7 Benefits of Strategic Planning

There was a time when strategic planning was done only by the largest companies. Now it is simply a requirement for all business to survive. Business leaders must be constantly looking ahead, anticipating change, and developing a strategy to proactively and successfully navigate through the today’s global marketplace. Without strategic planning, businesses simply drift, and are always reacting to the pressure of the day.

For many business owners and leaders, creating a vision, company values, and a strategic plan can be a daunting task for reasons like time, energy, commitment and lack of experience. It requires business leaders to accept that yesterday’s success does not ensure success in the future. It also requires challenging the status quo, changing behaviors, implementing new procedures, hiring different people, and putting new systems in place in order to deliver on the strategy.

So why should companies go through all the hard work of creating a vision, establishing values and formulating a strategy? The answer is simple: combining a good strategic plan and great results in an organization with focus, accountability and more time for the important activities. Here are a few key benefits of good planning and great execution:

1. Better Decisions - Information communicated through vision and strategy allows people to make the best decisions(hiring and rewarding the right people, adopting and developing the right systems, making the right investments, etc.).
2. Increased Energy – Resulting from rallying behind a cause, and elimination of conflict and confusion of priorities.
3. Increased Capacity – People are focused on what is important and less concerned about what isn’t.
4. Improved Customer Satisfaction – A true test of value and leads to higher retention and growth.
5. Competitive Advantage – Doing what you do better than others.
6. Better Solutions – Uncovering the enormous intellectual and creative capacity of an organization that collectively works toward solutions rather than a relying on select few.
7. Market Recognition – Over time you can “own” a position and space in the marketplace.