Business and Operation analysis

This TQM article provides an insight of a typical Strategic Planning Process that was used in several organizations and proven to be very practical in implementation. the key processes of this typical Strategic Planning Process are lined up into 7 steps. Detail of each steps are illustrated below:-

Step 1 – Review or develop Vision & Mission

Able to obtain first hand information from various stakeholders (Shareholders, customers, employee, suppliers communities etc).

You may use templates to evaluate how the stakeholders think about your organization. To find out whether their action are aligned with the organization’s objectives.

To review or develop company’s Vision and Mission with the involvement of other stakeholders to ensure it is still current with the business changes and new challenges. Also use this session as a mean for communication.

Step 2 – Business and operation analysis (SWOT Analysis etc)

One of the key consideration of strategic planning is to understand internal (own organization) Strengths and Weaknesses as well as external Threats and Opportunities. These are commonly known as the four factors of a S.W.O.T. analysis.

Involvement from various stakeholders to provide their points of view about your organization is key. In the process, you will gain better buy-in from these implementers of strategies and policies.

Step 3 – Develop and Select Strategic Options

You may use templates to develop several key possible strategies to address the organization’s objectives. More important, these possible strategies are develop based on the inputs from stakeholders (step 1) and Business and Operation analysis (step 2).

It is often several possible strategies are developed and everyone of them seems important. Since it is quite normal that an organization would have several key issues to tackle, you will be able to use a proper tools to select a few from the possible strategies. You will b e able to apply several prioritizing tools as introduced in this step.

Step 4 – Establish Strategic Objectives

During this step, you will be able to view the overall picture about the organization and able to select a few strategic options objectively. Template may be used to understand various strategic options, set key measures and broad time line to ensure the selected strategic options are achieved.

While it is quite common that measures and timeline is given by top management, it is the intention of this step 4 that these measures and timeline is SMART . What it meant was Specific (S), Measurable (M), Achievable (A), Realistic (R) and Time-bound (T). when the strategic options are SMART, it will help to ease the communication toward the lower level of the organizational hierarchy for implementation.

Step 5 – Strategy Execution Plan

Many organization failed to realize its full potential of its strategies are due to weak implementation. In this Step 5, a proper deployment plan is developed to implement these strategies.

Step 6 – Establish Resource Allocation

Very often, management team assigned selected strategies to key personnel and left it to the individual to carry out the task. While most organizations operate with minimum resources, it often ends up work overloaded by individual.

Step 7 – Execution Review

One of the key success factors for an effective strategy deployment is constant review of its progress and make decision for any deviations to plan. It is vital to decide what to review and with who the review is done. New decision may be required as the status of the strategies progressed.

In summary: Follow this 7-steps in Strategic Planning will ensure various options are considered including its execution, resource allocation d and Execution Review. This 7-Steps form a complete cycle for new or existing Strategic Planning initiatives

If you are looking for a partner, funding, angle investor or venture capital you will be asked for a business plan. Even if you are not in need of capital in the formation of your new business endeavor you will still be glad you prepared a business plan to help you prove to yourself that you have the right stuff and that the business is economically viable. The first step in the creation of your new business will be making a customized business plan. Please use this outline as your template to insure you do not forget anything important. This is a business plan format and outline I had created after reading over ten business plan books and taking the best of each of them and putting them into one outline. I give this to your freely and wish you great success in your new business. It is the great entrepreneurial spirit and the entrepreneur that build this great nation, glad to see you are one of us

BUSINESS PLAN

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A. Form Of Business

B. Introduction

C. State Of Technology

II. OBJECTIVES

A. Goals

1. Market Share

2. Sales

3. Customer Service

B. Statement Of Purpose

III. COMPANY ANALYSIS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

A. Location

B. Background

1. Accomplishments

2. History

3. Strengths

C. Local

1. Trends

2. Business Climate

D. Position For Growth

1. Future Of Industry

IV. MARKETING ANALYSIS

A. Marketing Strategy

1. Customer Markets

a. Types

2. Government Markets

c. Agencies

d. Divisions

3. Non-profit Markets

f. Organizations

2. Risk Considerations

a. Politics – Special Interest – Government

b. Competition – Profiles

3. Inventory

a. products

b. Supplies

c. Purchasing

4. Equipment

a. Layout

b. Type

5. Sales

a. Tactics

b. Pricing

c. Promotions – Advertising

6. Media

a. Fundraising

b. Newspaper

c. Radio

B. Demographics

1. Scope

2. Segment

3. Surveys – Etc.

4. Markets To Exploit

5. Types Of Customers

C. Distribution

1. Customer Service

2. Delivery

3. 1-800 Number

4. Flyers

V. MANAGEMENT

A. Implementation

B. Controls

C. Training

D. Labor

E. Independent Contractors

VI. OPERATIONS

A. Hours

1. Operation

2. Delivery

3. Specialty

B. Maintenance

1. Vehicles

2. Equipment

VII. LEGAL STRATEGIES

A. Licenses

B. Regulations

C. Insurance

VIII. FINANCIAL STRATEGIES

A. Taxes

B. Capital Requirements

1. Financing

2. Required Investments

3. R.O.I.

4. Breakeven

5. Working Capital

C. Benefits

1. Security

2. Health Coverage

D. Projections

1. Ratios

a. Quick Ratio

b. Debts To Assets

c. Asset Turnover

d. Cash Flow

E. Expenses

1. Lease Payment

2. Royalties

3. Printing

4. Insurance

5. Utilities

6. Telephone

7. Labor

8. Bank Fees

IX. STRATEGIC PLANNING ANALYSIS

A. Long Term Goals

B. Manager Plug-Ins

C. Renewal Of Franchise License

X. APPENDIX

A. Competitors Brochures

B. Feasibility Studies

C. Picture or Rendering of Location

Strategic thinking is often described as reflective dialogue about the future so that one can avoid pitfalls as well as take advantage of opportunities. It is a process whereby you learn how to make your business vision a reality by developing your abilities in team work, problem solving, and critical thinking. Strategic thinking requires you to envision what you want your ideal outcome to be for your business and then works backwards by focusing on the story of HOW you will be able to reach your vision.

Put another way, strategic thinking is the ability to think systemically, with a whole systems perspective which often transcends what the organization is currently engaged in.

Strategy

Strategy is a term that comes from the Greek, strategia, meaning generalship. Strategy is what you do and it is, in many respects, where you invest your funds and resources. A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often “winning”. Strategy is different from tactics or immediate actions. Strategies are intended to make the problem or problems easier to understand and solve.

Strategy is about choice, which affects outcomes. Many organizations survive – and do well – for periods of time in conditions of relative stability, low environmental turbulence and little competition for resources. Over time, virtually none of these conditions prevail in the modern world for great lengths of time for any organization. Therefore, we have the need for strategic management.

Strategic management is necessary in situations where an opponent blocks the way to an objective. Strategic Thinking breaks the chains that currently anchor you in survival mode. Strategic thinking requires that you take a critical look at the underlying factors that lead to successful strategic planning.

Strategy should be adaptable rather than a rigid set of instructions which is why strategic thinking is so important.

Thinking

Thought or thinking is a mental process that allows human beings to model the world and to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires. Thinking strategically is not a dry or boring way of thinking, on the contrary, it is a creative, and powerful skill that energizes people and prepares the person and their organization prepared for the unknown future.

In strategic thinking, there are four viewpoints to take into consideration when forming your business strategy:

Environmental view Marketplace view Project view Measurement view.

On the other hand strategic thinking is about synthesizing, about using your intuition and creativity to formulate anunique perspective or vision of where the organization should be heading.

Planning

Planning is the organizational process of creating and maintaining a plan. It involves the process of thinking about the activities required to create a desired future on some scale. As such, it is a fundamental idea or behavior. This thought process is essential to the creation and refinement of a plan, or integrating it into other plans.

Strategic Planning on the other hand is a discipline, which can include innovative elements but essentially focuses on the rigor of making sure how to get from one position to another without falling off the cliff.

Strategic planning is about analysis. In other words, it is about breaking down a goal into steps, determining how the steps could be implemented, and identifying the possible consequences of each step. Many people assume that strategic planning, strategic thinking, and strategy making are synonymous. To the contrary, strategic thinking is a complimentary and critical addition to the process of strategic planning, implementation, and management.

Unfortunately, few strategic decisions are made in the context of a formal process. This typically happens because a company’s most important strategic decisions are often made as developments unfold. The use of a formal process for strategic thinking and effective execution is crucial to effective performance improvement and productivity enhancement. Maintaining competitive advantage requires an action plan – the allocation of responsibility for different outcomes to specific people who are passionate about seeing them through, and the development of appropriate incentives to motivate the right kind of behavior.

Effectuve execution of strategy requires an understanding the link between planning and strategy development. It requires broad-scale and effective information gathering, clarification of the mission and issues to be addressed, exploration and development of alternative strategies, and an emphasis on the future implications of present decisions.

This requires the determination of “what are the necessary thinking patterns to handle the paradigm shift that are associated with change?” The best intelligence comes from inside organizations that can influence the success of your project. A SWOT analysis is crucial to any strategic thinking process! It helps define the attendant goals developed as a result of the strategic thinking process

Goals

Creating a strategy for any organization involves defining goals and intermediate and short-term objectives,. Your goals are the broad results you wish to achieve over the long term. Your objectives should flow naturally from your goals.

Be clear on the goals and outputs, make the “SMART”

Specific Measurable Agreed-Upon Realistic Time-Specific

In addition:

Ask yourself what things are important to the organization? What perspectives do senior managers have toward organizational priorities, and more specifically, your work team Which of your priorities or goals have the best chance to be viewed positively at any given moment.

It is critical to ask if the right thing is being done within the context of the organization’s strategic direction (mandate, vision, mission, core values and goals and objectives (expectations).

Conclusion

Strategic thinking is pretty much like viewing a movie – it allows you to see things from “higher up. Strategic thinking is an attempt to think through as many “results” that come from our actions that defeat our purpose.

Strategic thinking is an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Strategic thinking is not always easy nor should it be. Strategic thinking involves synthesis, using intuition and creatively forming, a shared vision, of where the organization should be heading if it is to survive and prosper in the current and future market place.