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Strategic planning.

Article Excerpt
This checklist is for managers involved in considering the strategic position and direction of their organisation for the first time. It provides a framework of practice to draw on and encourages strategic thinking rather than imposing a sequence of steps to follow.

At the beginning of the 21st century, such is the pace of change, the growth of uncertainty and the diversity of customer expectations that the major risk to survival and success is in not planning. Strategic planning helps you manage the future; if you don't manage the future, the future will manage you.

There are no magic formulas; each organisation will be different. So getting the questions right is crucial to success. This checklist details the questions to address in the strategic planning process and should be read in conjunction with the checklist on Producing a Corporate Mission.

Definition

Strategic planning goes to the heart of what an organisation should do, why and how it should do it, and where it is going in the future. It is "a total concept of the whole business involving a framework and process that guides its future" (Napuk). Strategic planning addresses a number of basic questions:

* where are you now?

* how did you get there?

* what business are you in or should be in?

* where do you want to be in the future?

* how are you going to get there?

Advantages of planning

Strategic planning will provide the organisation with a framework for:

* understanding the organisation's position in the marketplace

* moving forward with a sense of direction and purpose

* focusing on key...