Strategic planning models are what a blueprint is to construction. Strategy planning is of utmost importance as far as the long term business scenario is concerned. It provides a sense of direction through laying down objectives which come in handy for business decision making.
It is up to the business to select and use models based on its needs and goals that had been set at the very start. One can determine which is best suited for the business and alter it when needed:
1. Basic Strategic Planning Model:
This model is usually used by small businesses till the time they become fully established and as the name suggests, is used by new organisations with little experience of strategic planning.
The first few steps in this process comprise of establishing your business goals and writing down the mission and vision statements. Then you identify the strategy that should be used in reaching these goals. This is followed by creating action plans needed to implement the said strategy. From then onwards, once the business operations have started, monitor your progress and implement amendments as and when needed.
2. Alignment Strategic Planning Model:
Such a model helps create an alignment between the business resources and its mission. It can be useful in determining why some goals are not being met and how objectives can be altered. The alignment planning model is among those strategic planning models that are recommended when businesses face internal issues and inefficiencies.
It helps outline resources, missions, and support needed. This is followed by identifying what business aspects are functioning well and which ones require adjustment in order to attain the desired result. This is when the business also needs to identify ways through which such adjustments or alterations can be made which will then have to be included in the strategies being used.
3. Issue or Goal based Strategic Planning Model:
Quite a number of businesses that commence business operations using the basic strategic planning models eke out their existence using issue-based or goal-based planning. This is the most commonly used model among all the other strategic planning models and all steps need not completed each year.
It typically starts with the SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) which a strategic planning tool used to assess the internal and the external environment for the business. The second step is of stakeholders identifying goals and issues through which business objectives can be better prioritized. The steps after this involve developing the mission statement, setting out action plans, developing a strategic plan, designing an annual operating plan, and establishing a budget for the first year.
4. Scenario Strategic Planning Model:
The scenario model is used alongside other models and is very useful as far as identifying business goals and issues are concerned. This is particularly used when there changes occur in the external environment such as changes in business regulations or in demographics. Hence, vulnerabilities are identified that could impact the business and best and worst scenarios are planned for accordingly. Consequently, responses and a reactive strategy is finalized given each situation that may result in say the next five years.
5. The Organic Strategic Planning Model:
This particular model uses a technique called story boarding based on which participants can develop their own ideas before sharing them with a group at large. Based on this, continuous reference to common values and shared reflection around current processes is required.
First of all, story boarding and dialogue techniques are used to clarify the cultural values followed by articulating business vision. It’s more of a general to specific model with a cause and effect approach.
