Overview
Strategic planning is a critical business practice that helps position companies for success. Having a strategic plan aligns your leadership team and guides management decisions. Unfortunately, most strategic plans fail to deliver real value due to some common pitfalls, such as viewing strategic planning as a single, annual event, not an on-going process where the plan is reviewed and acted on throughout the year. Today, more than ever, companies need to devote time to strategy. Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to strategic planning, companies that get the most benefit from their strategic planning activities have four things in common: 1) They explore strategy at distinct time horizons; 2) They constantly reinvent and stimulate strategic dialogue; 3) They engage the broad organization; and 4) They invest in execution and monitoring.
Tools for Success
- Strategic Planning Facilitation – Whether this is your company’s first strategic plan, or a continuation of your on-going planning efforts, Catalyst’s Strategy Facilitators are available to guide your team. We’ll review your company’s mission and vision and help you assess the external forces, competitive environment and market trends shaping your industry. This external assessment, combined with an internal review of your company’s culture and capabilities lay the groundwork for identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats so your team can develop strategies to capitalize on opportunities and offset the risks of potential threats. We’ll work together to set business goals and priorities that leverage the external and internal assessments and move your company toward achieving its vision. We’ll define strategic initiatives and reach agreement on specific objectives of what can realistically be accomplished in a year, setting priorities, ownership, timelines, and budgets. Perhaps most important, Catalyst works with your team throughout the year on a regular basis to ensure the plan is being implemented and course corrections are made as needed. This helps keep your company on the right track and takes your business to the next level.