Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning is a methodical procedure for envisioning a wanted future and translating this vision into broadly characterized goals or objectives along with a sequence of steps to accomplish them.
Strategic planning comprises the procedures of defining objectives and creating strategies to attain those objectives. A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, as differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand.
Strategic planning is a management tool for organizing the present on the basis of the projections of the desired future. That is, a strategic plan is a road map to lead an organization from where it is now to where it would like to be in five or ten years.
Remember your audience and your stakeholders when performing your strategic planning. The result should be a document that everyone involved in the planning process understands and supports. If nothing else it should be user friendly and provide clear picture of the organization and where it is heading.
Even though many use the terms strategic planning and long-range planning synonymic, the terms differ in their prominence on the assumed environment.
Strategic planning does not try to make future decisions. A Part of strategic planning is anticipating the future environment, however the decisions are made in the present.
