Business Plan Development

Strategic Business Plans

A winning strategic business plan is essential for all organizations with the ambition to grow and succeed in their marketplace. It is the ultimate management tool to set out your business objectives and how you’ll achieve them. A good plan takes into account the competitive environment and identifies your tactics to achieve success.

A strategic business plan is not just a roadmap to success for a business owner or CEO. It also has an important communications role in helping management team members and employees understand the firm’s main goal and objectives and the milestones that have to be achieved along the way.

Strategic business plans are all about performance. The best plans address performance issues and lay out what is expected with clear goals and milestones so that team members are in no doubt about what is required in their area of responsibility. With Regular reports and updates, senior managers will have a system of measurement and accountability to help steer the business to the success defined by the objectives of the plan.

The Format of a Strategic Business Plan

The format of your plan may vary depending on the focus and performance issues your business wishes to address, but most strategic business plans contain these key elements:

● Vision Statement
● Mission Statement
● Core Values
● SWOT Analysis
● Long-Term Objectives
● Intermediate Goals and Milestones
● Functional Strategies

Vision Statement

A strategic business plan begins with a vision statement. This is where you concisely set out your aspirations for your company and what it does. For example, the vision statement of LinkedIn is: “Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”

Above all, a vision statement has to be clear, relevant and understandable by all the stakeholders of your business.

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Mission Statement

The mission statement keeps you more grounded. It explains what you do, who you do it for and why you do it. It may be a very concise summary of your overall strategic plan. All good mission statements are clear and unambiguous. The best are easily memorable and impact all activities of an organisation. This is Walmart’s concise mission statement that clearly sums up their company philosophy: “We save people money so they can live better.”

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Core Values

Core values are what your company believes and how you want it resonating with and appealing to employees, customers and all those who interact with you. Sometimes these values are so innate to an established company it can be hard to identify them. For a new company, the owner or CEO has the opportunity to set the tone by explicitly stating the values of the organisation. Here are the core values of the Coca Cola Company:

● Leadership: The courage to shape a better future.
● Collaboration: Leverage collective genius.
● Integrity: Be real.
● Accountability: If it is to be, it’s up to me.
● Passion: Committed in heart and mind.
● Diversity: As inclusive as our brands.
● Quality: What we do, we do well.

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SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) was invented in the 1960s at the Stanford Research Institute. It is still very much relevant today. Any strategic business plan is produced at a moment in time. A good SWOT analysis both identifies the current environment and looks to the future. When producing a SWOT analysis, examine what your business does well and where it can improve. Look at any future opportunities to pursue that could help facilitate growth and success, and any competitors or external factors that could prevent the business from growing successfully.

Company strengths are usually easy to identify. It is often more difficult to identify and accept the business’ weaknesses. Every business has weaknesses and things to work on. Any weakness you identify means it’s something you can improve on in the future with objectives in the strategic business plan and associated action plans.

Opportunities available to your business may be clear, while identifying threats to your business can be more difficult. Making contact with industry associations and external research should give you a good idea of where your sector could be heading. You may uncover any major challenges such as new laws and regulations or leaps in technology.

Often an external consultant can bring fresh eyes and expertise to the weaknesses and threats to your business. They will work with you to identify these challenges and address them in your strategic business plan. This puts you in a better position to deal with them as they arise.

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Long Term Objectives

A strategic business plan usually covers a number of years, often at least 5 years. Long-term objectives may include specific improvements in the organization’s competitive position (market share), profitability, return on investment, productivity and employee matters (including retention, recruitment, training).

The objectives should be set within the SMART framework, that is: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based. This is an effective process for setting and achieving your business goals allowing for transparency and accountability.

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Intermediate Goals and Milestones

Long term objectives are great for the most senior managers, owners and shareholders but are not so useful for day-to-day management. A strategic business plan should communicate the performance expectations of senior management to functional managers and employees. Intermediate goals do this job by being specific to particular departments or functions and giving shorter term, attainable targets. They should be consistent with, and set the path to, achievement of the long term objectives. They should conform to the SMART framework but also take into account factors such as market seasonality and investment timings.

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Functional Action Plans

Having set the intermediate goals and milestones, how is the business to achieve them? By using the SMART framework then your long-term and intermediate goals should be attainable. Setting objectives for increased sales, profitability and return on investment means you need to implement action plans. These action plans will reflect both function and organisational structure.

A sales growth target will require a marketing plan to identify increased sales opportunities and to promote your products or services. A profitability target may be helped by increased sales but at the same time you need to consider the consequences for the operations side of your business. Increased sales volume will put pressure on functions such as purchasing and logistics. You may aim to cut costs by improved distribution or more efficient manufacturing. Functional objectives will require their own action plans, each the responsibility of a manager.

Having set the objectives, the plans and the measures of success at a functional level, senior management then has a framework for performance measurement and direct accountability.

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Why Commission a Strategic Business Plan from BSBCON?

Strategic business plans are essential tools for new businesses and newly purchased businesses requiring a launch or relaunch plan or plan for expansion to a new business sector. They can help reduce anxiety for the new business owner or CEO by providing tangible evidence of viability and a pathway to success. In addition they help communicate expectations to the management team.

The consultants at BSBCON are experienced across a range of industries. We can provide the independent critical analysis required to produce a winning strategic business plan.

Firstly we work with you to understand the purpose and any focus of your strategy and your long term objectives. We will then gather evidence and data about your current operation and combine with external research of your industry and market environment. Finally we will write a unique, strategic business plan tailored to your particular needs.

Your final plan, once approved, will be presented to you in a professionally designed online document that is sure to both inform and provide the blueprint to the success of your business.