Strategic planning is “the road map which shows how to get from the current position to the desired position.”

It allows corporations to create a prudential vision, a mission, long term goals and objectives and fundamental principles. It includes strategies to follow in order to reach the established goals, performance criteria, allocation of the resources and developing measurable indicators to monitor and evaluate the operations

Strategic planning requires participation from both upper-level management and employees who are responsible for planning.

• Strategic business (corporate) plan
• Strategic marketing plan
• Annual marketing plan

A strategic business plan comprises of four stages. These are:

• Defining the values, mission and vision of the company
• Situation analysis
• Establishing organizational goals
• Selecting strategies to reach those goals

Strategic business (corporate) plan includes a the mission, vision, values, long-term goals of the company, and formulates strategies to accomplish those goals.

Values are principles and shared beliefs that unite customers, business, managers and staff.

Mission is a statement of the organization’s purpose.

The mission statements should be clear, short and less than two paragraphs.

Vision states the standards for the future success of a business.

Goals are the basis of strategy formation and also provide standards for performance evaluation.

Objectives determine what a business needs to accomplish.

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym that is used to guide the development of measurable goals:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-oriented

Business portfolio is the collection of businesses and products that make up the company.

Portfolio Analysis is a process by which management evaluates the products and businesses making up the company

Growth-share matrix is a portfolioplanning method that evaluates a company’s strategic business units in terms of their marketgrowth rate and relative market share.

Product/market expansion grid (Ansoff Matrix) is a portfolio planning tool for
identifying company growth opportunities through market penetration, market development, product development, or diversification.

Market Penetration is a strategy for company growth by increasing sales of current products to current market segments without changing the product.

Market development is a strategy for company growth by identifying and developing new market segments for current company products.

Product development is a strategy for company growth by offering modified or new products to current market segments.

Diversification is a strategy for a company’s growth through starting up or acquiring businesses outside the company’s current products and markets.

Downsizing is reducing the business protfolio by eliminating products of
business units that are not profitable or no longer fit the company’s overall strategy.

SWOT analysis is an overall evaluation of the company’s strenghts(S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T).

Differentation is actually differentiating the market offering to create superior customer value.

Market segmentation is dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who have different needs, characteristics, or behavior and who might require seperate products or marketing programs.

Annual marketing plans are detailed plans which are prepared for specific products or a specific organizational department.