Planning for the Year Ahead

Business strategic planningYour business plan is essential to the success of your organization. Your plan is your map. It not only describes what you are going to do, but also provides a direction on how you and your team will get there. Without this execution strategy, your plan is meaningless.

Having a solid plan for how your department or organization will run is a key component of its smooth and successful operation. Your plan is critical to achieving success. It’s important to you, your managers and equally important for the staff you lead. Everyone needs to understand how your organization should be run on a daily basis. Your thoughts and expectations should be clearly defined.

Obviously, for smaller organizations, the business will be far more streamlined and less complicated than it is for larger ones, but your plan still needs to demonstrate an understanding of the work required and how you’ll handle the work flow.

So let’s discuss how you can put together a plan that is organized and understood. Your plan should contain the following items.

Mission. Your mission should be clearly defined so that everyone knows what your organization or department does and why you do it. You may be part of a broader mission, but your organization should still have its own mission. A clear and thoughtful mission statement creates a connection with the organization and the people you serve.

Keys to Success. Organizations have a few key factors that lead to success. What are the things your organization must do to be successful? List these factors in your plan.

Analysis of your organization’s position. Think about your organization’s position or circumstances. A good tool to use is a SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. What is the present position of your organization and how does it need to grow, or change?

Description of Services. What are the services you offer to the rest of your organization? A clear description of these services, what they do and the benefits they provide are important. You may provide a variety of services, depending on whether your customers are internal, external or both.

Delivery Requirements. You must define the requirements of the services you will deliver. These requirements may be set by your team or defined by an outside source. In either case, deciding the measurements and stating them within your plan is important to tracking success. Your next step is to define the responsibilities around each step and the tactics you will take to accomplish your goals. These requirements will play a key role in helping you analyze the success of your staff and the organization as a whole.

Implementation Plan. How are you going to carry out your plan to provide the services needed by others? Your plan should be strategic. Each task should bring you closer to accomplishing the plan.

Objectives. There is a reason why you are taking certain steps, or actions. These are the objectives – and should be stated in your plan. The objectives also help to define success factors.

Personnel and Expertise Needs. Your managers and staff carry out most of your plan. It’s important that everyone understands his or her responsibilities, as well as the qualifications for doing the job. Our next article provides more detail on roles and responsibilities within the plan.

Leah M. Joppy & Associates would like to be your partner in your strategic plan. We provide training – training for leadership, professional and personal development, and many different types of computer training. Give us a call at 301-670-0051 and let us help you achieve faster results with your team.