Summary Outline:

  1. Develop a Summary Vision/Mission Statement – Envision what & who are we, what do we do, why & how.
  2. Develop a Strategic Statement by key business area – Product, Market, Personnel, Finance, Facilities & Physical Assets.
  3. Develop Strategic Goals within each key business area.
  4. Develop Action Plans to achieve these goals within each key business area with deadlines and assigned responsibilities.

Detailed Outline:

  1. Vision / Mission Statement: What is the Vision? State who we are, what we do and what market(s) we serve. State a philosophy of doing business if desired or appropriate.
  2. Summary of Current Corporate Strategic Goals and Objectives
  3. Strategic Statement by Key Business Area within Each Division, if applicable:
    1. Products: Identify products you will sell, the quality of product expected, pricing expectations, whether they are branded or not, stocking policies including locations, and how, where and by whom they will be manufactured.
    2. Market: Define who we will sell to, level of service we expect to provide, market growth expectations and the competition.
    3. People: Prepare an organization chart including all people resources required to supply the products to the markets defined. Define each of the jobs’ requirements and duties, the culture in which you want people to work and the method of employee advancement and succession
    4. Finance: State the philosophy of profitability, return on equity, asset mix, acceptable leverage for the business and other financial measures.
    5. Physical Assets: Identify the facilities, equipment, processes and procedures used by the company to transform inputs into outputs; the mechanism which connects our people and products to our customers to produce our financial results.
    6. Strategic Goals: For each Key Business Area, define the explicit goals to be achieved in that area. For example, a finance goal may be to achieve a minimum pre-tax return on sales of 3%. Goals must be measurable.
    7. Action Plans: For each goal defined, define the detailed plan of action to achieve the goals including the assigned deadlines and responsibilities for completion.
    8. Definitions: Fundamental to the strategic process is the definition of assumptions used to develop the strategic model. These include
      1. the time horizon for the model
      2. the external (environmental) factors affecting us such as the economy, regulatory matters, competition, customer base, technology, politics and social matters.
  4. Conclusion:

The world is not static: The strategic planning process is never done.  It is a Living Document!