Every business is required to be aware of the strategic management process and implement it correctly. However, it can be quite overwhelming. You need to know how it works. But being a first-timer, you may not several things. It includes where to start, how to determine what to include in the strategic plan, when to involve others, etc.
Know the 6 steps of strategic management process
Doing some research on the web will help you to come across a wide range of strategic planning processes. Most of them tend to have some variation in the given below stages that you need to know.
1. Identify strategic position:
It is perhaps the first thing that you need to do, where you are to define long and short-term objectives. You should also get know the steps to achieve them. For example, a soda company’s mission is to become the world’s #1 soda company. It can be achieved by increasing 10% market share among baby boomers. You should spend aggressively on advertisements rather than simply targeting baby boomers.
2. SWOT Analysis:
Performing this task will allow you to know your company’s weaknesses, threats, opportunities and strengths. Furthermore, you can get to refine your business goals and objectives, thus ensuring pursuing a more constructive way. During this stage, you should refer to a reliable SWOT analysis template to derive the optimum from this valuable exercise. Again for example, the soda company can enjoy greater opportunity when exploring new overseas market. This can be achieved only after it performs SWOT analysis. Hence, it replaces the original objective to target any specific demographic.
3. Gather precious information and people:
Identify those things that might hinder you from obtaining your objectives. This phase requires you to collect vital information and people required to determine if other factors are to be considered. Baby boomers, for example, might not prove to be the right market to venture if the soda example is taken. Rather, the soda company should target millennial. This analysis phase finds companies to refine and tweak its objectives and goals. It is done based on the information they are able to collect.
4. Formulate strategic management process:
Once the above three phases are completed, the soda company in the example can now come up with a strategic plan. It should consider all information that was gathered during the earlier phases. In this phase, the soda company is to develop a plan with details of its goals, its plans to achieve them. Also should be included how to measure success and the timeframe to accomplish the set objectives.
5. Execute strategic process:
It is important for every department to coordinate and act quickly to fulfill the strategic plan. To target the overseas market, the marketing department may develop an ad roll-out plan. Similarly, manufacturing will require to research on the different overseas distribution channels. To oversee proper and timely roll-out, HR will be required to hire talented employees with good industry experience.
6. Constant performance monitoring:
The company is required to monitor crucial data as it helps determine it adhering to the set plan. Moreover, it evaluates if further tweaks will be necessary to achieve long-term goals. For example, the soda company is to analyze current sales trends and market share percentage within the roll-out region.
The above are the steps of the strategic management process that you need to undertake to ensure business success. Some strategic planning processes are said to have around 4-7 steps. This is just an example of a strategic plan that you may consider for your business. Do some research to find out what best suits your organizational requirements.
