Strategy and Planning: Charting a Course for Growth

I recently saw an interview with the owner of a franchise printing company in the Midwest. When she bought the business, sales had stalled, growth was limited. Clearly, the enterprise needed a new direction.

Since taking ownership, sales have more than tripled. The company has made key investments, put solid processes in place, and prioritized customer growth and development. Although many factors contributed to this success, the owner cites strategic planning as a major driver of these strong results.

Strategic planning is not for companies of a specific size or specialty. It can be a simple, effective way to organize your best resources to the benefit of identified target customers and stakeholders, and to do this better than the competition.

Here are ten items to consider when getting started.

1. Mission: Why do we exist? What business are we in?
2. Vision: What are we building? What do we aspire to become and what will that mean for our stakeholders?
3. Values: What are our non-negotiable organizational behaviors? How will they be monitored?
4. COS (rather than SWOT): What are our Concerns, Opportunities, and Strengths (unique strengths)? These unique strengths form the foundation for operational strategies.
5. Future Business History: Starting five years out, what we would have to have accomplished for us to feel good about our progress? Then three years, then one year. What has to be true or in place to meet our one-year, three-year, and five-year targets?
6. Objectives: One-year targets expressed in specific, measurable terms.
7. Strategies: How will we leverage our unique strengths to maximize our best opportunities.
8. Tactics: Over the next 90 days, what do we need to accomplish, organizationally and departmentally, to meet our one-year targets? A "champion" is assigned for each item, someone to ensure the item is caried out.
9. One-Page Business Plan: All eight items are captured in summary form, providing simple, concise tool enabling managers to stay focused and on track.
10. Quarterly Recap: a one-day review meeting to assess progress and determine the next 90-day tactics.

An experienced facilitator will maximize the results gained from strategic planning. Why not get started today?

Download your complimentary copy of Alexander Joseph & Associates Strategy & Planning workbook, at ajstrategy.com/snp, or contact me at joe@ajstrategy.com.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions. Artificial Intelligence may have been used in part to create or edit this content.