Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM OCTOBER 2023 64 I t is great to have dreams, but dreams are just dreams unless you set goals and follow a plan to achieve them. A goal is a preferred result that a person or an organization envisions, plans, and commits to achieve with desired outcomes and measurements. Developing a strategic plan takes time and resources. It requires you to focus on the mission and vision of your business. It requires you to make a commitment to a direction that the company's mission is dictating. In large part, the responsibility, as the visionaries of your company, is to develop and implement the strategies and goals needed to carry out our defined mission. As such, it is incumbent upon the leadership to engage not only in strategic thinking but also in the effective execution of the process. By planning and measuring you will be better prepared to grow in a meaningful way and to reach your goals. 5 KEY COMPONENTS TO A POWERFUL STRATEGIC PLAN 1. The mission, vision, and aspirations. A mission statement is your overall, lasting formulation of why you exist and what you hope to be in the future 2. Your core values 3. A SWOT analysis. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) 4. Your objectives, strategies, and operational tactics 5. Your KPI dashboard for measurements and funding streams So, why do you need a strategy? Why take the time for planning? There are many reasons, but here are just a few: 1. You need a strategy because it sets the direction and establishes the priorities for your business. The goal of strategic planning is to ensure that everyone is working toward common goals to achieve outcomes and results through organized management. It defines your organization's view of success, prioritizes the resources, and focuses the energy of all involved. When that happens it strengthens your operations. 2. A strategic plan helps simplify decision-making. Once our plan is in place, making decisions becomes easy. Acting on new ideas or initiatives that do not follow your strategic plan becomes burdensome because they do not fit neatly in the already pre- determined direction of your plan. They stick out like a sore thumb and are easy to identify and evaluate. 3. Your strategic plan will communicate your message to all who are employed there. It will effectively articulate and define your company's direction and make it easier for everyone to work toward the goal that they have been asked to achieve. An effective strategic plan moves through a number of phases. The first is to establish and clarify your mission and vision. Once the vision is clear, you are ready to formulate your strategy based on all the information that has been collected and then develop your desired outcomes. The next step is to implement the strategy and finally evaluate and control the performance. Remember that having a vision and a plan is critical to the future of our post. It has been said that "A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is just drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world." STRATEGIC PLANNING YOUR ROADMAP TO SUCCESS S E R V I C E D E P A R T M E N T Ralph Wolff, Industry Relations, PSA Certified Service Center www.certifiedservicecenter.org RO

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