Run this checklist to plan, define, and document your business strategy. Adopt a flexible and inclusive approach by implementing the Cascade Strategic Planning Model.
Think of your strategic plan as your business roadmap. Gaps are identified between your current state and your desired future state. The strategy is then defined and documented to dictate how you close such gaps, getting you from where you currently operate to where you want to be.
A written strategic plan will play a pivotal role in your small business's growth and success by telling you and your employees how best to respond to opportunities and challenges.
However, despite the obvious benefits, there is a growing number of business owners not focusing on long-term business strategies. For instance, a 2018 Constant Contact Survey of 1,005 small business owners, found that 63% stated they plan only a year (or less) in advance. With 90% of organizations failing to execute on their strategies.
In addition to this, findings from Harvard Business Review indicated that on average, 95% of company employees are unaware of, or do not understand, the business strategy.
But it doesn't have to be like this.
You can use this Strategic Planning Template to achieve performance breakthroughs and effectively implement new corporate strategy at all levels in your organization.
Successful strategic planning involves team effort from an organization's internal team and external vendors and other outside people. Our Strategic Planning Template has been designed with this in mind.
Strategic planning also needs to be flexible. Whilst it is necessary to have both goals and objectives in your business, it is also important to adapt to the changes made. This is why we recommend you use our Strategic Planning Template in conjunction with our Change Management Model templates (all relevant template sources are provided at the end of this checklist).
How to use this checklist
At the beginning of this checklist, you will be presented with a set of specialized questions given as form fields. You are required to populate each form field with your data.
This checklist has been broken down into the three phases of the strategic planning process:
- Discussion phase
- Development phase
- Review and updating phase
Other features included in this template are:
- Stop tasks - To ensure task order.
- Dynamic due dates - To make sure your initiative is reviewed on time.
- Role assignment - To delegate tasks within your team ensuring your supervisors are appropriately assigned to the review tasks.
- Approvals - So the relevant manager can give the go-head or rejection on specific tasks, adding comments for any changes to be made.
- Conditional logic - To introduce if-this-then-that logic that will adapt each checklist to differing and specific circumstances.