KEY LEARNINGS 1.

Planning for the Plan It is important for any organization that wishes to create a strategic plan to prepare thoroughly before diving head first into the water. There must be a time allotted for pre-planning. This includes first and foremost the objective of the planning: What is hoped to be achieved? Who will be the people accountable to achieve success? In addition, pre-planning work involves gathering internal and external data that can be used to visualize the direction of the company. This may include internal surveys and worksheets, interviews with customers, analysis of competitors and collaborators and a study of the industry as a whole. It must be noted that the data gathered should be objective, and must not be based on opinion or biases. 2. Selecting the Right People Complete acceptance or buy-in is essential for the successful implementation of the plan. Before starting the strategic planning process, organizational leaders like the Board of Directors and Higher Management should give the go signal. Limited support from the right people, for example those with authority or those with wide knowledge about the organization, may limit the planning process. The tone at the top will trickle down to the mid-level officers and eventually to the employees giving the message that planning and implementing the strategy is everybodys responsibility. Strategic planning is not, and will never be, a one-man-job. 3. Strategic Planning is a Process A genuine strategic planning can be put into place by following phases or stages. It cannot be done overnight. It cannot be forced. An organization can follow various planning frameworks, from the complex Execution Premium Process to the elemental Strategy Loop. This can serve as a guide from start to finish, and will enable the organization to have contingencies if things do not go as planned. 4. Execution is Key According to a survey1 conducted by Norton and Kaplan, the ability to execute strategy is more important than the quality itself. An organization can have an impeccably smooth plan, but if they are not able to execute it, then the plan will just go to waste. In majority of Norton and Kaplans study, majority of the problematic cases was not because of a bad strategy but bad execution. In short, after all the planning was done, the organization must able to walk the talk.

R. Kaplan and D. Norton (2001), The Strategy-Focused Organization, MA: Harvard Business School Press