Your strategic plan needs an implementation plan to go with it!

"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." ~ Alexander Graham Bell

I have helped a myriad of firms with their strategic planning. These firms know the importance of this process and our willing to pay to have professionals take firms through this critical aspect of their business. The importance of strategic planning just cannot be overstated.

Strategic planning should be thought of as mandatory element to for every operating company. But not all companies implement their plan properly.

Many businesses fail in their ability to follow their own strategic plan for numerous reasons. Some of these reasons are that situations change, people change positions, and staff get too busy with other things.

In my opinion the number one reason that strategic plans do not get implemented is that while management sets up the strategic plans, it fails to develop a plan for implementation of the plan with accountability included. Just having a plan is okay, but to be effective, it has to be implemented and each and every plan needs to have an implementation plan. With any implementation plan, staff has to be held accountable to insure the plan’s execution.

I was working with a firm that spent so much time in developing ways to turn their business around since they were treading water in terms of sales and just could not develop a viable plan. After spending a good deal of time and effort, they were able to develop some great ways to get sales moving again -- and were excited about the  prospect of making their firm viable again. However, when I asked them what their plan for implementation was --  and how were they going to measure their progress -- they did have any good answers except to say they needed to make sure they had ways in place to make this happen.

Without an implementation plan and way to insure progress of the goals, the strategic plan is just a pile of papers. Most successful businesses have plans but they look at these plans every month to insure they are following them and they also have a process to check each month on how they are progressing on the plan.

In order to have a successful strategic plan, you need these three elements: a strategic plan, an implementation plan and a way to measure progress of the implementation plan.  All three steps are so important in strategic planning.

Occasionally, plans hit a wall or some other problem and have to be tweaked and this is just to be expected and not a problem with the original plan. The economy might change or customers’ expectation might change, but the plan must just be adjusted to account for this.

Now go out and make sure you have a not only a great strategic plan but an implementation plan and an effective way to measure the progress of the plan.

You can do this!

Dr. Osteryoung has directly has assisted over 3,000 firms. He is the Jim Moran Professor of Entrepreneurship (Emeritus) and Professor of Finance (Emeritus) at Florida State University. He was the founding Executive Director of The Jim Moran Institute and served in that position from 1995 through 2008. His newest book co-authored with Tim O'Brien, "If You Have Employees, You Really Need This Book," is a bestseller on Amazon.com. He can be reached by e-mail at jerry.osteryoung@gmail.com.

Tags: Florida Small Business