Strategic Planning

Planning is one thing but integrating a planning process into your organization is the key to long-term success. According to the Journal of Small Business Management almost three-quarters of fast growing companies have long-range planning tools in place. But when we're entrenched in the day-to-day it's not unusual for planning to be deferred.

"An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing." - Dale Carnegie

"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining." - John F. Kennedy

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend  the first hour sharpening the axe." - Abraham Lincoln

You get the idea. You may think you can't spare the resources to plan but the reality is you're exhausting greater resources when you fail to plan.

Don't feel compelled to try and take someone else's idea of planning and integrate it within you company. Like most things, a good planning process needs to fit your skills and culture. Learn from others but adapt the planning process to fit your environment.

Although there's no one right way to plan there are key components every company should integrate within their planning process. Comprehensive assessments like SWOT analyses (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Strengths is one such essential element. Creating a forecasting process and establishing metrics are also key.  

 have four decades of planning experience in over a dozen industries with companies from start-ups to the Fortune 500. We can help you develop or fine-tune your initial or current plan. More importantly, we can assist you to integrating the planning process within your entire organization.