Strategies, Plans and Commitment

Do you know that creating a strategic plan for your business can have a lot of tremendous and positive impacts on your business?

However, before you spend all your resources on developing a plan, there are a few things you should check out for first. 

· Is there a commitment from the leader and management team of the organization? Can they be held accountable for the successful execution of the plan?

· Is there someone whose skillset you can trust to guide the meetings for the development of the program? 

The documentation of the resulting strategic plan does not necessarily have to belong and voluminous. All it has to be is a plan that is conducive to execution. A program that is conducive to implementation would have these characteristics:

· Must be focused

· Brief: Voluminous documentation may not provide enough drive to facilitate the change you want in your organization.

· Accountability: Your plan should be subject to occasional referencing (daily or weekly). This would help track progress and guide decision making. 

The most easily executed strategic plans are no more than two pages long. In the rest of this article, I will be showing you how to make a two-page strategic plan.

Your Two Page Strategic Plan

Page 1: Strategy

This page describes how you will compete for profits. On this page, there should be three main components:

· Value Proposition

· Modified Value Chain

· Trade-offs

What the value proposition does is that it answers the following questions for your top markets:

1. Who are your customers, and where are they located?

2. Which needs are being filled?

3. What is your pricing relative to the competition?

4. Which requirements are not being filled?

5. What makes us unique?

What the modified value chain section does is that it describes the activities you perform that are different from your competition to create value

Trade-offs enlist the businesses your organization would no longer engage in.

Page 2: Long Term plan

This page deals with the vision of your organization. This page specifies the route to the achievement of the strategy from the first page. Here are the components of the long-term plan:

·  Long Term Goal – This is the expected outcome of the procedure you have put in place after several years. 

·  Key Success Factors – These are industry-specific activities that you must perform better than the competition to be successful.

·  3-Year Quantitative Goals – These include measurable targets such as revenue, profits, cash generated, number of new/active customers, etc.

·  Target Market to Dominate – This part species your targeted market. It should include customer description, location, and your specific offer.

·  Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – The three ways your product stand out to when compared to that of your competition.

·  USP Metrics – How you will measure that you are living up to your USP.

·  Key Metrics – These specify daily/weekly/monthly metrics to be tracked to judge whether you are achieving your plan or not.