Strategic planning is the process of defining an organisation's direction and making decisions on allocating resources to pursue this direction. Strategic planning must consider long-term goals, external challenges and internal capacities.
Every business, whether it's a budding startup or a global conglomerate, operates with certain objectives in mind. These objectives, often regarded as the milestones of success, play a pivotal role in shaping the company's trajectory. They are the beacons that align employees, leaders and stakeholders, drawing them together towards a shared dream.
Unfortunately, creating this alignment is seldom so straightforward. In the maze of organisational structures, varying departmental goals and diverse skill sets, achieving synergy can be a daunting task. It is in navigating this intricate landscape that the importance of strategic planning becomes evident. This systematic approach not only charts out a clear path to reach set objectives, but it also ensures that everyone is working not only together, but in ways that support and strengthen one another to move the organisation in the same positive direction.
To help achieve this shared vision, successful organisations turn to strategic planning.
Aligning on goals across the entirety of the organisation is an essential factor in defining future success. Strategic planning provides businesses with a roadmap for their future development and growth, bringing everyone together on the same page and making it possible to coordinate efforts across teams and departments to achieve established goals—and to pivot effectively should those goals change.
This allows companies to make more informed decisions, adapt to changing circumstances and maintain a competitive edge in their industry or sector. Executives especially have the responsibility to navigate constant change and risks that come with market conditions. At the same time, executives are working to increase speed to add more value to the organisation's efforts. They must ask the question: What will bring in the most value given the limitations of time, budget and resources?
Strategic planning helps them address these questions by looking at the time-to-market demands of customers, ultimately helping them be agile in their decision-making and goal setting. It is also worth noting that strategic planning is an ongoing process that requires flexibility and adaptation as the organisation's internal and external environments evolve. Mastering this process is one of the most valuable skills executives can develop.
Strategic planning offers a range of benefits to organisations, helping them navigate challenges, make informed decisions and achieve long-term success. Some of the key benefits include:
- Clear direction and focus: Strategic planning provides a clear and unified sense of direction for the entire organisation. It aligns everyone's efforts toward common goals and priorities, reducing confusion and increasing focus.
- Alignment of efforts: When all employees understand the organisation's mission, vision and goals, they can work together more cohesively. This alignment leads to better collaboration, improved coordination and a shared sense of purpose.
- Informed decision-making: Strategic planning involves a thorough analysis of internal and external factors. This information enables better decision-making, as leaders can anticipate challenges and leverage opportunities effectively.
- Resource allocation: By identifying key priorities and initiatives, strategic planning helps allocate resources—such as budget, time and workforce—more efficiently and effectively. This prevents the waste of resources on less important endeavours.
- Adaptation to change: Organisations face a dynamic and evolving business environment. Strategic planning equips organisations with the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, comprehensively aligning their work to the new goals and strategies while maintaining a clear course toward their long-term success.
- Long-term vision: Strategic planning focuses on long-term goals and aspirations. This forward-looking perspective ensures that short-term decisions align with the organisation's broader vision, preventing short-sighted actions.
- Stakeholder engagement: Engaging stakeholders—including employees, customers, investors and partners—in the strategic planning process enhances their sense of involvement and commitment to the organisation's success.
- Measurement of progress: Strategic planning includes the establishment of measurable goals and performance metrics. This allows organisations to track their progress and adjust as needed to stay on course.
- Enhanced communication: Clear communication of the strategic plan across the organisation fosters transparency and understanding. Employees at all levels know the organisation's priorities and can contribute meaningfully to their achievement.
- Resource attraction: A strong strategic plan can attract investors, partners and top talent. It demonstrates the organisation's commitment to growth and sustainability, making it an appealing prospect for external stakeholders.
- Employee engagement and satisfaction: Employees are more likely to feel engaged and motivated when they understand the organisation's direction and how their contributions contribute to its success.
Strategy planning is about bringing value and alignment to the business. Time and budget management are important, but they will not serve your organisation if they do not directly impact your business strategy. Following these five key steps can help ensure that your strategy is not just saving time and money but serving your organisation's long-term goals.
Central to strategic planning is the ability to pinpoint the purpose of the organisation—its goals, alongside any concerns, challenges or opportunities that may impact its success. To do this, organisations use portfolio plans. Portfolio plans should offer a range of 'lenses' or perspectives through which to view the work. This tailored approach improves strategic understanding of the current situation and aligning it with the broader context.
In large enterprises, there are many tasks, initiatives and work items coming from different departments. Portfolio prioritisation is essential in this regard. Managing and tracking backlogs from these multiple sources can be overwhelming—particularly at the enterprise level. To overcome this, the best portfolio prioritisation tools offer three distinct views—list, Kanban and hierarchy. These views allow planners to gather, review and rank initiatives and work items, providing a consolidated overview in a singular workspace.
Once priorities are set, it is time to chart out the journey ahead. Roadmap planning offers stakeholders a panoramic view of cross-functional plans, from top initiatives down to minute tasks. These roadmaps link every task in the organisation back to its original strategic goal. Irrespective of the work delivery method, planners can establish roadmaps for all demands, monitor dependencies between tasks and swiftly address conflicts. Progress can be tracked through milestones and completion percentages.
With a clear roadmap in hand, it is time for action. Implementation involves the actual rollout of tasks, projects and initiatives identified and prioritised in the earlier stages. Effective tools make it possible for leaders to automate and align work across all organisational tiers, ensuring that the goals are realised.
Strategic planning is not a one-and-done endeavour. Regular updates and revisions are crucial to keep the strategy relevant. Constant monitoring to track continued progress, regular feedback from stakeholders, ongoing adjustments to the plan based on user feedback and periodic long-term reviews will help ensure that everyone remain fully aligned with the business' evolving goals and circumstances. The strategic planning process is iterative and dynamic, allowing organisations to adapt to changing conditions while staying focused on their long-term objectives. The cycle of identification, prioritisation, development, implementation and updating helps organisations maintain their strategic direction and respond effectively to both challenges and opportunities.
Strategic planning is typically a collaborative effort involving various individuals and groups within an organisation. Because it takes a lot of time, dedication and intentional work, it is best to appoint a committee that leads this process. This committee is made up of many different representatives that can bring a variety of perspectives to the strategising process. Some of the key groups or individuals include:
- CEO/President: The ultimate leader responsible for setting the overall direction and vision of the organisation.
- Executive team: Senior executives and department heads who contribute their expertise to shape the strategic direction and ensure alignment across different functional areas.
- Cross-functional team: A diverse group of leaders and managers from different departments who contribute their insights and expertise to the planning process.
- Project management office (PMO): The PMO provides a structured framework for project prioritisation, resource allocation and timeline management. Acting as a bridge between strategy and execution, the PMO ensures that strategic initiatives are translated into actionable projects.
- Project manager/facilitator: A project manager also needs to be solely dedicated to overseeing the planning process, coordinating meetings and ensuring that the process moves forward smoothly.
- Employees and frontline managers: Both employees and managers have a direct hand in the operations of your organisation, so their input is invaluable in understanding the reality and functions of the company.
- Stakeholders: Customers, investors and partners may all have important insights into the direction and needs of your business and brand.
Strategic planning tends to be an executive process, but it does not apply to just one level or type of management. Because there are layers to your organisation, each facet of your operations should be considered and planned for. You can break it down into three categories: business, corporate and functional.
Focus: This type of plan is centred on a specific business unit, product line or market segment within the organisation.
Scope: It outlines the strategies and actions the business unit will take to achieve its goals and contribute to the organisation's overall success.
Components: A business strategic plan typically includes market analysis, competitive positioning, growth strategies, product development plans, marketing strategies and financial projections specific to the business unit.
Focus: The corporate strategic plan encompasses the entire organisation and defines its overall direction and priorities.
Scope: It outlines the strategies that guide the organisation, often across multiple business units, product lines and markets.
Components: A corporate strategic plan includes the organisation's mission, vision, values, overarching goals, resource allocation strategies, mergers and acquisitions plans, diversification strategies and risk management approaches.
Focus: Functional strategic plans address specific functional areas or departments within the organisation, such as marketing, operations, human resources, finance or technology.
Scope: These plans detail how a particular function will contribute to the achievement of business and corporate goals.
Components: A functional strategic plan outlines strategies related to the specific function, such as HR recruitment and retention strategies, marketing campaigns, technological innovation plans or supply chain optimisation.
Strategy maps and other management tactics play crucial roles in guiding organisations through strategic planning. There are many moving parts during strategic planning, so it is important to use a dynamic tool or method that helps you collaborate and visualise how your plan will unfold.
Strategy maps are often designed to help executives understand the cause-and-effect relationships of their overall strategy. For example, you may want to better understand how to reduce costs while still improving a certain business process and a strategic map that outlines the details of that relationship can help with decision-making.
In today's constantly shifting markets, aligning a company's work with its short- and long-term goals is not just a priority—it is a necessity. Work/goal alignment is the key to maximising efficiency, fostering collaboration and driving consistent growth, and strategic planning is the vehicle by which this alignment can be achieved. However, without the right tools and resources at hand, even the most well-intentioned strategic endeavours may fall short of their mark.
ServiceNow Strategic Planning tools are revolutionising how organisations bring their people, their tasks and their objectives together. Align all work to strategy, prioritise initiatives and create visual roadmaps. Automatically track goals in your agile, waterfall or hybrid approaches. Apply powerful features, such as the Goals Framework and Portfolio Plans, to allow for personalised strategy alignment. Use the Planning Prioritisation tool to ensure that your people's efforts are directed where they matter most. And with Hybrid Roadmaps, all traditional, agile and hybrid work is managed from a single, centralised platform, giving leaders the power to visualise dependencies and address potential conflicts proactively.
When it comes to connecting your people's work with your company's goals, the right tools can make all the difference. ServiceNow is your ally in reaching the objectives that matter most. Learn more about Strategic Planning from ServiceNow and get ready to align your business like never before.