The value of strategic planning for any business is to be proactive in taking advantage of opportunities while minimizing threats posed in the external environment.

The planning process itself can be useful to rally the troops towards common goals and create buy in to the final action plan.

The important thing to consider in thinking about planning is that it is a process not a one shot deal. The strategy formulation process includes the following steps:

· Strategic planning to plan (assigning tasks, time, etc.)

· Environmental scanning (identifying strengths and weaknesses in the internal environment and opportunities & threats in the external environment)

· Strategy formulation (identifying alternatives and selecting appropriate alternatives)

· Strategy implementation (determining roles and responsibilities, and timeframe)

· Strategy evaluation (establishing specific benchmarks and control procedures, revisiting plan at regular intervals to update plan, etc.)

This is exactly the approach that we will be taking. As you will soon discover, however, the approach may not be as linear as it looks (do this, then that, by the numbers).

I think that many of you will soon begin to appreciate the iterative nature of the planning process (working the various steps in a back and forth approach).

For the objectives you have listed, how can you make these measureable?