There may be some nuances to consider in your market but this list should help guide most companies to come out of the process with a well-thought-out, strategic plan for growth.

Many companies take the late summer or early fall to formulate their strategic plan for the next 12-18 months. I compiled a list of ten quick best practices for strategic planning based on my experience working with LLR portfolio companies and in my prior consulting days. There may be some nuances to consider in your market – and certainly we have a potential recession to consider in 2022-2023 – but these should help guide most companies to come out of the process with a well-thought-out, strategic plan for growth.

Here are my Ten Best Practices for Strategic Planning

1. Start with the end in mind: Define the future state or goal of the business you are working towards over the 3-5 year-planning period (the “north star”), including both quantitative & qualitative metrics.

2. Stay grounded: Make sure the strategy is rooted in the core business, the core market opportunity, and what the business does well.

3. Figure out what you’re optimizing for: Depending on the degree of maturity of the business, you may optimize for different things (e.g., growth vs. profitability).

4. Balance aspiration & achievability: Finding the right balance creates good results for the business and drives engagement in the organization.

Involve key leaders at the right times throughout the planning process. It’s important to find the right balance and realize that not all aspects of the strategy can be done by consensus.

5. Bring the right people to the table at the right time: Make sure you involve key leaders at the right times throughout the planning process. However, it’s important to find the right balance and realize that not all aspects of the strategy can be done by consensus.

6. Have a “designated dissenter”: Being a strong leadership team does not mean agreeing on everything all of the time. Identify one person on the team to constructively challenge ideas – the end result will be better for it.

7. Connect the dots:

a. For the organization: Everyone in the organization should be able to see a clear link between their daily work and the strategic plan.

b. With financial forecasts: Ideally, the strategic plan directly feeds into any long-range financial plans and annual plans/budgets.

8. Be clear what you’re NOT doing: One of the goals of strategic planning is to create focus and clarity for the organization, but sometimes leaving things unsaid as to what’s been deprioritized creates ambiguity and distractions.

9. Put the business in context: Don’t develop a strategic plan for the business in a vacuum. Think about the business in the context of the market and take into consideration the external factors that could impact the business going forward.

10. Try to break it: Instead of just reacting when things don’t go to plan, try to think ahead of what could go wrong and be prepared with contingency plans or mitigation strategies.

I hope this list helps you to maintain focus as you go through your strategic planning. For some more detailed insights and advice, here are links to other LLR GrowthBits articles that might be helpful:

– Going Beyond the Total Addressable Market to Evaluate New Growth Opportunities
– How to Shift from Opportunistic Growth to Core Market Discipline

This GrowthBit is featured in LLR’s 2023 Growth Guide, along with other exclusive insights from our portfolio company leaders and Value Creation Team. Download the eBook here.