Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy.  There are many different frameworks and methodologies for strategic planning and management.  While there are no absolute rules regarding the right framework, most follow a similar pattern and have common attributes.  Many frameworks cycle through some variation on some very basic phases:

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1. Analysis or assessment, where an understanding of the current internal and external environments is developed.

2. Strategy formulation, where high level strategy is developed and a basic organization level strategic plan is documented.

3. Strategy execution, where the high level plan is translated into more operational planning and action items.

4. Evaluation management phase, where ongoing refinement and evaluation of performance, culture, communications, data reporting, and other strategic management issues occurs. 

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A strategic plan is a document used to communicate with the organization the organizations goals, the actions needed to achieve those goals and all of the other critical elements developed during the planning exercise.  Generally, the main components of a strategic plan should include:

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• Mission

• Vision

• Core Values

• SWAT Analysis

  • Internal - Strengths & Weaknesses​

  • External - Opportunities & Threats

• Goals

• Objectives (SMART)

  • Specific​

  • Measurable

  • Achievable

  • Realistic

  • Time-based

• Strategies

• Action Plans

 

DMS has experience in developing strategic plans and can assist clients in review of their current plan and or developing a new strategic plan.