105 Reading: Planning
Developing a Strategic Plan
Without a plan, it’s hard to succeed at anything. The reason is simple: if you don’t know where you’re going, you can’t really move forward. Successful managers decide where they want to be and then figure out how to get there. In planning, managers set goals and determine the best way to achieve them. As a result of the planning process, everyone in the organization knows what should be done, who should do it, and how it should be done.
Coming up with an idea—starting a note-taking business —is a good start, but it’s only a start. Planning for it is a step forward. Planning begins at the highest level and works its way down through the organization. Step one is usually called strategic planning, which is the process of establishing an overall course of action. To begin this process, you should ask yourself a couple of very basic questions: Why, for example, does the organization exist? What value does it create? After you’ve identified the purpose of your company, you’re ready to take the remaining steps in the strategic-planning process:
- Write a mission statement that tells customers, employees, and others why your organization exists.
- Identify core values or beliefs that will guide the behavior of members of the organization.
- Assess the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- Establish goals and objectives, or performance targets, to direct all the activities that you’ll perform to achieve your mission.
- Develop and implement tactical and operational plans to achieve goals and objectives.
In the next few sections, we’ll examine these components of the strategic-planning process.
Mission Statement
The mission statement describes the purpose of your organization—the reason for its existence. It tells the customer what the organization is committed to doing. A strong mission statement should also inspire employees and resonate with their inner motivations for working and being part of the organization.
Mission statements can be very concise, like the one from Mary Kay Inc. (the cosmetics company):
To enrich the lives of women around the world.[1]
Or it can be as detailed as the one from Harley-Davidson:
We fulfill dreams inspired by the many roads of the world by providing extraordinary motorcycles and customer experiences. We fuel the passion for freedom in our customers to express their own individuality.”[2]
Core Values
Having defined your mission, your next step is to ask, what does this organization stand for? What values will define it? What principles should guide our actions as we build and operate the business? The set of guiding principles that you identify as crucial to your company are known as core values—fundamental beliefs about what’s important and what is and isn’t appropriate in conducting company activities. Core values affect the overall planning processes and operations. At Volvo, for example, three core values—safety, quality, and environmental c