Business Strategy February 2018

Strategic Plan Template

This strategic plan template can be used to structure your answer to LO4 which
requires you to produce a strategic plan.
One way to think about strategic planning is that it identifies any gaps between a current state and
desired future state, and then dictates how to close those gaps - how to get you from where you
are to where you want to be. To that end, various factors are taken into consideration in order to
formulate an effective plan. Here are some of the elements commonly included in a strategic plan.
Executive Summary – A concise, carefully worded summary of the key points of the plan. This
enables interested parties - employees, investors or other readers to quickly understand and
assess the plan. Often written after the main components of the plan have been defined.
Background Statement - This section may provide information about the organization such as
history, management structure, and supporting partners or agencies.
Organizational Structure - Include this information if it’s relevant to evaluate how your business
or organization operates and is structured - from governing body to staffing. 
Mission Statement - A mission statement describes the purpose of a business or organization,
why and how it operates. Like an ‘elevator pitch’ - to concisely describe your business.  This is
distinct from a vision statement because it is not a projected goal for the future.
Vision - A vision statement should briefly describe what a company wants to achieve or
become in three to five years.
Values - These are the principles that an organization stands for and abides by. Many businesses
create core value statements to guide company culture and CSR policy.
Market analysis – Using a choice of tools, e.g., Ansoff Matrix, Bowman’s Strategy Clock.
Competitor analysis – e.g. Porter’s Five Forces Analysis and the application of Porter’s
‘Generic Strategies’.
SWOT Analysis - A SWOT analysis provides a foundation and context for developing strategy by
examining the strengths and weaknesses within and organization as well as external opportunities
and threats.
Portfolio Analysis – e.g. using the BCG matrix to identify ‘Rising Stars’, ‘Dogs’ and ‘Cash Cows’
Key Strategic Goals - As stated earlier, a strategic plan may include long-term as well as more
short-term goals.
SMART Objectives - Strategic goals should be broken down into SMART objectives which
specify who is responsible for implementing the objective and a timeline for starting and ending the
action. Objectives are frequently expressed in: financial terms (e.g. desired profit levels)
market terms (e.g. desired market share) and increasingly social terms (e.g. corporate social
responsibility targets).
Resource Implications: You do not need to produce a detailed budget but you must identify
resourcing changes that are required to implement your objectives, e.g. borrowing more
money to expand; getting rid of staff if you are retrenching, recruiting more staff if you are
growing; additional marketing funding to promote a new product or service.
Evaluating and monitoring the plan - Methods for evaluation should be spelled out in the
strategic plan. This could include tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and documenting the
progress of action steps on an ongoing basis. You can use the SAF model to evaluate your
strategic plan: is it:
Suitability: Suitability is probably the most important factor in the SAF strategy model, as an
option’s suitability is the key to whether or not the strategy will do what the company wants it
to do. In order to assess the suitability of a strategy the business should be asking
questions such as “does the strategy use the company’s strengths effectively?”, “does the
strategy overcome the difficulties which were identified in the analysis?” and “does the
strategy fall in line with the goals the business wants to achieve?”
Appropriate: The acceptability aspect of a SAF strategy model is all about measuring the
return, risk and stakeholder reactions resulting from a particular strategy. Returns will be
measured based on the benefits that stakeholders expect from the strategy and could be
financial as well as non-financial, depending on what the stakeholders decide. Returns
calculations can be performed by any number of methods such as cost-benefit analysis,
profitability analysis, real-options analysis and shareholder value analysis.
Feasible: The feasibility aspect of the SAF strategy model is really the make or break of any
strategy. Whether or not the business has the resources, aptitude and abilities to actually
implement the strategy is key to its success, therefore financial feasibility needs to be
assessed by forecasting and analysing cash-flows, performing break-even analysis and a
number of other financial tests. An easy way to remember everything you need to assess for
feasibility is to use the M-word model: machinery, management, money, manpower,
markets, materials and make-up.

Tony L Doherty (April 2018)