1. Introduction to Strategic Planning
'If you don't know where your business is going, any road will get you there.'

What is a Strategic Plan?
Entrepreneurs and business managers are often so preoccupied with immediate issues that they lose sight of their ultimate objectives. That's why a business review or preparation of a strategic plan is a virtual necessity. This may not be a recipe for success, but without it a business is much more likely to fail. A sound plan should:

• Serve as a framework for decisions or for securing support/approval.
• Provide a basis for more detailed planning.
• Explain the business to others in order to inform, motivate & involve.
• Assist benchmarking & performance monitoring.
• Stimulate change and become building block for next plan.

A strategic plan should not be confused with a business plan. The former is likely to be a (very) short document whereas a business plan is usually a much more substantial and detailed document. A strategic plan can provide the foundation and frame work for a business plan.

A strategic plan is not the same thing as an operational plan. The former should be visionary, conceptual and directional in contrast to an operational plan which is likely to be shorter term, tactical, focused, implementable and measurable. As an example, compare the process of planning a vacation (where, when, duration, budget, who goes, how travel are all strategic issues) with the final preparations (tasks, deadlines, funding, weather, packing, transport and so on are all operational matters). A satisfactory strategic plan must be realistic and attainable so as to allow managers and entrepreneurs to think strategically and act operationally -

Basic Approach to Strategic Planning
A critical review of past performance by the owners and management of a business and the preparation of a plan beyond normal budgetary horizons require a certain attitude of mind and predisposition. Some essential points which should to be observed during the review and planning process include the following:

• Relate to the medium term i.e. 2/4 years
• Be undertaken by owners/directors
• Focus on matters of strategic importance
• Be separated from day-to-day work
• Be realistic, detached and critical
• Distinguish between cause and effect
• Be reviewed periodically
• Be written down.

As the precursor to developing a strategic plan, it is desirable to clearly identify the current status, objectives and strategies of an existing business or the latest thinking in respect of a new venture. Correctly defined, these can be used as the basis for a critical examination to probe existing or perceived Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats and Opportunities. This then leads to strategy development covering the following issues discussed in more detail below:

• Vision
• Mission
• Values
• Objectives
• Strategies
• Goals
• Programs

2. Key Steps towards a Strategic Plan
The preparation of a strategic plan is a multi-step process covering vision, mission, objectives, values, strategies, goals and programs. These are discussed below.

The Vision
The first step is to develop a realistic Vision for the business. This should be presented as a pen picture of the business in three or more years time in terms of its likely physical appearance, size, activities etc. Answer the question: 'if someone from Mars visited the business, what would they see (or sense)?' Consider its future products, markets, customers, processes, location, staffing etc. Here is a great example of a vision:

I will come to America, which is the country for me. Once there, I will become the greatest bodybuilder in history.......... I will go into movies as an actor, producer and eventually director. By the time I am 30 I will have starred in first movie and I will be a millionaire...... I will collect houses, art and automobiles. I will marry a glamorous and intelligent wife. By 32, I will have been invited to the White House. Attributed to Arnold Schwarzenegger who was elected Governor of the State of California in 2003.

The Mission
The nature of a business is often expressed in terms of its Mission which indicates the purposes of the business, for example, 'to design, develop, manufacture and market specific product lines for sale on the basis of certain features to meet the identified needs of specified customer groups via certain distribution channels in particular geographic areas'. A statement along these lines indicates what the business is about and is infinitely clearer than saying, for instance, 'we're in electronics' or worse still, 'we are in business to make money' (assuming that the business is not a mint !). Also, some people confuse mission statements with value statements (see below) - the former should be very hard-nosed while the latter can deal with 'softer' issues surrounding the business. The following table contrasts hard and soft mission statements.

Hard Soft
What business is/does
Primary products/services
Key processes & technologies
Main customer groups
Primary markets/segments
Principal channels/outlets Reason for existence
Competitive advantages
Unique/distinctive features
Important philosophical/social issues
Image, quality, style, standards
Stakeholder concerns
Compare the following statements:

Hard Statement
X Corp. designs, develops, assembles and markets systems for data base management. These systems integrate its proprietary operating system software with hardware supplied by major manufacturers, and are sold to small, medium and large-sized companies for a range of business applications. Its systems are distinguished by a sophisticated operating system, which permits use without trained data-processing personnel.

Soft Statement
Our mission is to enhance our customers' business by providing the very highest quality products and services possible. Our customer support strategy is based upon total, no-compromise customer satisfaction and we continually strive to offer a complete package of up-to-date value added solutions to meet our customers' needs. We value above all our long term customer relations.

Intel's original plan, written on the back of a menu is an excellent example of a hard statement:

The company will engage in research, development, and manufacture and sales of integrated electronic structures to fulfill the needs of electronic systems manufacturers. This will include thin films, thick films, semiconductor devices, and ......... A variety of processes will be established, both at a laboratory and production level ...... as well as the development and manufacture of special processing and test equipment required to carry out these processes. Products may include dioded transistors ....... Principal customers for these products are expected to be the manufacturers of advanced electronic systems ..... It is anticipated that many of these customers will be located outside California.

The Values
The next element is to address the Values governing the operation of the business and its conduct or relationships with society at large, customers, suppliers, employees, local community and other stakeholders.

The Objectives
The third key element is to explicitly state the business's Objectives in terms of the results it needs/wants to achieve in the medium/long term. Aside from presumably indicating a necessity to achieve regular profits (expressed as return on shareholders' funds), objectives should relate to the expectations and requirements of all the major stakeholders, including employees, and should reflect the underlying reasons for running the business. These objectives could cover growth, profitability, technology, offerings and markets.

The Strategies
Next are the Strategies - the rules and guidelines by which the mission, objectives etc. may be achieved. They can cover the business as a whole including such matters as diversification, organic growth, or acquisition plans, or they can relate to primary matters in key functional areas, for example:

• The company's internal cash flow will fund all future growth.
• New products will progressively replace existing ones over the next 3 years.
• All assembly work will be contracted out to lower the company's break-even point.

Use SWOTs to help identify possible strategies by building on strengths, resolving weaknesses, exploiting opportunities and avoiding threats.

The Goals
Next come the Goals. These are specific interim or ultimate time-based measurements to be achieved by implementing strategies in pursuit of the company's objectives, for example, to achieve sales of $3m in three years time. Goals should be quantifiable, consistent, realistic and achievable. They can relate to factors like market (sizes and shares), products, finances, profitability, utilization, efficiency.

The Programs
The final elements are the Programs which set out the implementation plans for the key strategies. These should cover resources, objectives, time-scales, deadlines, budgets and performance targets.

It goes without saying that the mission, objectives, values, strategies and goals must be inter-linked and consistent with each other. This is much easier said than done because many businesses which are set up with the clear objective of making their owners wealthy often lack strategies, realistic goals or concise missions.

3. Use Hindsight when Strategic Planning
Statements on vision, mission, objectives, values, strategies and goals are not just elements of future planning. They also provide benchmarks for a historic review. Most managers will find it exceedingly difficult to develop a future strategy for a business without knowing its current strategies and measuring their success to date.

Assess Current Position
The starting point must be to determine a company's existing (implicit or explicit) vision, mission, objectives and strategies. Then judge these against actual performance along the following lines:

• Is the current vision being realized?
• How has the company's mission and objectives changed over the past say, three years?
• Why have the changes occurred or why have no changes occurred?
• Identify primary reasons and categorize them as either internal or external.
• Describe the actual strategies followed over the past few years in respect of products/services, operations, finance, marketing, technology, management etc.
• Critically examine each strategy statement by reference to activities and actions in key functional areas covering such matters as:
• How has the company been managed?
• How has the company been funded?
• How has the company sought to increase sales and market share?
• How have productivity/costs moved?

Take each element and quantify by reference to actual performance. Ask of each 'why not'?, 'why only'?, or 'why so'? And locate the reasons for differences between the actual and desired performance.

Drill Down
A useful technique for exploring performance shortfalls is to review the business's financial return and to drill down through the components of this return to locate and assess the key determinants of performance. For example, return on shareholders' funds is a key measure of profitability which can be expressed as:

Net income
------------
Sales X Sales
-----------
Shareholders' funds

Take each item in this formula, explore its contents and derive performance measures or ratios. For example:

Sales break down into sales values, units, prices, discounts, commissions, bad debts and so on.

Net income is derived by deducting costs (materials, labor, power etc.), expenses, interest and depreciation from sales revenue.

Shareholders' funds are based on the value of fixed assets, current assets, current liabilities, debt etc.

4. Effect not Equal to Cause when Planning Strategy
When reviewing a business it is essential to cut through the symptoms of problems and reach the underlying causes. Questions which can assist in revealing the real causes include the following:

'What stopped the business from?'
'What caused the cause of?'
'Why didn't the business achieve a 25% return?'

By way of an example consider why this company may be unable to increase its market share:
Because it cannot penetrate major customers because its product range is too narrow because the company doesn't have the capability to produce additional products because of shortcomings in R & D because of a lack of expertise and resource because R & D is not an immediate priority because of a lack of profits because of a high interest burden because the company is over-reliant on borrowings because the shareholders won't/can't raise additional permanent capital.
The moral in this case is that there are no major customers due to under-capitalization !

5. SWOTs - Keys to Business Strategies
Having built up a picture of the company's past aims and achievements, the all-important SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis can commence.

Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths and weaknesses are essentially internal to the organization and relate to matters concerning resources, programs and organization in key areas. These include:

• Sales - marketing - distribution - promotion - support;
• Management - systems - expertise - resources;
• Operations - efficiency - capacity - processes;
• Products - services - quality - pricing - features - range - competitiveness;
• Finances - resources - performance;
• R&D - effort - direction - resources;
• Costs - productivity - purchasing;
• Systems - organization - structures.

If a startup is being planned, the strengths and weaknesses are related mainly to the promoter(s) - their experience, expertise and management abilities - rather than to the project.

The objective is to build up a picture of the outstanding good and bad points, achievements and failures and other critical features within the company.

Threats & Opportunities
The external threats and opportunities confronting a company, can exist or develop in the following areas:

• The company's own industry where structural changes may be occurring (Size and segmentation; growth patterns and maturity; established patterns and relationships, emergence/contraction of niches; international dimensions; relative attractiveness of segments)
• The marketplace which may be altering due to economic or social factors (Customers; distribution channels; economic factors, social/demographic issues; political & environmental factors)
• Competition which may be creating new threats or opportunities (Identities, performances, market shares, likely plans, aggressiveness, strengths & weaknesses)
• •   New technologies which may be causing fundamental changes in products, processes, etc. (Substitute products, alternative solutions, shifting channels, cost savings etc.)
• Against an uncertain and shifting background, the objective must be to identify and prioritize the key SWOTs in a one-handed manner (Don't say 'on the one hand ...........but on the other hand.........').

Develop Business Strategies
Once the SWOT review is complete, the future strategy may be readily apparent or, as is more likely the case, a series of strategies or combinations of tactics will suggest themselves. Use the SWOTs to help identify possible strategies as follows:

• Build on strengths
• Resolve weaknesses
• Exploit opportunities
• Avoid threats

The resulting strategies can then be filtered and molded to form the basis of a realistic strategic plan -.

6. Simple & Short Strategic Plans
Notwithstanding that 'battles are often lost for want of nails', a company rarely succeeds or fails for minor or trivial reasons. The causes are usually substantial and are often self-evident, at least to an outsider. For example, the business was completely over-borrowed; management was weak; a major new product opportunity was identified; legislation changed; a major competitor went bust or expanded; the company never reinvested.

It should be possible in the course of a few pages to set down the main elements of a business's vision, mission, values, objectives, goals, strategies, SWOTs etc. The compilation of a short report along these lines is likely to prove much more difficult than a lengthy dissertation which mixes up details and principles, and confuses the broad picture.

Independent advisers or non-executive directors can play a valuable role in this process because they can readily adopt the role of devil's advocate and also bring external knowledge and expertise to bear.

7. Using the Strategic Planning Worksheet
When using the Strategic Planning Worksheet below, note the following suggestions:

1. Relate the planning exercise to a specific company or, if diversified, to individual strategic business units.
2. Ideally the worksheet should be compiled by a multi-discipline management group, or separately by 2/3 groups and then discussed in plenary session if a large business unit is involved.
3. If working on your own, complete the worksheet and then return to it a few times over the following few days and critically review what you wrote - why, why, why etc. and ask yourself whether you have seen the 'wood for trees'.
4. A completed worksheet should be edited down into a 1-2 page document and reviewed by the group(s). The final form of the document need not follow the worksheet's layout provided all the matters are covered.
5. All ideas, issues etc. should be internally consistent and realistic.
6. You need a very good understanding of the market, competitors etc. in order to make a clear assessment of your SWOTs. If you haven't got this insight, suspend work on your strategic plan until you have done this basic research.
7. Allow enough time as you may find it much more difficult to write a short plan than a long one!!!!