Strategic planning (for small businesses)

The question was asked first on LinkedIn where other answers can be found. My answer was:

“Strategy looks to growth while business planning looks to beginnings" --- Maybe so, but strategy built on the need or desire to "grow" must know what it is that you are growing. If it's money, well, there are countless strategies involving marketing and sales to choose from. You realize you need to put more work into planning when the dollars are below your projection. You don't count how many years before you realize you need a strategic plan, because the dollars are all that you count. You don't care how many pages long your plan is because all that matters is the one page where the bottom line is.

This sort of strategic planning encompasses Marketing, Technology, Business Purpose, Organizational Goals, Strategies for Reaching Each Goal, Action Plans to Implement Strategy, Monitoring Plan Implementation, etc, but only to the extent that they provide value to the growth in dollars you seek; otherwise, they provide no value and you jettison them whenever the dollars you seek are not there. Growing dollars in a strategic planning process may or may not help your business.

A wise man said once: "Dollars have no agenda." People do.

It depends on whether growing dollars is your business. You revisit and revise such a strategic plan whenever you need or desire more money. On the other hand, if you want to grow something other than dollars for your business (say for example transparent leadership with succession built in; a bullet-proof customer base; business intelligence and common sense wisdom; co-workers who are happy to help you work for a livelihood for this generation and the next; processes where shared knowledge is more powerful than hoarded knowledge; results available on a real-time basis from wherever you may be in the world), then you may be talking about a different kind of strategic planning.

When I worked this different way, I found much greater satisfaction. We realized we needed to put more work into planning immediately. The plan was one Web page long. It encompassed marketing, technology, business purpose, organizational goals, strategies for reaching each goal, links to action plans to implement strategy, and the monitoring of plan Implementation.

Our process helped Texas Nameplate Company win the 2004 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in Small Business. TNC was to review and revise the plan each fiscal year.

Since I am no longer there, I cannot speak for what the company is doing going forward. So how do you decide what to strategize about in such planning? Or more fundamentally, how do you make decisions?

Perhaps answering that question will help you understand the deeper oversights in strategic planning. I don't know the answer myself at this point, but I am asking the question. Thanks for your question.”

What do you think?

Please include your comment here or contact me to discuss.

Thanks.

John Darrouzet