset – one of the most important products of the whole exercise – will be
lost for a decade.
When you redo your strategic plan, you will generally find little change in the
big issues – your values, vision, mission, and grand strategy – and even then,
changes will tend to be in clarifying wording, rather than wholesale changing of
concepts. Most changes will be in the critical issues and objectives, for, after
all, both the external world marches on and you have achieved many of the
objectives laid out in the plan.

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DEFINING THE STRATEGIC PLANNING

FRESH THINKING CAPITAL PTY LTD

396 Florida Road

© Fresh Thinking Capital Pty Ltd 2008 info@freshthinking.co.za 1

1 Chapter One - Benefits & Limitations of Strategic Planning............................ 3

© Fresh Thinking Capital Pty Ltd 2008 info@freshthinking.co.za 2

In the chapters that follow we shall look at:

What strategic planning is and is not

1.1 What Is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is a disciplined, creative process for determining how to

Strategic planning is fundamentally a decision making process, based on asking

What do we do? Where are we going?

© Fresh Thinking Capital Pty Ltd 2008 info@freshthinking.co.za 3

This process encompasses the entire spectrum of issues an organization faces,

1.2 What Are Its Benefits?

The benefits of strategic planning are manifold since it:

1) Asks and answers questions of key importance to the organization

The above benefits can be encapsulated in a single statement:

Strategic planning aligns the total organization – people, processes, and

What Are Its Limitations?

While the benefits are manifold, unfortunately so its limitations:

The future is uncertain and might differ substantially from expectations on

© Fresh Thinking Capital Pty Ltd 2008 info@freshthinking.co.za 4

"Strategic planning determines where your organization should be going so that

STRATEGIC PLANNING IS STRATEGIC PLANNING IS NOT

© Fresh Thinking Capital Pty Ltd 2008 info@freshthinking.co.za 5

Myth 3. Strategic planning is a formal, analytical process. Strategy is

© Fresh Thinking Capital Pty Ltd 2008 info@freshthinking.co.za 6

1. Strategic thinking concentrates on establishing the planning bedrock of

3.1 Meaning of the Strategic Plan

A strategic plan is a living document, not something to be thrown on a shelf.

3.2 Strategic Planning Team

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3.3 Thoughts About the Strategic Planning Process

3.3.3 Time commitment

For a typical Organization, 3-6 months is required to develop a strategic plan,

3.3.4 Big thoughts

If there is ever a time to decouple everyone from the everyday concerns of

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Vision is the first element in the planning bedrock. It is the fundamental

Vision is the concrete statement of your ultimate dreams for the

Clarifying one's vision is a deceptively difficult task. Ideally, it should be:

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Values are your convictions on how business is to be conducted and people

It is relatively easy to develop a list of important values. It is hard to home in

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6.1 What is Strategic Thinking?

Clarifying your mission is vitally important, precisely because it forces you to

Ideally, your mission should be:

6.2 Clarifying Your Organization's Mission

1. What business(es) are we in?

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A powerful technique for determining your organization’s strategy (the

1. Products offered – produces specific products (things) for its markets.

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Let's review the three elements of the planning bedrock first:

Vision - the concrete statement of your ultimate dreams for the

It is strategy that connects the present to the future. Strategy is a direction, a

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A situational assessment requires a hard-headed look at all the factors

Internal factors: External factors:

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Threats are external to your organization. They compound your vulnerability