This process flow graphic is my favorite tried and proven strategic business planning methodology. The graphic is small and relatively busy, so we will break it into three parts which will be displayed and discussed separately in the next three postings.
An important point to understand is that just as there is no single "best" business strategy for a company which will be emotionally accepted, implementable and work well (see the earlier posting "The best is probably not"), there is no single best strategic planning methodology either. A good philosophy is to spend the early hours in a project working to try to understand the underlying corporate personality (to be discussed within a later posting) and the available professional staff skills. Then tweak the planning approach and methodology to be compatible.
The other point to ponder is that strategic planning is a seldom used and often underdeveloped skill within many companies. To succeed, you may need outside help. If that is the case, understand that every business leader/thinker which you might consider bringing in to work on a strategic planning effort brings with her/him two things:
* values
* opinions/lessons learned
Either of which may be incompatible with your corporate personality and professional staff thinking/experiences.
You must be sure that the person with which you choose to work has values and opinions which are compatible with the thinking/experiences of the planning team and with the corporate personality -- often not an easy person to find. Also remember that a consulting company brand does not a person make. Hiring experienced assistance from the best consulting or strategic planning company may still get you people with whom you cannot work. Hire the person, not the company.
A strategic planning project is a great way to build the knowledge and capabilities of resident company professionals. Any project like this should include one or two up-and-coming professionals so that they can learn new quantitative and qualitative skills and build a broader knowledge of how the company actually works. This is always hard to do since these important young professionals already have full-time responsibilities attached to career paths which they really want to follow. However, participation in the strategic planning process will increase the breadth and depth of their corporate knowledge while teaching them new skills such as data synthesis, quantitative analysis, business writing, interviewing, and project management of business analyses.
