strategic plan review methodology

Time To Conduct A Strategy Review? Here's How To Get Started

4 steps to help identify and approach any strategic shifts in your organization.

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Has your organization undergone a strategic shift this year? This could be anything from a technology advancement in your market, to a new political regulation, new competition, or just a major change in revenue (either positive or negative).

The issue is that many organizations don’t consider how these types of changes affect their strategic plan—or if they do consider them, they simply don’t know how to make the appropriate strategic changes to accommodate this shift. Making sure your strategy stays evergreen is a critical (but often overlooked) component of the strategy implementation process. We’ve found that the best approach to evaluating your strategic plan—and ensuring the changes are reflected in your strategy for the upcoming year—is to conduct annual strategy reviews .

What Is a Strategy Review?

A strategy review is the process in which organizations discuss the progress of their goals and objectives and make the necessary adjustments for the upcoming year.

Even though, on the surface, there might not be an apparent need for a strategy review, you’ll experience a number of benefits from taking the time to evaluate performance and identify areas for improvement:

• One of the most significant benefits is that employees have an opportunity to re-engage with the strategy. Depending on where they sit within the company, some people may not be regularly immersed in the strategic plan. Conducting a periodic review brings it back into focus for everyone, hopefully stimulating a renewed sense of purpose.
• It reinforces organizational alignment. Bringing everyone together to clarify mutual goals promotes collaboration and teamwork. Employees are also reminded how their daily activities contribute to the bigger picture.
• It also promotes camaraderie among team members, leading to a positive, high-performance culture. Strategy review sessions offer leaders the opportunity to shape culture by rewarding actions that align with organizational values, and fostering inclusion among team members.
• Last but not least, it offers the chance to identify new growth opportunities that could benefit you financially. Assessing current market conditions and evaluating internal performance might lead you to make a major change in your strategy, such as creating a new objective or redirecting resources, that will help you be more successful.

When and How Often Should You Do a Strategy Review?

Most organizations do a strategy review once a year, typically at the end of their annual cycle. So if you are on the calendar year, then your review would take place in January or February; otherwise it would happen at the beginning of your fiscal year.

Conducting this review annually allows you to review the previous year’s results and home in on elements that might need to be changed for the new year. However, if your organization experiences a big change—like hiring a new CEO, for instance—it makes sense to conduct an ad hoc session at that time to realign your priorities.

How To Revise A Strategic Plan: 4 Steps

Below are four steps that will help you identify and approach strategic changes in a productive way, to ensure everyone in your organization is working toward the same goal.

Step 1: Review The “Big Picture”

The first thing you need to do during your strategy review process is step back and look at each element of your strategic plan. We always suggest asking the question, “Is our big-picture strategy still valid?” This is important—and frankly, it’s often overlooked. If where your organization stands has changed over the last year (or over the last several years), that will dramatically impact all of the elements that make up your strategic plan—from your mission, vision, and values, all the way down to your objectives, measures, and initiatives.

Therefore, we suggest you take the time to look at your strategic landscape to see if there has been a disruption (as it pertains to technology, politics, the environment, etc.). You could find, for example, that a new competitor has entered your industry and is changing the pricing model for the entire market.

Step 2: Review Details Of The Plan Itself

Strategic plan details include your objectives, measures, and initiatives. Here’s how to review each:

‍ Objectives are your high-level organizational goals. During your strategy review process, you’ll need to ask, “Are our objectives still relevant? Do they relate back to our mission, vision, and values?” Your answer needs to be made with actual data , not your gut feelings.

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Measures are sometimes referred to as key performance indicators ( KPIs ) or metrics. Each of your objectives should have measures associated with it—and for each of these measures you need to set a realistic target. Any changes to your measures should come from your department heads or others in a leadership position—so we recommend holding a strategy retreat or half-day meeting to discuss any measures that need to be changed.

‍ Initiatives aren’t one-off tasks; they’re big picture or long-term projects your organization is tracking for strategic success. You’re more likely to shift, remove, or add new initiatives during your strategy review process than you are to change your measures or initiatives. Therefore, be sure to discuss budget, start and end dates, and tie-ins to your measures and objectives before making these decisions.

Step 3: Improve Your Reports

Reports are imperative to communicating performance on your overall strategic plan. If you simply ignore your reports during your strategy review process, the strategy you’ve worked so hard to build may simply become ineffective. Therefore, you’ll want to ask the following:

• Are we meeting at the right frequency? Quarterly and monthly meetings have different purposes, and you’ll want to be sure each meeting you hold is productive. ( This guide to meeting management can help! )
• Are our reports formatted correctly? In other words, do your reports show the information everyone needs to see in order to understand your performance? Keep in mind that each report will highlight different information; a measure report might show the owner, the frequency at which it’s being tracked, and series status, while an initiative report might show the start date, end date, budget, and milestones.

Step 4: Communicate Changes To Your Organization

When you conduct a review of your strategy, it’s extremely important to consider how you’ll communicate updates to or changes within your plan throughout your organization. Otherwise, you won’t create organization-wide buy-in, which will make it far more difficult for you to attain strategic success.

One organization—the United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU)—achieved buy-in by making their strategic plan as visible as possible internally. They used videos, progress reports, brochures, posters, and even a strategy map cake to keep the organization’s printed strategy in front of employees and consistently on their minds. You can read more about how they used this strategy to their advantage in this case study.

4 Tips For Conducting An Effective Strategic Review

To make sure your strategy review is as productive as possible, consider the following:

• Include members from across the organization. By increasing inclusion and flattening hierarchies, you’ll foster the emergence of new ideas. Encourage management to participate rather than lead, and all levels of staff to engage on equal footing.
• Make use of an outside facilitator. Both the management team and employees may have difficulty seeing “outside the box.” It often helps to invite an experienced outsider who can see things through an objective lens and guide conversations around tough subjects that need to be tackled.
• Modify your strategy as needed; don’t overhaul it. Strategic decisions are long-term in nature and involve big commitments, so in most cases, the basic direction of your strategy shouldn’t change every year. A strategy review may prompt adaptations, but the bigger picture should stay relatively consistent.
• Learn from your annual reviews. During each review, you will find that certain exercises worked or didn’t work with your organization. Continue to iterate on your review process so you can improve it over time.

Want to Ensure That Your Strategy Review Process Is Successful?

We have witnessed firsthand how many organizations (including many of our own clients!) had an incredibly difficult time conducting strategy reviews. And that is why we created our in-depth, step-by-step strategy review template.

Claim your FREE Strategic Plan Review eBook for better organizational direction

It goes into far more detail about each of the four steps above, provides additional details about how to manage your previous-year and future-year strategic plans, and gives information on what you should do if you’re abandoning your current strategic framework entirely. If you work through each step methodically and cross off each part of the checklists included, you will have a successful strategy review—period.

Simplify Your Strategy Reviews With ClearPoint Strategy Software

Following through on your strategy over the course of three to five years requires a great deal of work and focus. Strategy software like ClearPoint simplifies strategy-related tasks (like data-gathering and reporting) and helps to ensure that you continually focus your efforts on activities that will actually contribute to accomplishing your objectives.

As the central hub for your strategy information, ClearPoint is an invaluable tool for annual reviews. It supports your strategic discussions by serving as a quick reference for:

• Your big-picture strategy map.
• Organizational and departmental objectives, measures, and initiatives, and how they interconnect.
• Performance data on KPIs that roll up into strategic objectives .

You can easily review these items and make changes on the fly, as one of our customers did during a recent strategic review. ClearPoint played an integral role in the day’s activities. As a local government, this customer had just created new city-wide objectives. During the meeting, its administrators broke into focus groups, with each group assigned to a specific objective.

The groups used ClearPoint to link existing departmental measures and initiatives to the new organizational objectives. When they came back together, they used ClearPoint to view and discuss the strategy, and noticed that some of the objectives were not currently supported. As a result, they discussed the need for additional measures and initiatives that would help them accomplish all their goals.

This was emblematic of what the software can do: You identify needs, evaluate your options, make decisions, and follow through—all with the help of ClearPoint. Interested in seeing it live? Pick a time for a DEMO and we’ll show you!

How do you review strategy?

To review strategy:

- Assess Objectives: Evaluate whether the strategic objectives are being met and if they remain relevant. - Analyze Performance Data: Review key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics to assess progress. - Gather Feedback: Collect feedback from stakeholders, including employees, customers, and partners. - Identify Gaps: Identify any gaps between expected and actual performance. - Review External Factors: Consider external factors such as market trends, competition, and economic conditions. - Adjust and Adapt: Make necessary adjustments to the strategy to address identified issues and capitalize on new opportunities.

What is a strategy review?

A strategy review is a formal process of evaluating and assessing an organization's strategic plan to ensure that it remains aligned with the organization’s goals and the external environment. It involves analyzing performance data, gathering feedback, and making adjustments to the strategy as needed to improve effectiveness and achieve desired outcomes.

What is strategy review evaluation and control?

Strategy review evaluation and control involves:

- Evaluation: Systematically assessing the effectiveness of the current strategy by reviewing performance metrics, KPIs, and other relevant data. - Control: Implementing corrective actions to address deviations from the strategic plan, ensuring that the organization remains on track to achieve its goals. This process includes setting performance standards, measuring actual performance, comparing it with standards, and taking necessary corrective actions.

What are the steps involved in the strategy review process?

The steps involved in the strategy review process are:

- Preparation: Define the scope, objectives, and timeline for the strategy review. - Data Collection: Gather data on performance metrics, KPIs, and feedback from stakeholders. - Analysis: Analyze the collected data to assess the effectiveness of the current strategy. - Gap Identification: Identify gaps between the strategic plan and actual performance. - Review External Environment: Assess external factors that may impact the strategy, such as market trends and competitive landscape. - Feedback Integration: Incorporate feedback from stakeholders into the review process. - Adjustments and Recommendations: Develop recommendations for adjustments to the strategy based on the analysis. - Implementation: Implement the recommended changes to the strategy. - Monitoring: Continuously monitor the updated strategy to ensure its effectiveness and make further adjustments as needed.

What are the different types of strategy reviews?

Different types of strategy reviews include:

- Periodic Reviews: Conducted at regular intervals (e.g., quarterly or annually) to assess overall strategic performance. - Milestone Reviews: Focus on evaluating progress at specific milestones or stages of a strategic plan. - Ad-hoc Reviews: Conducted in response to unexpected changes or challenges in the internal or external environment. - Comprehensive Reviews: In-depth evaluations of the entire strategic plan, often involving extensive data analysis and stakeholder engagement. - Performance Reviews: Focused on assessing specific performance metrics and KPIs to determine if strategic objectives are being met.

Tricia Jessee

Tricia manages our implementation and onboarding team to ensure the success of ClearPoint customers.

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What is strategic planning? A 5-step guide

Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization’s growth and how they’re going to get there. In this article, we'll guide you through the strategic planning process, including why it's important, the benefits and best practices, and five steps to get you from beginning to end.

Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization’s growth and how they’re going to get there. The strategic planning process informs your organization’s decisions, growth, and goals.

Strategic planning helps you clearly define your company’s long-term objectives—and maps how your short-term goals and work will help you achieve them. This, in turn, gives you a clear sense of where your organization is going and allows you to ensure your teams are working on projects that make the most impact. Think of it this way—if your goals and objectives are your destination on a map, your strategic plan is your navigation system.

In this article, we walk you through the 5-step strategic planning process and show you how to get started developing your own strategic plan.

How to build an organizational strategy

Get our free ebook and learn how to bridge the gap between mission, strategic goals, and work at your organization.

What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is a business process that helps you define and share the direction your company will take in the next three to five years. During the strategic planning process, stakeholders review and define the organization’s mission and goals, conduct competitive assessments, and identify company goals and objectives. The product of the planning cycle is a strategic plan, which is shared throughout the company.

What is a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is the end result of the strategic planning process. At its most basic, it’s a tool used to define your organization’s goals and what actions you’ll take to achieve them.

Typically, your strategic plan should include: 

Your company’s mission statement

Your organizational goals, including your long-term goals and short-term, yearly objectives

Any plan of action, tactics, or approaches you plan to take to meet those goals

What are the benefits of strategic planning?

Strategic planning can help with goal setting and decision-making by allowing you to map out how your company will move toward your organization’s vision and mission statements in the next three to five years. Let’s circle back to our map metaphor. If you think of your company trajectory as a line on a map, a strategic plan can help you better quantify how you’ll get from point A (where you are now) to point B (where you want to be in a few years).

When you create and share a clear strategic plan with your team, you can:

Build a strong organizational culture by clearly defining and aligning on your organization’s mission, vision, and goals.

Align everyone around a shared purpose and ensure all departments and teams are working toward a common objective.

Proactively set objectives to help you get where you want to go and achieve desired outcomes.

Promote a long-term vision for your company rather than focusing primarily on short-term gains.

Ensure resources are allocated around the most high-impact priorities.

Define long-term goals and set shorter-term goals to support them.

Assess your current situation and identify any opportunities—or threats—allowing your organization to mitigate potential risks.

Create a proactive business culture that enables your organization to respond more swiftly to emerging market changes and opportunities.

What are the 5 steps in strategic planning?

The strategic planning process involves a structured methodology that guides the organization from vision to implementation. The strategic planning process starts with assembling a small, dedicated team of key strategic planners—typically five to 10 members—who will form the strategic planning, or management, committee. This team is responsible for gathering crucial information, guiding the development of the plan, and overseeing strategy execution.

Once you’ve established your management committee, you can get to work on the planning process. 

Step 1: Assess your current business strategy and business environment

Before you can define where you’re going, you first need to define where you are. Understanding the external environment, including market trends and competitive landscape, is crucial in the initial assessment phase of strategic planning.

To do this, your management committee should collect a variety of information from additional stakeholders, like employees and customers. In particular, plan to gather:

Relevant industry and market data to inform any market opportunities, as well as any potential upcoming threats in the near future.

Customer insights to understand what your customers want from your company—like product improvements or additional services.

Employee feedback that needs to be addressed—whether about the product, business practices, or the day-to-day company culture.

Consider different types of strategic planning tools and analytical techniques to gather this information, such as:

A balanced scorecard to help you evaluate four major elements of a business: learning and growth, business processes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.

A SWOT analysis to help you assess both current and future potential for the business (you’ll return to this analysis periodically during the strategic planning process). 

To fill out each letter in the SWOT acronym, your management committee will answer a series of questions:

What does your organization currently do well?

What separates you from your competitors?

What are your most valuable internal resources?

What tangible assets do you have?

What is your biggest strength? 

Weaknesses:

What does your organization do poorly?

What do you currently lack (whether that’s a product, resource, or process)?

What do your competitors do better than you?

What, if any, limitations are holding your organization back?

What processes or products need improvement? 

Opportunities:

What opportunities does your organization have?

How can you leverage your unique company strengths?

Are there any trends that you can take advantage of?

How can you capitalize on marketing or press opportunities?

Is there an emerging need for your product or service? 

What emerging competitors should you keep an eye on?

Are there any weaknesses that expose your organization to risk?

Have you or could you experience negative press that could reduce market share?

Is there a chance of changing customer attitudes towards your company? 

Step 2: Identify your company’s goals and objectives

To begin strategy development, take into account your current position, which is where you are now. Then, draw inspiration from your vision, mission, and current position to identify and define your goals—these are your final destination. 

To develop your strategy, you’re essentially pulling out your compass and asking, “Where are we going next?” “What’s the ideal future state of this company?” This can help you figure out which path you need to take to get there.

During this phase of the planning process, take inspiration from important company documents, such as:

Your mission statement, to understand how you can continue moving towards your organization’s core purpose.

Your vision statement, to clarify how your strategic plan fits into your long-term vision.

Your company values, to guide you towards what matters most towards your company.

Your competitive advantages, to understand what unique benefit you offer to the market.

Your long-term goals, to track where you want to be in five or 10 years.

Your financial forecast and projection, to understand where you expect your financials to be in the next three years, what your expected cash flow is, and what new opportunities you will likely be able to invest in.

Step 3: Develop your strategic plan and determine performance metrics

Now that you understand where you are and where you want to go, it’s time to put pen to paper. Take your current business position and strategy into account, as well as your organization’s goals and objectives, and build out a strategic plan for the next three to five years. Keep in mind that even though you’re creating a long-term plan, parts of your plan should be created or revisited as the quarters and years go on.

As you build your strategic plan, you should define:

Company priorities for the next three to five years, based on your SWOT analysis and strategy.

Yearly objectives for the first year. You don’t need to define your objectives for every year of the strategic plan. As the years go on, create new yearly objectives that connect back to your overall strategic goals . 

Related key results and KPIs. Some of these should be set by the management committee, and some should be set by specific teams that are closer to the work. Make sure your key results and KPIs are measurable and actionable. These KPIs will help you track progress and ensure you’re moving in the right direction.

Budget for the next year or few years. This should be based on your financial forecast as well as your direction. Do you need to spend aggressively to develop your product? Build your team? Make a dent with marketing? Clarify your most important initiatives and how you’ll budget for those.

A high-level project roadmap . A project roadmap is a tool in project management that helps you visualize the timeline of a complex initiative, but you can also create a very high-level project roadmap for your strategic plan. Outline what you expect to be working on in certain quarters or years to make the plan more actionable and understandable.

Step 4: Implement and share your plan

Now it’s time to put your plan into action. Strategy implementation involves clear communication across your entire organization to make sure everyone knows their responsibilities and how to measure the plan’s success. 

Make sure your team (especially senior leadership) has access to the strategic plan, so they can understand how their work contributes to company priorities and the overall strategy map. We recommend sharing your plan in the same tool you use to manage and track work, so you can more easily connect high-level objectives to daily work. If you don’t already, consider using a work management platform .  

A few tips to make sure your plan will be executed without a hitch: 

Communicate clearly to your entire organization throughout the implementation process, to ensure all team members understand the strategic plan and how to implement it effectively. 

Define what “success” looks like by mapping your strategic plan to key performance indicators.

Ensure that the actions outlined in the strategic plan are integrated into the daily operations of the organization, so that every team member's daily activities are aligned with the broader strategic objectives.

Utilize tools and software—like a work management platform—that can aid in implementing and tracking the progress of your plan.

Regularly monitor and share the progress of the strategic plan with the entire organization, to keep everyone informed and reinforce the importance of the plan.

Establish regular check-ins to monitor the progress of your strategic plan and make adjustments as needed. 

Step 5: Revise and restructure as needed

Once you’ve created and implemented your new strategic framework, the final step of the planning process is to monitor and manage your plan.

Remember, your strategic plan isn’t set in stone. You’ll need to revisit and update the plan if your company changes directions or makes new investments. As new market opportunities and threats come up, you’ll likely want to tweak your strategic plan. Make sure to review your plan regularly—meaning quarterly and annually—to ensure it’s still aligned with your organization’s vision and goals.

Keep in mind that your plan won’t last forever, even if you do update it frequently. A successful strategic plan evolves with your company’s long-term goals. When you’ve achieved most of your strategic goals, or if your strategy has evolved significantly since you first made your plan, it might be time to create a new one.

Build a smarter strategic plan with a work management platform

To turn your company strategy into a plan—and ultimately, impact—make sure you’re proactively connecting company objectives to daily work. When you can clarify this connection, you’re giving your team members the context they need to get their best work done. 

A work management platform plays a pivotal role in this process. It acts as a central hub for your strategic plan, ensuring that every task and project is directly tied to your broader company goals. This alignment is crucial for visibility and coordination, allowing team members to see how their individual efforts contribute to the company’s success. 

By leveraging such a platform, you not only streamline workflow and enhance team productivity but also align every action with your strategic objectives—allowing teams to drive greater impact and helping your company move toward goals more effectively. 

Strategic planning FAQs

Still have questions about strategic planning? We have answers.

Why do I need a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is one of many tools you can use to plan and hit your goals. It helps map out strategic objectives and growth metrics that will help your company be successful.

When should I create a strategic plan?

You should aim to create a strategic plan every three to five years, depending on your organization’s growth speed.

Since the point of a strategic plan is to map out your long-term goals and how you’ll get there, you should create a strategic plan when you’ve met most or all of them. You should also create a strategic plan any time you’re going to make a large pivot in your organization’s mission or enter new markets. 

What is a strategic planning template?

A strategic planning template is a tool organizations can use to map out their strategic plan and track progress. Typically, a strategic planning template houses all the components needed to build out a strategic plan, including your company’s vision and mission statements, information from any competitive analyses or SWOT assessments, and relevant KPIs.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. business plan?

A business plan can help you document your strategy as you’re getting started so every team member is on the same page about your core business priorities and goals. This tool can help you document and share your strategy with key investors or stakeholders as you get your business up and running.

You should create a business plan when you’re: 

Just starting your business

Significantly restructuring your business

If your business is already established, you should create a strategic plan instead of a business plan. Even if you’re working at a relatively young company, your strategic plan can build on your business plan to help you move in the right direction. During the strategic planning process, you’ll draw from a lot of the fundamental business elements you built early on to establish your strategy for the next three to five years.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. mission and vision statements?

Your strategic plan, mission statement, and vision statements are all closely connected. In fact, during the strategic planning process, you will take inspiration from your mission and vision statements in order to build out your strategic plan.

Simply put: 

A mission statement summarizes your company’s purpose.

A vision statement broadly explains how you’ll reach your company’s purpose.

A strategic plan pulls in inspiration from your mission and vision statements and outlines what actions you’re going to take to move in the right direction. 

For example, if your company produces pet safety equipment, here’s how your mission statement, vision statement, and strategic plan might shake out:

Mission statement: “To ensure the safety of the world’s animals.” 

Vision statement: “To create pet safety and tracking products that are effortless to use.” 

Your strategic plan would outline the steps you’re going to take in the next few years to bring your company closer to your mission and vision. For example, you develop a new pet tracking smart collar or improve the microchipping experience for pet owners. 

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. company objectives?

Company objectives are broad goals. You should set these on a yearly or quarterly basis (if your organization moves quickly). These objectives give your team a clear sense of what you intend to accomplish for a set period of time. 

Your strategic plan is more forward-thinking than your company goals, and it should cover more than one year of work. Think of it this way: your company objectives will move the needle towards your overall strategy—but your strategic plan should be bigger than company objectives because it spans multiple years.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. a business case?

A business case is a document to help you pitch a significant investment or initiative for your company. When you create a business case, you’re outlining why this investment is a good idea, and how this large-scale project will positively impact the business. 

You might end up building business cases for things on your strategic plan’s roadmap—but your strategic plan should be bigger than that. This tool should encompass multiple years of your roadmap, across your entire company—not just one initiative.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. a project plan?

A strategic plan is a company-wide, multi-year plan of what you want to accomplish in the next three to five years and how you plan to accomplish that. A project plan, on the other hand, outlines how you’re going to accomplish a specific project. This project could be one of many initiatives that contribute to a specific company objective which, in turn, is one of many objectives that contribute to your strategic plan. 

What’s the difference between strategic management vs. strategic planning?

A strategic plan is a tool to define where your organization wants to go and what actions you need to take to achieve those goals. Strategic planning is the process of creating a plan in order to hit your strategic objectives.

Strategic management includes the strategic planning process, but also goes beyond it. In addition to planning how you will achieve your big-picture goals, strategic management also helps you organize your resources and figure out the best action plans for success. 

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What is management by objectives (MBO)?

What is an evaluation of a strategic plan?

Navigating the strategy maze: Why and how to evaluate your strategic plan

Picture this: You've put together a strategic plan that's as detailed and ambitious as a blueprint for a moon landing. But here's the kicker – how do you ensure this plan isn't just a piece of high-fantasy fiction for your business? That's where the art and science of evaluating your strategic plan come into play. It's about making sure your strategy isn't just good on paper but is actually taking you where you need to go.

What does the evaluation of a strategic plan mean, really?

Think of evaluating your strategic plan as doing a reality check. It's about diving deep into what you've done, measuring it against what you hoped to achieve, and being brutally honest about what worked and what didn't. This isn't just ticking boxes next to your goals; it's about assessing if your strategic moves are truly aligning with the big-picture objectives, understanding the impact of your actions, and recalibrating your course as needed.

Why bother with strategic plan evaluation?

Simple – because you don't want to blindly follow a map that leads nowhere. Regular evaluations keep you agile, allowing you to pivot as needed in response to unexpected challenges or new opportunities. They help ensure your resources are spent wisely, foster a culture where everyone is accountable for outcomes, and ultimately, keep your business competitive and on track for success.

Timing is everything: When to evaluate your strategic plan

The million-dollar question is, when do you actually sit down to do this evaluation? Well, it's not a once-a-year, end-of-the-year kind of deal. Strategic plan evaluation is more of a pulse check that should happen at key moments:

Before full implementation: Once your plan is laid out, do a preliminary review before you go full steam ahead. This is a sanity check to ensure everything aligns and is feasible.

During implementation: Schedule regular check-ins, perhaps quarterly or even monthly, depending on the pace of your operations and the dynamics of your industry. These check-ins allow you to adjust tactics in real time, responding to internal shifts or external market pressures.

After major milestones: Whenever you hit a significant milestone, pause and evaluate. This could be after launching a new product, entering a new market, or at the end of a major campaign.

End of the strategic period: When your strategic timeframe has concluded, conduct a thorough evaluation to gather insights for future planning. This is about learning from your journey – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The how: Evaluating your strategic plan in 5 steps

Set clear metrics: Define what success looks like with specific, measurable goals.

Gather your data: Look at your performance, gather feedback, and get the numbers.

Compare reality to goals: How did you actually do compared to what you hoped to achieve?

Listen to the crowd: What are your customers, employees, and stakeholders saying? Their feedback is gold.

Plan your next moves: Based on your findings, what needs to change, continue, or stop?

Frameworks to guide you

Pick your evaluation toolkit wisely. Whether it's the Balanced Scorecard for a 360° view, SWOT Analysis for a quick health check, or PESTEL Analysis for scanning the external environment, each framework offers unique insights to help steer your strategy in the right direction.

Let's delve into the details of the Balanced Scorecard, SWOT Analysis, and PESTEL Analysis to understand how they can illuminate different aspects of your strategic journey.

Balanced Scorecard: A 360° view on performance

The Balanced Scorecard is your go-to for a comprehensive, bird's-eye view of your organization. It breaks down your strategic objectives into four key perspectives:

Financial: How do we look to our shareholders? This perspective focuses on financial performance metrics such as revenue growth, margins, and return on investment (ROI).

Customer: How do our customers see us? Here, you measure customer satisfaction, retention, and market share.

Internal Processes: What must we excel at? It evaluates the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes that create value for customers and shareholders.

Learning and Growth: Can we continue to improve and create value? This angle looks at the organization's ability to innovate and improve, measuring employee satisfaction and retention and the pace of improvement in internal processes.

Using a balanced scorecard template , you can ensure that your strategic plan addresses all critical aspects of your business, not just the bottom line.

SWOT Analysis: Identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

SWOT Analysis is like taking a hard, honest look in the mirror. It helps you understand your organization's internal strengths and weaknesses, external opportunities and threats. Here's how it breaks down:

Strengths: What advantages does your organization have? Consider your unique resources, capabilities, and technology.

Weaknesses: What areas need improvement? Look at the gaps in your resources, processes, or capabilities.

Opportunities: What external factors can you leverage? Think about market trends, regulatory changes, or technological advancements that could benefit your strategy.

Threats: What challenges could you face? These could be competitors, economic downturns, or changes in consumer preferences.

By conducting a SWOT Analysis , you can craft a strategy that plays to your strengths, addresses your weaknesses, capitalizes on opportunities, and mitigates threats.

PESTEL Analysis: Scanning the external environment

PESTEL Analysis allows you to scan the horizon for external forces that could impact your strategy. It stands for:

Political: What political factors could influence your strategy? This includes government policies, trade restrictions, and political stability.

Economic: How do economic growth, exchange rates, and inflation affect your business?

Social: What social trends could impact your strategy? Demographic shifts, lifestyle changes, and consumer behaviors fall into this category.

Technological: How could technological advancements or disruptions affect your business?

Environmental: Could environmental concerns (like climate change or sustainability issues) influence your strategy?

Legal: What legal and regulatory frameworks could impact your operations?

PESTEL Analysis helps you anticipate external changes, ensuring your strategy remains relevant and resilient in the face of uncertainty.

By employing these frameworks, you can gain a multi-dimensional view of your strategic plan's performance. Each framework offers unique insights, helping you identify where you excel and where adjustments are needed. Whether looking at the broad picture with the Balanced Scorecard, taking a reflective look with SWOT, or scanning the horizon with PESTEL, these tools empower you to evaluate and refine your strategic plan effectively. Remember, the goal is not just to execute a strategy but to navigate your business toward long-term success and resilience.

Why Miro is your strategic planning tool

And here's where Miro comes into play. Imagine a strategic tool that helps you map out these sophisticated strategic plans and becomes your central hub for ongoing evaluation and collaboration. With Miro, you can visually track your progress, brainstorm adjustments, and engage your team every step of the way. It's like having a GPS for your strategy, ensuring you're always on the right path and making course corrections in real time.

In wrapping up, evaluating your strategic plan isn't about going through the motions; it's about ensuring your strategy lives and breathes along with your business. It keeps you aligned, adaptable, and ahead of the curve. With the right approach and Miro in your arsenal, you're not just planning for success; you're actively navigating your way toward it.

Discover more

What is a strategic roadmap?

The goal setting process for strategic planning

A guide to key performance indicators (KPI)

What is an OKR?

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Conducting A Strategic Review: An Elite Consultant's Ultimate Guide

Article Snapshot

​ This piece of content is written by one of Expert360's top consultants. Andrew Hone is a Director at Zenith Strategy Associates (www.zenithstrategy.com), a boutique advisory business with a primary focus on helping organisations with strategy development and implementation.

He was formerly a Partner at L.E.K. and a Principal with Bain & Company and has more than 20 years’ experience as a strategy consultant. Andrew partners with Expert360 to undertake strategic reviews for clients. By combining his expertise conducting strategic reviews with our network of experts, we can provide a team that is tailored to reflect your specific project.  Start your journey by  hiring strategy experts here , or  apply to become an Expert360 consultant .

What Is A Strategic Review?

A strategic review is a structured process to identify new value-creating opportunities within a business. This could be about improving the performance of an existing division or taking advantage of a new market adjacency opportunity.

Many companies undertake strategic reviews on an annual basis as part of their strategic planning process. Other businesses will undertake them on a more ad hoc basis when presented with a specific opportunity or problem within the business.

A change of ownership or appointment of a new CEO can often trigger the need for a strategic review of the business as a way to clarify the key areas of opportunity and challenges within the existing portfolio.  

Whatever its origins, a strategic review should be a clear fact-based analysis of the business opportunity or issue. It provides an opportunity to step back from day-to-day operations to assess the strategic foundations on which a business is built.

The outcome of a strategic review should be a clear set of strategic recommendations and a future roadmap for the business that charts its course and enables increased and sustained performance now and for the future.    

The Benefits Of A Strategic Review

When conducted well, a strategic review can deliver significant benefits to a business. In addition to the direct financial benefits of improving performance and targeting new growth opportunities, the process itself can improve alignment between employees, senior management teams and other key stakeholders, helping to drive a high-performance culture and clarity on the future direction of the business.  

Scoping A Strategic Review

The scope of a strategic review should be tailored to the specific opportunity or issue to be investigated.

Delivering A Successful Strategic Review

Start with the answer  .

Strategic reviews are often undertaken under considerable pressure to get to an answer rapidly. Every day needs to count. You can’t afford to spend time on research or analysis that doesn’t make the final cut.

The leading strategy firms, therefore, adopt a hypothesis-led approach to strategy formulation (e.g. McKinsey’s Decision Tree or Bain’s Answer First approaches).  

By the end of day two of the project, you should have completed preliminary interviews with the relevant stakeholders and have a good understanding of the existing available data. This is a good time to be mapping out the potential answer and logic structure that will underpin the remaining activities.

A good structure will be logical, cover all the relevant factors that underpin the recommendation, and avoid duplication of analysis (mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive).  

Having defined the logic structure, you can then identify where the gaps are based on your current state of knowledge, and therefore where additional analysis is needed to test an assertion or element of the recommendation.

This then becomes the basis of a focused work plan for the remainder of the project.   

When operating under a severe time constraint, it is critical to be 80/20 in undertaking the new analysis.

Feedback from customers can be key, for example when considering a market adjacency opportunity or a turnaround of an existing business. A four-week timeframe is not long enough to undertake a major program of primary research.

However, a short focused online survey or series of telephone interviews with key customers can nonetheless achieve a lot in a short space of time and help to bring the recommendations to life. An 80/20 mindset is particularly important when it comes to financial modelling. Financial models are typically used in a strategy to illustrate the incremental financial impact of a recommended course of action over a base case.

Strategic financial modelling requires a different approach to the detailed budgeting and other financial analyses that are typically performed within an organisation.  

The model should be stripped back to the smallest set of core assumptions that enable alternative strategic scenarios to be assessed and compared to an underlying base case. A detailed analysis of working capital or tax liabilities is rarely necessary at this level of analysis.  

Allocate Dedicated Project Resources For The Review  

​Some or all of these roles may be company resources allocated to the review. The core team structure involves a project lead, who would typically be full-time, plus potentially one or more supporting analysts/modellers depending on the scale and complexity of the review. A project sponsor is needed to oversee the review.  

The project sponsor should be a member of the senior management team who can provide guidance and review during the project, and resolve any internal roadblocks to the analysis. If the analyst/modeller is an external resource, it is also useful to have an allocated internal resource with a good understanding of the company’s operational and financial data.

In addition, where the review involves a new market or product opportunity, advisers with expertise in the relevant area can add significant value based on their experience.  

Allow enough time to produce a good report  

You should not underestimate the time required to distil complex strategic analysis into a clearly presented and logically structured report. It’s therefore good practice to start planning well in advance of the final week.

I try to have an initial draft outline of the report developed by the end of week 1. Having the end output in mind early on also helps to maintain an 80/20 focus across the project team on the key analysis that is required.  

Build in time to think about the implementation  

A strategic review is a waste of time unless it is accompanied by a clear call to action and plan of attack. As well as making clear and logical recommendations, it must also set out how those recommendations would be implemented. 

Within a four week timeframe, it’s not going to be possible to set out a detailed implementation plan. Nonetheless, a high-level view of the implementation roadmap detailing the key initiatives to be implemented and expected timeframes helps to bring the strategy to life and can form the basis of a more detailed program plan.

Remember, the right talent is critical to success. At Expert360 we connect the best talent with the right project.

Summary: The Ultimate Guide To A Four Week Review

Conducting a strategic review requires the coordination of a range of analytical activities, financial modelling, stakeholder management and report development (see below for an illustrative schedule for a four-week review). 

The principles outlined above are vital when attempting to complete a strategic review in a four-week timeframe.

However, a disciplined approach underpinned by a clear logical framework and a pragmatic analytical approach can significantly increase the success of the process, irrespective of how long you have to complete the work.

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Andrew is an experienced strategy consultant with extensive international experience across Australia, the UK and Europe.

The Four Week Strategic Review

Value creation through strategy, what is a strategy review.

A strategy review is a pr o cess to identify  new value-creating opportunities  within a business. It could be about improving the performance of an existing division. Or it could be about taking advantage of a new market adjacency opportunity.

It is also an opportunity to step back from day-to-day operations. You can assess the  strategic foundations on which the business is built .

It therefore needs to be a clear  fact-based analysis of the business  opportunity or issue.

When should you undertake a strategy review?

Many companies undertake strategic reviews  on an annual basis  as part of their strategic planning process.

Other businesses will undertake them on a more ad hoc basis. For instance, when presented with a  specific opportunity or problem within the business .

Furthermore, a change of ownership or appointment of a new CEO can often trigger the need for a strategic review of the business. It can be a great way to clarify  key areas of opportunity and challenges  within the business.

What are the outcomes of a strategic review?

It should lead to a  clear set of strategic recommendations . The review should also set out a  future roadmap for the business . This roadmap charts the course for the business. This helps enable increased and sustained performance now and for the future.

Delivering a strategic review

Start with the answer, allocate dedicated project resources for the review, allow enough time to capture and document the key findings, build in time to think about the implementation, what is a strategic review.

A strategic review is a structured process to evaluate the external environment and internal context of a business in order to define the optimal positioning and operating model for the future.

How long does it take to complete a strategic review?

Companies can spend months on a strategy that is out-dated almost as soon as it is finalised. With a clear structured approach and 80/20 mindset, a clear strategy and future roadmap can be completed in as little as four weeks.

What should a strategic review include?

A strategic review should include a review of the market, your strategic positioning, your internal organisation and processes, and a high-level financial assessment of the outlook for the business.

What are the benefits of undertaking a strategic review?

Benefits include clarity over the drivers of strategic advantage, alignment within the organisation on the future roadmap for the business, and improved financial outcomes.

For the first time, insights from more than 20 years of experience in strategy development have been collated in this essential guide to conducting a strategic review.

• Benefits  of a structured approach to strategy development.
• Typical scope  of a strategic review.
• Key principles to follow  when undertaking a strategic review.
• Indicative timeline and workplan  for completing a strategic review in 4 weeks.

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Strategy Evaluation Process: Comprehensive Guide + Examples

The process of strategy evaluation is often overlooked in the overall strategic management process . After the flurry of activity in the initial planning stages, followed by the reality check of executing your strategy alongside business-as-usual, strategy evaluation is often neglected.

When this happens, strategies quickly become outdated and out-of-sync with the changing face of the organization.

On the contrary, when an efficient strategy evaluation process is set in place, businesses can benefit from insights and learnings from past performance to inform more efficient decision-making .

What Is Strategy Evaluation?

Strategy evaluation is the process of analyzing a strategy to assess how well it's been implemented and executed. It’s an internal analysis tool and should be used as part of a broader strategic analysis for the organization when making strategic decisions.  

Typically, the strategy evaluation process involves answering questions such as:

• Are we moving forward towards achieving our core business metrics ?
• How much progress have we made towards our Vision ?
• Are our Strategic Focus Areas still relevant?
• Which of our Objectives have we completed?
• Do we have sufficient Projects to deliver incomplete Objectives?
• Are our KPIs still effective for measuring progress towards our Objectives?
• Where did we fall short of our targets? Why did this happen?

At the very least, you need to evaluate your strategy twice a year—or better yet, every quarter. Even if you feel as though your existing company strategy is 'too far gone' and needs a fresh start, you'll want to perform a thorough strategy evaluation to understand what went wrong and use this information for your new strategy.

The mistake that people often make when it comes to strategy execution , is thinking of their strategy as a linear set of steps. In reality, the strategic planning process requires constant iteration and evolution, with strategy evaluation serving as a pivotal factor in shaping strategy formulation.

💡 Pro Tip: A good strategy should never really 'end'. Rather, it should morph into something more ambitious and sophisticated as goals are met.

Steps For a Successful Strategy Evaluation Process

There is no one-size-fits-all in terms of strategy evaluation, so we encourage you to think about how your own process would look like. However, after working on countless strategies with our customers, these are the steps we suggest you follow for a successful evaluation process.

Step 1: Evaluation starts at the start

It may sound counter-intuitive, but ideally, you'll be kicking off your strategy evaluation process back in the planning stage . Strategy evaluation is essentially the process of figuring out:

• What did we do well?
• How can we improve upon what we did well?
• What did we learn about ourselves and the external environment along the way?

One of the best ways to answer these questions is by setting effective KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in your planning stage so you’ll be able to clearly measure performance in the following stages.

Let’s look at an example:

Imagine "EcoWise," a company with a vision to lead global sustainable living. One of their core business metrics is market share , and they aim to expand their eco-friendly products into new international markets.

One of their focus areas could be “International Market Expansion” driven by the following objectives:

• Enter and secure a 5% market share in Europe.
• Launch at least five new eco-friendly products annually.

To understand progress towards the objectives, they set the following KPIs:

• Market Share Growth
• Product Adoption Rate
• Sustainability Ratings

By having clear KPIs that set a benchmark and allow to measure actual results, EcoWise will be able to answer fundamental questions during the strategy evaluation process:

• Did we meet our KPI?
• Why did we fall short?
• Was this even the right KPI?

👉🏻 How Cascade can help?

With Cascade’s planner feature, you can ensure you set all the important elements of your strategic plan with structure and ease and assign measurable targets at the initiative and project levels.

Step 2: Implement consistent processes and tools

Not to sound too much like a broken record, but effective strategy evaluation requires planning that goes beyond the setting of good KPIs. You'll also need to plan out your 'strategy rhythm'—things like:

• How often will we measure progress against our goals?
• What standardized set of reports will be used throughout the business?
• What level of detail shall we capture in our written commentary on progress against the plan?

💡 Pro Tip: It’s important to determine these types of things up front and implement a regime of meetings and reports throughout the organization.

We like to call this process your ' strategy rhythm ' as it should form the backbone of your organization's activities, and be maintained regularly and consistently throughout the year.

Here is an example you can use provided by Cascade’s team of experts:

Step 3: Empower teams to evaluate their own strategies

Empowerment plays a critical role in the strategy evaluation process. Rather than have the leadership team alone participate in your strategy evaluation, invite stakeholders from different areas and departments to prepare their own evaluation of how the team performed against the strategy.

Provide them with a simple framework to conduct the analysis and address essential questions like:

• Did we meet our goals?
• What was it that helped us to succeed?
• What challenges made us fall short?
• Were our goals well set, and have they brought us closer to achieving our overall vision?

Ideally, you'll have your teams present using the tools you defined in step 2 . This includes any strategic dashboards or standardized reports that you agreed on previously.

Cascade’s dashboards and reports in real-time give you and your teams an accurate picture of the strategic performance to aid in your strategy evaluation process.

Step 4: Take corrective action

Steps 4 and 5 (below) are somewhat intertwined and should be performed largely in conjunction with each other. If you find that you're not meeting one of your goals, you'll want to do two things:

• Start by figuring out if the goal is still the right one.
• If it is, take corrective action to address any shortcomings.

Assuming you're still convinced the goal you've set is the right one, you need to implement an action plan to get yourself back on track.

There are many reasons why you might be struggling to hit your goals, ranging from relatively simple issues such as:

• Lack of resource allocation (human or financial)
• Conflicting priorities
• Ineffective tracking of targets
• Misalignment or understanding of the goal

Or your challenges may be more complex and relate to:

• Increased competition
• A significant capital shortfall
• Regulatory pressures
• Lack of internal innovation

Whatever the case, the sooner you can identify these issues, the sooner you can start to take corrective action to ensure a more effective strategy implementation that will get you closer to achieving your desired results.

How to identify the issue?

There are tools and frameworks you can use during the strategy evaluation process that can give you more information about internal and/or external factors that may be hindering your progress.

For example, a SWOT analysis can be useful to reveal what you excel at and where you need improvement. Identifying your weaknesses is key to understanding what might be holding your strategy back.

Another best practice is conducting a competitive analysis to gain insights into what your competitors are doing better. By comparing your strengths and weaknesses against theirs, you can understand where you hold the competitive advantage and where you have gaps that need addressing.

Step 5: Iterate your plan

There are two scenarios where you'll want to iterate your plan as part of your strategy evaluation—one being significantly more positive than the other:

Scenario 1: When you achieve your goals

In an ideal world, your plan evolves because you've successfully checked off some or all of your strategic goals. Your plan isn't set in stone; it's flexible and can take unexpected turns.

For instance, you might reach certain goals much earlier than anticipated. When that happens, you shouldn't wait around for the entire plan to play out. Instead:

• If you've met all your goals, it's time to ask if your broader focus area is complete. If not, it's time for new goals within that focus area.
• Or, if you've successfully nailed all your focus areas, it's time to ponder if you're closer to your vision. If not, new focus areas should come into play.

Scenario 2: When you fall short of your goals

Now, let's consider a different scenario, where you didn't quite hit all your goals. But here's the thing: just because you missed a goal doesn't automatically mean you need to take immediate corrective action.

One of the key outcomes of effective strategy evaluations is the recalibration of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Going back to the example in step 1 , let’s say that EcoWise effectively launched 5 new products, but this did not effectively translate into them gaining significant market share (which was the key metric they were aiming for).  

In this case, it suggests the original KPI might not have been quite right. But you wouldn't have known that without either the KPI in the first place or the process of strategic evaluation.

The platform allows for a flexible setup of your strategy to easily make changes to the plan if needed after the insights learned from your strategic evaluation process. By providing full visibility, your teams and other stakeholders will be aware of the changes in real-time!

Step 6: Celebrate successes

We've saved the most fun part of the strategy evaluation process for last—celebrating success.

Given that your strategy will never ‘finish,’ it’s important to celebrate the successes along the way to keep your teams motivated and engaged. The first time you achieve a KPI or even focus areas— enjoy it!

Celebrating the success of a strategic goal is not only great for morale, but it also sends a strong message that the execution of the plan really really matters .

Strategy Evaluation Framework Example

Let's imagine how a supply chain company could tackle the evaluation of its quarterly supply chain plan:

• KPIs analysis : First, they examine their KPIs to decipher which goals they've attained and which ones are still a work in progress.
• Team performance report : The teams get to work on crafting performance reports, offering insights into their achievements and areas requiring additional focus.
• Further analysis : When certain KPIs fall short, they conduct a deeper analysis to uncover the root causes of these performance gaps. In some cases, they even realize that the initial KPIs might not have been the best fit.
• KPI evolution : If they’ve successfully met a KPI, they adapt and introduce a new one to further advance toward key business metrics.
• Evolving the plan : With insights and learnings from their strategy evaluation, they refine their strategic plan, making tweaks and adjustments as needed.

Centralized Observability: The Key To Effective Strategy Evaluation

In the realm of strategic business management, the journey to success is all about adaptability, evolution, and continuous improvement. A pivotal aspect of this journey is the capability to gain a holistic, centralized view of your strategy.

Centralized observability plays a pivotal role in successful strategy evaluation, empowering organizations to:

• Monitor KPIs and goals in real time.
• Understand how teams work together toward achieving the overarching business goals.
• Quickly spot areas that may need adjustments.
• Foster a culture of transparency and accountability, as teams can see how their efforts impact the broader strategy.

This unified perspective simplifies the process of assessing strategy effectiveness and provides invaluable insights for more effective decision-making.

This is where Cascade , the world’s leading Strategy Execution Platform , comes into play as your strategic ally. Cascade enables centralized observability by offering key features for goal management, performance tracking, and strategy alignment. It streamlines the strategy evaluation process, providing real-time data for confident decision-making.

Discover how Cascade can help! Sign up today for free or book a guided 1:1 product tour with one of Cascade’s in-house strategy execution experts.

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4-phase guide to the strategic planning process, the strategic planning process in 4 steps, to guide you through the strategic planning process, we created this 4 step process you can use with your team. we’ll cover the basic definition of strategic planning, what core elements you should include, and actionable steps to build your strategic plan..

Free Strategic Planning Guide

What is Strategic Planning?

Strategic Planning is when a process where organizations define a bold vision and create a plan with objectives and goals to reach that future. A great strategic plan defines where your organization is going, how you’ll win, who must do what, and how you’ll review and adapt your strategy development.

A strategic plan or a business strategic plan should include the following:

• Your organization’s vision organization’s vision of the future.
• A clearly Articulated mission and values statement.
• A current state assessment that evaluates your competitive environment, new opportunities, and new threats.
• What strategic challenges you face.
• A growth strategy and outlined market share.
• Long-term strategic goals.
• An annual plan with SMART goals or OKRs to support your strategic goals.
• Clear measures, key performance indicators, and data analytics to measure progress.
• A clear strategic planning cycle, including how you’ll review, refresh, and recast your plan every quarter.

Overview of the Strategic Planning Process:

The strategic management process involves taking your organization on a journey from point A (where you are today) to point B (your vision of the future).

Part of that journey is the strategy built during strategic planning, and part of it is execution during the strategic management process. A good strategic plan dictates “how” you travel the selected road.

Effective execution ensures you are reviewing, refreshing, and recalibrating your strategy to reach your destination. The planning process should take no longer than 90 days. But, move at a pace that works best for you and your team and leverage this as a resource.

To kick this process off, we recommend 1-2 weeks (1-hour meeting with the Owner/CEO, Strategy Director, and Facilitator (if necessary) to discuss the information collected and direction for continued planning.)

Questions to Ask:

• Who is on your Planning Team? What senior leadership members and key stakeholders are included? Checkout these links you need help finding a strategic planning consultant , someone to facilitate strategic planning , or expert AI strategy consulting .
• Who will be the business process owner (Strategy Director) of planning in your organization?
• Fast forward 12 months from now, what do you want to see differently in your organization as a result of your strategic plan and implementation?
• Planning team members are informed of their roles and responsibilities.
• A strategic planning schedule is established.
• Existing planning information and secondary data collected.

Action Grid:

Step 1: Determine Organizational Readiness

Set up your plan for success – questions to ask:

• Are the conditions and criteria for successful planning in place at the current time? Can certain pitfalls be avoided?
• Is this the appropriate time for your organization to initiate a planning process? Yes or no? If no, where do you go from here?

Step 2: Develop Your Team & Schedule

Who is going to be on your planning team? You need to choose someone to oversee the strategy implementation (Chief Strategy Officer or Strategy Director) and strategic management of your plan? You need some of the key individuals and decision makers for this team. It should be a small group of approximately 12-15 people.

OnStrategy is the leader in strategic planning and performance management. Our cloud-based software and hands-on services closes the gap between strategy and execution. Learn more about OnStrategy here .

Step 3: Collect Current Data

All strategic plans are developed using the following information:

• The last strategic plan, even if it is not current
• Mission statement, vision statement, values statement
• Past or current Business plan
• Financial records for the last few years
• Marketing plan
• Other information, such as last year’s SWOT, sales figures and projections

Step 4: Review Collected Data

Review the data collected in the last action with your strategy director and facilitator.

• What trends do you see?
• Are there areas of obvious weakness or strengths?
• Have you been following a plan or have you just been going along with the market?

Conclusion: A successful strategic plan must be adaptable to changing conditions. Organizations benefit from having a flexible plan that can evolve, as assumptions and goals may need adjustments. Preparing to adapt or restart the planning process is crucial, so we recommend updating actions quarterly and refreshing your plan annually.

Strategic Planning Phase 1: Determine Your Strategic Position

Want more? Dive into the “ Evaluate Your Strategic Position ” How-To Guide.

Action Grid

Step 1: Identify Strategic Issues

Strategic issues are critical unknowns driving you to embark on a robust strategic planning process. These issues can be problems, opportunities, market shifts, or anything else that keeps you awake at night and begging for a solution or decision. The best strategic plans address your strategic issues head-on.

• How will we grow, stabilize, or retrench in order to sustain our organization into the future?
• How will we diversify our revenue to reduce our dependence on a major customer?
• What must we do to improve our cost structure and stay competitive?
• How and where must we innovate our products and services?

Step 2: Conduct an Environmental Scan

Conducting an environmental scan will help you understand your operating environment. An environmental scan is called a PEST analysis, an acronym for Political, Economic, Social, and Technological trends. Sometimes, it is helpful to include Ecological and Legal trends as well. All of these trends play a part in determining the overall business environment.

Step 3: Conduct a Competitive Analysis

The reason to do a competitive analysis is to assess the opportunities and threats that may occur from those organizations competing for the same business you are. You need to understand what your competitors are or aren’t offering your potential customers. Here are a few other key ways a competitive analysis fits into strategic planning:

• To help you assess whether your competitive advantage is really an advantage.
• To understand what your competitors’ current and future strategies are so you can plan accordingly.
• To provide information that will help you evaluate your strategic decisions against what your competitors may or may not be doing.

Learn more on how to conduct a competitive analysis here .

Step 4: Identify Opportunities and Threats

Opportunities are situations that exist but must be acted on if the business is to benefit from them.

What do you want to capitalize on?

• What new needs of customers could you meet?
• What are the economic trends that benefit you?
• What are the emerging political and social opportunities?
• What niches have your competitors missed?

Threats refer to external conditions or barriers preventing a company from reaching its objectives.

What do you need to mitigate? What external driving force do you need to anticipate?

Questions to Answer:

• What are the negative economic trends?
• What are the negative political and social trends?
• Where are competitors about to bite you?
• Where are you vulnerable?

Step 5: Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths refer to what your company does well.

What do you want to build on?

• What do you do well (in sales, marketing, operations, management)?
• What are your core competencies?
• What differentiates you from your competitors?
• Why do your customers buy from you?

Weaknesses refer to any limitations a company faces in developing or implementing a strategy.

What do you need to shore up?

• Where do you lack resources?
• What can you do better?
• Where are you losing money?
• In what areas do your competitors have an edge?

Step 6: Customer Segments

Customer segmentation defines the different groups of people or organizations a company aims to reach or serve.

• What needs or wants define your ideal customer?
• What characteristics describe your typical customer?
• Can you sort your customers into different profiles using their needs, wants and characteristics?
• Can you reach this segment through clear communication channels?

Step 7: Develop Your SWOT

A SWOT analysis is a quick way of examining your organization by looking at the internal strengths and weaknesses in relation to the external opportunities and threats. Creating a SWOT analysis lets you see all the important factors affecting your organization together in one place.

It’s easy to read, easy to communicate, and easy to create. Take the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats you developed earlier, review, prioritize, and combine like terms. The SWOT analysis helps you ask and answer the following questions: “How do you….”

• Build on your strengths
• Shore up your weaknesses
• Capitalize on your opportunities
• Manage your threats

Strategic Planning Process Phase 2: Developing Strategy

Want More? Deep Dive Into the “Developing Your Strategy” How-To Guide.

Step 1: Develop Your Mission Statement

The mission statement describes an organization’s purpose or reason for existing.

What is our purpose? Why do we exist? What do we do?

• What are your organization’s goals? What does your organization intend to accomplish?
• Why do you work here? Why is it special to work here?
• What would happen if we were not here?

Outcome: A short, concise, concrete statement that clearly defines the scope of the organization.

Step 2: discover your values.

Your values statement clarifies what your organization stands for, believes in and the behaviors you expect to see as a result. Check our the post on great what are core values and examples of core values .

How will we behave?

• What are the key non-negotiables that are critical to the company’s success?
• What guiding principles are core to how we operate in this organization?
• What behaviors do you expect to see?
• If the circumstances changed and penalized us for holding this core value, would we still keep it?

Outcome: Short list of 5-7 core values.

Step 3: casting your vision statement.

A Vision Statement defines your desired future state and directs where we are going as an organization.

Where are we going?

• What will our organization look like 5–10 years from now?
• What does success look like?
• What are we aspiring to achieve?
• What mountain are you climbing and why?

Outcome: A picture of the future.

Step 4: identify your competitive advantages.

A competitive advantage is a characteristic of an organization that allows it to meet its customer’s need(s) better than its competition can. It’s important to consider your competitive advantages when creating your competitive strategy.

What are we best at?

• What are your unique strengths?
• What are you best at in your market?
• Do your customers still value what is being delivered? Ask them.
• How do your value propositions stack up in the marketplace?

Outcome: A list of 2 or 3 items that honestly express the organization’s foundation for winning.

Step 5: crafting your organization-wide strategies.

Your competitive strategy is the general methods you intend to use to reach your vision. Regardless of the level, a strategy answers the question “how.”

How will we succeed?

• Broad: market scope; a relatively wide market emphasis.
• Narrow: limited to only one or few segments in the market
• Does your competitive position focus on lowest total cost or product/service differentiation or both?

Outcome: Establish the general, umbrella methods you intend to use to reach your vision.

Phase 3: Strategic Plan Development

Want More? Deep Dive Into the “Build Your Plan” How-To Guide.

Strategic Planning Process Step 1: Use Your SWOT to Set Priorities

If your team wants to take the next step in the SWOT analysis, apply the TOWS Strategic Alternatives Matrix to your strategy map to help you think about the options you could pursue. To do this, match external opportunities and threats with your internal strengths and weaknesses, as illustrated in the matrix below:

TOWS Strategic Alternatives Matrix

Evaluate the options you’ve generated, and identify the ones that give the greatest benefit, and that best achieve the mission and vision of your organization. Add these to the other strategic options that you’re considering.

Step 2: Define Long-Term Strategic Objectives

Long-Term Strategic Objectives are long-term, broad, continuous statements that holistically address all areas of your organization. What must we focus on to achieve our vision? Check out examples of strategic objectives here. What are the “big rocks”?

Questions to ask:

• What are our shareholders or stakeholders expectations for our financial performance or social outcomes?
• To reach our outcomes, what value must we provide to our customers? What is our value proposition?
• To provide value, what process must we excel at to deliver our products and services?
• To drive our processes, what skills, capabilities and organizational structure must we have?

Outcome: Framework for your plan – no more than 6. You can use the balanced scorecard framework, OKRs, or whatever methodology works best for you. Just don’t exceed 6 long-term objectives.

Step 3: Setting Organization-Wide Goals and Measures

Once you have formulated your strategic objectives, you should translate them into goals and measures that can be communicated to your strategic planning team (team of business leaders and/or team members).

You want to set goals that convert the strategic objectives into specific performance targets. Effective strategic goals clearly state what, when, how, and who, and they are specifically measurable. They should address what you must do in the short term (think 1-3 years) to achieve your strategic objectives.

Organization-wide goals are annual statements that are SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, responsible, and time-bound. These are outcome statements expressing a result to achieve the desired outcomes expected in the organization.

What is most important right now to reach our long-term objectives?

Outcome: clear outcomes for the current year..

Step 4: Select KPIs

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are the key measures that will have the most impact in moving your organization forward. We recommend you guide your organization with measures that matter. See examples of KPIs here.

How will we measure our success?

Outcome: 5-7 measures that help you keep the pulse on your performance. When selecting your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), ask, “What are the key performance measures we need to track to monitor if we are achieving our goals?” These KPIs include the key goals you want to measure that will have the most impact on moving your organization forward.

Step 5: Cascade Your Strategies to Operations

To move from big ideas to action, creating action items and to-dos for short-term goals is crucial. This involves translating strategy from the organizational level to individuals. Functional area managers and contributors play a role in developing short-term goals to support the organization.

Before taking action, decide whether to create plans directly derived from the strategic plan or sync existing operational, business, or account plans with organizational goals. Avoid the pitfall of managing multiple sets of goals and actions, as this shifts from strategic planning to annual planning.

Questions to Ask

• How are we going to get there at a functional level?
• Who must do what by when to accomplish and drive the organizational goals?
• What strategic questions still remain and need to be solved?

Department/functional goals, actions, measures and targets for the next 12-24 months

Step 6: Cascading Goals to Departments and Team Members

Now in your Departments / Teams, you need to create goals to support the organization-wide goals. These goals should still be SMART and are generally (short-term) something to be done in the next 12-18 months. Finally, you should develop an action plan for each goal.

Keep the acronym SMART in mind again when setting action items, and make sure they include start and end dates and have someone assigned their responsibility. Since these action items support your previously established goals, it may be helpful to consider action items your immediate plans on the way to achieving your (short-term) goals. In other words, identify all the actions that need to occur in the next 90 days and continue this same process every 90 days until the goal is achieved.

Examples of Cascading Goals:

Phase 4: Executing Strategy and Managing Performance

Want more? Dive Into the “Managing Performance” How-To Guide.

Step 1: Strategic Plan Implementation Schedule

Implementation is the process that turns strategies and plans into actions in order to accomplish strategic objectives and goals.

How will we use the plan as a management tool?

• Communication Schedule: How and when will you roll-out your plan to your staff? How frequently will you send out updates?
• Process Leader: Who is your strategy director?
• Structure: What are the dates for your strategy reviews (we recommend at least quarterly)?
• System & Reports: What are you expecting each staff member to come prepared with to those strategy review sessions?

Outcome: Syncing your plan into the “rhythm of your business.”

Once your resources are in place, you can set your implementation schedule. Use the following steps as your base implementation plan:

• Establish your performance management and reward system.
• Set up monthly and quarterly strategy meetings with established reporting procedures.
• Set up annual strategic review dates including new assessments and a large group meeting for an annual plan review.

Now you’re ready to start plan roll-out. Below are sample implementation schedules, which double for a full strategic management process timeline.

Step 2: Tracking Goals & Actions

Monthly strategy meetings don’t need to take a lot of time – 30 to 60 minutes should suffice. But it is important that key team members report on their progress toward the goals they are responsible for – including reporting on metrics in the scorecard they have been assigned.

By using the measurements already established, it’s easy to make course corrections if necessary. You should also commit to reviewing your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) during these regular meetings. Need help comparing strategic planning software ? Check out our guide.

Effective Strategic Planning: Your Bi-Annual Checklist

Never lose sight of the fact that strategic plans are guidelines, not rules. Every six months or so, you should evaluate your strategy execution and strategic plan implementation by asking these key questions:

• Will your goals be achieved within the time frame of the plan? If not, why?
• Should the deadlines be modified? (Before you modify deadlines, figure out why you’re behind schedule.)
• Are your goals and action items still realistic?
• Should the organization’s focus be changed to put more emphasis on achieving your goals?
• Should your goals be changed? (Be careful about making these changes – know why efforts aren’t achieving the goals before changing the goals.)
• What can be gathered from an adaptation to improve future planning activities?

Why Track Your Goals?

• Ownership: Having a stake and responsibility in the plan makes you feel part of it and leads you to drive your goals forward.
• Culture: Successful plans tie tracking and updating goals into organizational culture.
• Implementation: If you don’t review and update your strategic goals, they are just good intentions
• Accountability: Accountability and high visibility help drive change. This means that each measure, objective, data source and initiative must have an owner.
• Empowerment: Changing goals from In Progress to Complete just feels good!

Step 3: Review & Adapt

Guidelines for your strategy review.

The most important part of this meeting is a 70/30 review. 30% is about reviewing performance, and 70% should be spent on making decisions to move the company’s strategy forward in the next quarter.

The best strategic planners spend about 60-90 minutes in the sessions. Holding meetings helps focus your goals on accomplishing top priorities and accelerating the organization’s growth. Although the meeting structure is relatively simple, it does require a high degree of discipline.

Strategy Review Session Questions:

Strategic planning frequently asked questions, read our frequently asked questions about strategic planning to learn how to build a great strategic plan..

Strategic planning is when organizations define a bold vision and create a plan with objectives and goals to reach that future. A great strategic plan defines where your organization is going, how you’ll win, who must do what, and how you’ll review and adapt your strategy..

Your strategic plan needs to include an assessment of your current state, a SWOT analysis, mission, vision, values, competitive advantages, growth strategy, growth enablers, a 3-year roadmap, and annual plan with strategic goals, OKRs, and KPIs.

A strategic planning process should take no longer than 90 days to complete from start to finish! Any longer could fatigue your organization and team.

There are four overarching phases to the strategic planning process that include: determining position, developing your strategy, building your plan, and managing performance. Each phase plays a unique but distinctly crucial role in the strategic planning process.

Prior to starting your strategic plan, you must go through this pre-planning process to determine your organization’s readiness by following these steps:

Ask yourself these questions: Are the conditions and criteria for successful planning in place now? Can we foresee any pitfalls that we can avoid? Is there an appropriate time for our organization to initiate this process?

Develop your team and schedule. Who will oversee the implementation as Chief Strategy Officer or Director? Do we have at least 12-15 other key individuals on our team?

Research and Collect Current Data. Find the following resources that your organization may have used in the past to assist you with your new plan: last strategic plan, mission, vision, and values statement, business plan, financial records, marketing plan, SWOT, sales figures, or projections.

Finally, review the data with your strategy director and facilitator and ask these questions: What trends do we see? Any obvious strengths or weaknesses? Have we been following a plan or just going along with the market?

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Review and Adaptation: The Strategy Edge

“Plans are useless, but planning is everything.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower

Agility. Rapid design. Innovation. The need to adapt governs decisions made by all organizational leaders. Once the business of the for-profit world, this growth mindset has permeated the agenda of the nonprofit sector, too.

The strategic planning and execution process we described last month was popularized several decades ago when the future was much easier to predict based on the past. Today’s global, digital, and ever-connected world requires agility and a focus on adaptive strategy, in which:

• predictions are replaced by experiments
• data collection takes a back seat to pattern recognition
• execution comes from the whole organization, rather than the top.

Strategic plan review

According to the Brighter Strategies resource guide, Strategic Planning: A Step-by-Step Guide for Your Nonprofit Organization , if you do strategic planning right, you’re never really finished. The final step in the process is plan review, which is necessary to improve the strategic plan and ensure its successful and ongoing execution.

Use these practical tips to help guide the review of your agency’s strategic plan:

• Timeline : Review the strategic plan at least annually, and completely overhaul the plan every three years.
• Procedures : Gather data on the plan’s progress through stakeholder surveys and interviews, program evaluations, and budget reports.
• Discussion : During annual review meetings, convene the strategic planning team to discuss the compiled data.
• Revisions : Ensure the plan’s goals, measures, targets, and initiatives are on track, and revise any of these elements as needed.
• Balanced Scorecard : Each quarter or month, data on the balanced scorecard measures should be prepared for both senior leaders to review and managers to discuss. Corresponding metrics are reexamined annually as part of the strategic planning process.

Strategic plan adaptation

Adapting your strategic plan is more of an ongoing activity than a final step in the process. Brighter Strategies recommends you adopt a continuous improvement mindset when considering your programs and initiatives. Adaptation is about developing forecasting skills to ensure you can predict emerging trends and adjust accordingly. It requires nonprofit leaders who are equipped with foresight in a world that never stops changing.

Consider the following questions to help you develop an adaptive mindset.

*Source: Monitor Institute, a next and best practice social enterprise arm of Deloitte

Next month, Carter is back on the scene , putting on his continuous improvement hat to adapt his organization’s strategic plan. In the meantime, if you need assistance with strategic planning, execution, review, or adaptation, organization development consulting firm Brighter Strategies is here to help. Strategy is our specialty! Contact us today to learn more about our resources and services.

The 5 steps of the strategic planning process

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Starting a project without a strategy is like trying to bake a cake without a recipe — you might have all the ingredients you need, but without a plan for how to combine them, or a vision for what the finished product will look like, you’re likely to end up with a mess. This is especially true when working with a team — it’s crucial to have a shared plan that can serve as a map on the pathway to success.

Creating a strategic plan not only provides a useful document for the future, but also helps you define what you have right now, and think through and outline all of the steps and considerations you’ll need to succeed.

What is strategic planning?

While there is no single approach to creating a strategic plan, most approaches can be boiled down to five overarching steps:

• Define your vision
• Assess where you are
• Determine your priorities and objectives
• Define responsibilities
• Measure and evaluate results

Each step requires close collaboration as you build a shared vision, strategy for implementation, and system for understanding performance.

Related: Learn how to hold an effective strategic planning meeting

Why do I need a strategic plan?

Building a strategic plan is the best way to ensure that your whole team is on the same page, from the initial vision and the metrics for success to evaluating outcomes and adjusting (if necessary) for the future. Even if you’re an expert baker, working with a team to bake a cake means having a collaborative approach and clearly defined steps so that the result reflects the strategic goals you laid out at the beginning.

The benefits of strategic planning also permeate into the general efficiency and productivity of your organization as a whole. They include: 

• Greater attention to potential biases or flaws, improving decision-making 
• Clear direction and focus, motivating and engaging employees
• Better resource management, improving project outcomes 
• Improved employee performance, increasing profitability
• Enhanced communication and collaboration, fostering team efficiency 

Next, let’s dive into how to build and structure your strategic plan, complete with templates and assets to help you along the way.

Before you begin: Pick a brainstorming method

There are many brainstorming methods you can use to come up with, outline, and rank your priorities. When it comes to strategy planning, it’s important to get everyone’s thoughts and ideas out before committing to any one strategy. With the right facilitation , brainstorming helps make this process fair and transparent for everyone involved.  

First, decide if you want to run a real-time rapid ideation session or a structured brainstorming . In a rapid ideation session, you encourage sharing half-baked or silly ideas, typically within a set time frame. The key is to just get out all your ideas quickly and then edit the best ones. Examples of rapid ideation methods include round robin , brainwriting , mind mapping , and crazy eights . 

In a structured brainstorming session, you allow for more time to prepare and edit your thoughts before getting together to share and discuss those more polished ideas. This might involve brainstorming methods that entail unconventional ways of thinking, such as reverse brainstorming or rolestorming . 

Using a platform like Mural, you can easily capture and organize your team’s ideas through sticky notes, diagrams, text, or even images and videos. These features allow you to build actionable next steps immediately (and in the same place) through color coding and tagging. 

Whichever method you choose, the ideal outcome is that you avoid groupthink by giving everyone a voice and a say. Once you’ve reached a consensus on your top priorities, add specific objectives tied to each of those priorities.

Related: Brainstorming and ideation template

1. Define your vision

Whether it’s for your business as a whole, or a specific initiative, successful strategic planning involves alignment with a vision for success. You can think of it as a project-specific mission statement or a north star to guide employees toward fulfilling organizational goals. 

To create a vision statement that explicitly states the ideal results of your project or company transformation, follow these four key steps: 

• Engage and involve the entire team . Inclusivity like this helps bring diverse perspectives to the table. 
• Align the vision with your core values and purpose . This will make it familiar and easy to follow through. 
• Stay grounded . The vision should be ambitious enough to motivate and inspire yet grounded enough to be achievable and relevant.
• Think long-term flexibility . Consider future trends and how your vision can be flexible in the face of challenges or opportunities. 

For example, say your vision is to revolutionize customer success by streamlining and optimizing your process for handling support tickets. It’s important to have a strategy map that allows stakeholders (like the support team, marketing team, and engineering team) to know the overall objective and understand the roles they will play in realizing the goals. 

This can be done in real time or asynchronously , whether in person, hybrid, or remote. By leveraging a shared digital space , everyone has a voice in the process and room to add their thoughts, comments, and feedback. 

Related: Vision board template

2. Assess where you are

The next step in creating a strategic plan is to conduct an assessment of where you stand in terms of your own initiatives, as well as the greater marketplace. Start by conducting a resource assessment. Figure out which financial, human, and/or technological resources you have available and if there are any limitations. You can do this using a SWOT analysis.

What is SWOT analysis?

SWOT analysis is an exercise where you define:

• Strengths: What are your unique strengths for this initiative or this product? In what ways are you a leader?
• Weaknesses: What weaknesses can you identify in your offering? How does your product compare to others in the marketplace?
• Opportunities: Are there areas for improvement that'd help differentiate your business?
• Threats: Beyond weaknesses, are there existing potential threats to your idea that could limit or prevent its success? How can those be anticipated?

For example, say you have an eco-friendly tech company and your vision is to launch a new service in the next year. Here’s what the SWOT analysis might look like: 

• Strengths : Strong brand reputation, loyal customer base, and a talented team focused on innovation
• Weaknesses : Limited bandwidth to work on new projects, which might impact the scope of its strategy formulation 
• Opportunities : How to leverage and experiment with existing customers when goal-setting
• Threats : Factors in the external environment out of its control, like the state of the economy and supply chain shortages

This SWOT analysis will guide the company in setting strategic objectives and formulating a robust plan to navigate the challenges it might face. 

Related: SWOT analysis template

3. Determine your priorities and objectives

Once you've identified your organization’s mission and current standing, start a preliminary plan document that outlines your priorities and their corresponding objectives. Priorities and objectives should be set based on what is achievable with your available resources. The SMART framework is a great way to ensure you set effective goals . It looks like this:  

• Specific: Set clear objectives, leaving no room for ambiguity about the desired outcomes.
• Measurable : Choose quantifiable criteria to make it easier to track progress.
• Achievable : Ensure it is realistic and attainable within the constraints of your resources and environment.
• Relevant : Develop objectives that are relevant to the direction your organization seeks to move.
• Time-bound : Set a clear timeline for achieving each objective to maintain a sense of urgency and focus.

For instance, going back to the eco-friendly tech company, the SMART goals might be: 

• Specific : Target residential customers and small businesses to increase the sales of its solar-powered device line by 25%. 
• Measurable : Track monthly sales and monitor customer feedback and reviews. 
• Achievable : Allocate more resources to the marketing, sales, and customer service departments. 
• Relevant : Supports the company's growth goals in a growing market of eco-conscious consumers. 
• Time-bound : Conduct quarterly reviews and achieve this 25% increase in sales over the next 12 months.

With strategic objectives like this, you’ll be ready to put the work into action. 

Related: Project kickoff template

4. Define tactics and responsibilities

In this stage, individuals or units within your team can get granular about how to achieve your goals and who'll be accountable for each step. For example, the senior leadership team might be in charge of assigning specific tasks to their team members, while human resources works on recruiting new talent. 

It’s important to note that everyone’s responsibilities may shift over time as you launch and gather initial data about your project. For this reason, it’s key to define responsibilities with clear short-term metrics for success. This way, you can make sure that your plan is adaptable to changing circumstances. 

One of the more common ways to define tactics and metrics is to use the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) method. By outlining your OKRs, you’ll know exactly what key performance indicators (KPIs) to track and have a framework for analyzing the results once you begin to accumulate relevant data. 

For instance, if our eco-friendly tech company has a goal of increasing sales, one objective might be to expand market reach for its solar-powered products. The sales team lead would be in charge of developing an outreach strategy. The key result would be to successfully launch its products in two new regions by Q2. The KPI would be a 60% conversation rate in those targeted markets.  

Related: OKR planning template  

5. Manage, measure, and evaluate

Once your plan is set into motion, it’s important to actively manage (and measure) progress. Before launching your plan, settle on a management process that allows you to measure success or failure. In this way, everyone is aligned on progress and can come together to evaluate your strategy execution at regular intervals.

Determine the milestones at which you’ll come together and go over results — this can take place weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on the nature of the project.

One of the best ways to evaluate progress is through agile retrospectives (or retros) , which can be done in real time or asynchronously. During this process, gather and organize feedback about the key elements that played a role in your strategy. 

Related: Retrospective radar template

Retrospectives are typically divided into three parts:

• What went well.
• What didn’t go well.
• New opportunities for improvement.

This structure is also sometimes called the “ rose, thorn, bud ” framework. By using this approach, team members can collectively brainstorm and categorize their feedback, making the next steps clear and actionable. Creating an action plan during a post-mortem meeting is a crucial step in ensuring that lessons learned from past projects or events are effectively translated into tangible improvements. 

Another method for reviewing progress is the quarterly business review (QBR). Like the agile retrospective, it allows you to collect feedback and adjust accordingly. In the case of QBRs, however, we recommend dividing your feedback into four categories:

• Start (what new items should be launched?).
• Stop (what items need to be paused?).
• Continue (what is going well?).
• Change (what could be modified to perform better?).

Strategic planners know that planning activities continue even after a project is complete. There’s always room for improvement and an action plan waiting to be implemented. Using the above approaches, your team can make room for new ideas within the existing strategic framework in order to track better to your long-term goals.

Related: Quarterly business review template

Conclusions

The beauty of the strategic plan is that it can be applied from the campaign level all the way up to organizational vision. Using the strategic planning framework, you build buy-in , trust, and transparency by collaboratively creating a vision for success, and mapping out the steps together on the road to your goals.

Also, in so doing, you build in an ability to adapt effectively on the fly in response to data through measurement and evaluation, making your plan both flexible and resilient.

Related: 5 Tips for Holding Effective Post-mortems

Why Mural for strategic planning

Mural unlocks collaborative strategic planning through a shared digital space with an intuitive interface, a library of pre-fab templates, and methodologies based on design thinking principles.

Outline goals, identify key metrics, and track progress with a platform built for any enterprise.

Learn more about strategic planning with Mural.

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Strategic Review Process: Benefits and How to conduct?

The Strategic Review process that most of the organization do on a regular basis in order to help it achieve its goals and maintain control of the business environment.

This process is very helpful for organizations to identify areas for improvement and create strategies for achieving organizational goals.

What is Strategic Review?

The Strategic Review is a process that is used to identify and prioritize the most important business objectives. It takes place in an organization at least annually to ensure that the organization has a clear understanding of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

A lot of businesses, large and small, are using this as part of their strategic planning process. It is very helpful for organizations to establish strategies for addressing the most critical issues facing them today and in the future.

Strategic Reviews can be time-consuming and hard to create. But it provides valuable insights into how an organization should allocate its resources to achieve maximum results. In addition, It also helps organizations identify areas for improvement and create strategies to achieve organizational goals.

Why it is Important:

The Strategic Review Process is an important part of any organization’s strategic planning process. It looks at the current state of a company and creates a plan for what needs to happen in order to achieve the goals. These are use while creating the Strategic Review.

It helps organizations stay relevant and competitive by taking stock including;

• Current market conditions
• Exploring opportunities for growth
• Determining risks in the environment
• Understanding how relevant needs are

This also assesses where you should allocate resources in order to maximize success across all areas.

Strategic reviews are unique because you can do them either annually or continuously throughout an organization. It depends on how often an organization wants to review its progress and evaluate whether there are ways that it can improve.

Steps to conduct a Strategic Review:

The strategic review allows organizations to take stock of the current state of their company. And then create a plan for what needs to happen in order to achieve goals set out while creating Strategic Review.

The steps involved with conducting a Strategic Review include:

Determine the purpose of review:

It will be great if you conduct a strategic review once a year. The Strategic Review process is meant to show the company where they are, and it can also help them choose their direction for two years in advance.

Create goals: What needs to happen before moving forward? Strategic Plans need clear objectives that everyone agrees on as well as attainable goals that will take into account the current state of the company.

During this process, you should focus on high priority Strategic Focus areas that are related to Strategic Goals and objectives, not just every area in the business.

Review the current performance:

Strategic Reviews should be conducted and managed by Strategic Management. Strategic Managers will assess their organization’s current position or status within the industry, as well as future projections.

You should determine how their company has been performing up to this point, including both strengths and weaknesses of existing strategies. This information will be helpful in determining the Strategic Management’s next steps.

Improve the areas of improvement:

Next, you’ve to identify the areas where you need changes, as well as any necessary resources required to achieve these goals. You should determine what changes need to be made, and where your company’s Strategic Capabilities will come into play.

Strategic Capabilities are areas where your company has a Strategic Advantage over others in the industry. This is an opportunity for you to reflect on their company and plan ahead for success!

Communicate with your team:

Strategic Reviews should be conducted and managed by Strategic Managers. They will assess their organization’s current position or status within the industry, as well as future projections. Strategic Managers will communicate their Strategic Perspective to the rest of the organization.

You have to communicate with everyone involved in order to get a clear picture of your company’s. It will help you to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for improvement.

Create Strategic Direction:

You should need to conduct Strategic Review to determine what needs to change , and then create an action plan that clearly defines how all of this will happen. It can work with its team members who have specific expertise.

Once you’ve set goals, identified areas for improvement and created a plan of action- it’s time to take the next step! Creating an actionable Strategic Plan allows your company to move forward with confidence in its ability to succeed. This is the perfect way to improve every aspect of business performance.

Create a plan for implementation:

Strategic Plans should be reviewed and updated as needed. You can create a Strategic Plan that is flexible enough to adapt to any changes or obstacles that may appear.

Once you’ve determined the Strategic Direction for your company, it’s time to implement what needs changing! Creating an actionable plan allows your company to move forward with confidence in its ability to succeed.

Benefits of Doing a Strategic Review:

There are many Strategic Benefits that arise from conducting Strategic Reviews. Whether you’re just getting started or a veteran in the field of business, Strategic Review can help your company grow and succeed!

Here are some benefits of Strategic Review;

Strategic Reviews take a look at every aspect of your company, including its Strategic Capabilities and Strategic Goals.

It can identify opportunities for improvement in all areas of business performance. This allows companies to improve each department from top to bottom.

A Strategic Review shows you where your strengths are as well as any obstacles that may stand in the way of Strategic Goals.

It shows where your company has been successful in the past. It allows you to take these strengths into account when planning ahead for future success!

Conclusion:

The Strategic Review process is a strategic advantage for any company, no matter the size or industry. It allows companies to identify opportunities for improvement in all areas of business performance.

Strategic reviews are important because they allow each area of business performance to improve from top to bottom. You should have to conduct and manage by Strategic Managers.

It’s time to start planning ahead- Strategic Success starts with Strategic Reviews! Make sure you conduct your own Strategic Review before it’s too late!

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What is a strategic review.

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And why should you participate?

Strategic Review . Two words that in the minds of some people elicit a reaction of happiness and excitement about shaping the future and in the minds of others dread of another day of powerpoint and stale sandwiches. How can your participation be more about the happiness and excitement reactions and less about stale sandwiches?

Let’s start with what a Strategic Review is:

• Have clear and easy to understand data sets and graphics which are distributed to participants prior to the meeting. 
• Are based on common and agreed upon metrics and data sources, which are timely.
• Link back to the vital few assumptions about the future, which have the largest impacts on the company and are quantified.
• Have the explicit commitment of participants to review and prepare for the meeting in such a way that they can make informed contributions based on facts and data rather than opinions or subjective examples.
• Compare SHOULD and IS information- meaning that there were projections clearly made within the strategic profile of the organization that now can be compared to actual historic data and thus be used as benchmarks.

You should commit to your participation in a Strategic Review, because this is the point where you and your colleagues on the ELT will make the decisions that adjust to the future to the best of your abilities. If you do not participate in the review or come to a review unprepared, then the result is that your voice and viewpoint will not be counted and the direction of the company could go very wrong.   We can all think of companies that had interesting and viable strategies yet failed to execute on them or worse were going well to a point and then failed to adapt to the change in course demanded by the markets.  It is painful to watch companies head off in bad directions and disastorous when they collapse as a result.  The point to remember here is that competitors, markets, suppliers, and all your stakeholders do not work on your Strategic Planning Calendar nor agenda- this is why you need to meet- regularly and be informed and prepared- so that your contribution helps the organization head in the right direction.  If you found this blog post  useful- feel free to also download our complimentary Ebook of which I am one of the authors- entitled “Why Decisions Fail”.

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The importance of knowing how to evaluate a strategic plan

Now that you know more precisely what strategic planning is and what it is for – with the help of Peter Drucker’s ideas – let’s take a look at some strategic planning objectives.

3 main objectives of strategic planning

Below are the main objectives and benefits of monitoring your organization’s strategic plan:

1- Ensuring that activities are being performed within the defined parameters

During the development of strategic planning, for each activity planned for the organization, necessary parameters for their accomplishment are considered.

Costs, execution time, financial, material and human resources needed, among others.

Now, while the plan is being put in place, the manager must make sure that all activities are being carried out within the proper parameters.

Rather than assessing, the manager must look at whether a change of course is required, and whether the parameters for any activity need to be rethought.

Ensuring activity progress helps set performance standards that indicate progress towards long-term goals, assesses people’s performance, and provides input for feedback.

2- Ensuring activities are consistent with company DNA

The soul of the organization is closely linked to its vision, mission and values.

Monitoring strategic planning is also a way to ensure that activities are being developed in accordance with the values that guide the organization and its organizational culture.

Since they are directly related to the organizational climate and the corporate image of the company.

Check out this unique Siteware infographic that shows the consequences of a misaligned organizational culture of strategic planning:

3- Assessing ability to achieve goals and identify problems

Analyzing both the internal and external workforce and the exchange of ideas is also important in measuring how well a company is able to achieve what was set for the period.

By comparing performance data with established standards, it is possible to visualize or anticipate possible bottlenecks in corporate daily life.

Why is monitoring strategic planning important?

When a company monitors its strategic planning closely, it ensures that its teams are doing a good job, committed to maintaining progress, and with proper records so they can be evaluated.

Here is another quote from a master, Ram Charan , to illustrate how monitoring strategic planning is critical.

“ 70% of strategies fail due to ineffectiveness. They rarely fail due to lack of intelligence or vision.”

That is, at the time of executing the plan, it is crucial to carry out strategic monitoring and evaluation of the planning systematically and constantly.

After all, if 70% of planning activities fail in execution, only strategic planning control and evaluation – with metrics – will allow errors to be detected and adjustments made.

The metrics a company uses to measure also indicate the quality of the year or period the company is in.

If necessary, from what is evaluated, it is possible to correct the current path, make investments, hire staff, seek technological tools, build partnerships, among many other solutions.

Monitoring is part of the strategic planning system primarily to keep track of what is happening.

And this is usually done through an analysis of regular operational and financial reports on a company’s activities.

The results of a strategic planning follow-up are:

• Incentive for continuous improvement;
• Provision of data on the impact of activities;
• Information for decision making.

The monitoring of strategic planning should be carried out based on the same indicators used when preparing strategic planning.

This also allows for process review as the company realizes that activities, internal and external relationships, customer approaches, etc. need to be modified.

Is it clear to you how important strategic planning and the control of action plans and activities are?

Examples of strategic planning indicators

You have seen that there is no way to monitor strategic planning without the use of indicators.

There are actually three types of indicators to consider in a company:

• Strategic Indicators:  They point to the future, the path the company is expected to follow, and are linked to the mission and vision of the business. They will be reached in the long term, between 3 and 5 years. After an analysis of internal and external scenarios and company differentials, with the help of SWOT analysis, strategic indicators are usually defined.
• Tactical Indicators:  are related to the actions of each area of the company. They make up an action plan that is effective in a shorter period than the strategic objectives, but should contribute to it. If tactical indicators are being met, there is a good chance that strategic objectives will also be met successfully.
• Operational Indicators:  short term. They are directly linked to the day-to-day operations in a company and the progress of the processes. Operational indicators are assigned to each employee to achieve the desired performance level that will make it possible to achieve tactical and strategic goals.

How do you define strategic planning indicators, anyway?

We have seen in the paragraphs above that strategic indicators have the following characteristics:

• Point to the future
• Achieved in the long term
• Linked to a company’s mission and vision
• Based on competitive differences

So, for example, it would make no sense to define strategic indicators like the following:

• Improve the efficiency of our production line by 15% next year.
• Increase sales by 10% by the end of June
• Hire new talent to fill 6 positions on the board by year’s end

These are typical examples of tactical indicators.

To get examples of strategic planning indicators, one must think of changes more linked to the company’s DNA, its mission to society.

Here is a short list of examples of strategic planning indicators:

• Launch 3 new product lines each year over the next 4 years to gain 35% more Share in Market X.
• Create a corporate university that meets our needs within a maximum of 2 years and institute university study support plans to enable our employees to have 85% of the workforce with a college degree and 50% with a postgraduate degree. 5 years.
• Deactivate business units with less than 20% profitability and use the proceeds from the sale of these assets to start an international expansion project by opening 1 unit in countries X, Y and Z and 3 units in country W within 4 years.

Challenges of following strategic planning

Now that it’s clear to you how to evaluate a strategic plan, let’s look at the challenges inherent in doing it.

If we consider that strategic planning is the consolidation of ideas, it is in the implementation of these ideas that the organization will obtain its results, as Charan pointed out.

That’s why it needs to be constantly reevaluated and rethought as corporate progresses.

The biggest challenge of strategic management is related to the ability to move the organization and keep it connected with what was proposed by the strategic plan, with the adaptability that this process requires.

Like every management function, this presupposes a permanent dynamic of planning, execution, monitoring, evaluation, adjustments and readjustments.

And if you want to know how to evaluate a strategic plan even more quickly and assertively, check out STRATWs One strategic planning software.

It enables a friendly view of your strategy map, making it easy to track indicators and goals and creating action plans for each one.

It makes it much easier to understand how to evaluate a strategic plan and monitor internal activities.

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Strategic Planning Should Be a Strategic Exercise

• Graham Kenny

Don’t create a plan. Create a system.

Many managers complain that strategy-making often reduces to an operational action plan that resembles the last one.  To prevent that from happening they need to remember that strategy is about creating a system whereby a company’s stakeholders interact to create a sustainable advantage for the company.  Strategic planning is how the company designs that system, which is very different from an operational action plan in that it is never a static to-do list but constantly evolves as strategy makers acquire more insights into how their system of stakeholders can create value.

Over the years I’ve facilitated many strategic planning workshops for business, government, and not-for-profit organizations. We reflect on recent changes and future trends and consider how to engage with them for corporate success.

• Graham Kenny is the CEO of Strategic Factors and author of Strategy Discovery . He is a recognized expert in strategy and performance measurement who helps managers, executives, and boards create successful organizations in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. He has been a professor of management in universities in the U.S. and Canada.

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Navigating change: how often should you have strategic reviews.

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The journey towards strategic excellence is both iterative and dynamic, demanding a careful balance ... [+] between consistency and flexibility.

Determining the optimal frequency for strategic reviews poses a series of critical questions: How does the size of an organization influence its need for strategic agility? In what ways do industry dynamics dictate the pace at which strategies should be revisited? How can leaders effectively navigate the unpredictable waters of external and internal changes to maintain a competitive edge and adaptability?

That said, as firms continuously evolve within the ever-changing market landscape, the challenge becomes not just about adapting, but about proactively shaping strategies that are deeply tailored to their unique circumstances. What considerations must leaders take into account to ensure their strategic reviews are both timely and effective? How can the inherent complexities of balancing internal capabilities with external pressures be managed to foster sustained growth and resilience?

These questions underscore the multifaceted nature of strategic planning in today’s dynamic business environment, highlighting the importance of a nuanced approach that aligns with an organization’s specific realities.

Factors Influencing Review Frequency

The ideal frequency for strategy reviews is a nuanced decision that does not adhere to a universal standard. It varies significantly across different organizations and sectors, influenced by a myriad of factors that can alter the strategic course of a business. Understanding these factors is crucial for leaders aiming to maintain their firms’ competitive edge and adaptability in a fastevolving business landscape. These key factors include the size and nature of the organization, the dynamics of the industry in which it operates, and a range of external and internal influences that can prompt a reassessment of strategic direction.

• Organizational Size and Nature: The scale and structure of a company play a pivotal role in determining the appropriate frequency for strategic reviews. Smaller, more nimble firms may benefit from frequent strategic adjustments to exploit new opportunities and respond to challenges swiftly. In contrast, larger enterprises often face more complex decisionmaking processes and may operate in more established markets, which might justify less frequent, but more comprehensive, strategic reviews.
• Industry Dynamics: The pace of change within an industry is a critical determinant. Industries characterized by rapid technological advancements, consumer preference shifts, and regulatory changes necessitate a more agile approach to strategy review. Companies in these sectors must stay vigilant and ready to adapt their strategies to maintain relevancy and competitiveness.
• External Factors: External forces such as economic conditions, political developments, and social trends can have a profound impact on a business’s operational environment. Fluctuations in these areas can disrupt even the most wellthoughtout strategies, making regular reviews essential to navigate and leverage these changes effectively.
• Internal Factors: Lastly, changes within the organization itself, such as leadership transitions, shifts in operational capabilities, or redefined corporate visions, can necessitate more frequent strategic reviews. As firms evolve, their strategies must evolve too, to reflect the current state and aspirations of the business.

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Acknowledging and understanding these factors allow leaders to tailor their strategic review processes to their specific context, ensuring that their organizations remain agile, focused, and aligned with their longterm objectives in an everchanging business environment.

Recommended Review Frequencies

Leaders must judiciously decide on the frequency of strategy reviews, ensuring they are aligned with their firm’s specific characteristics and the external environment it operates within. This tailored approach allows for the nuanced adjustments necessary for sustained success and agility.

• Annual Reviews : Serving as the cornerstone for strategic planning, annual reviews are indispensable for evaluating an organization’s alignment with its longterm objectives. These comprehensive assessments provide a broad perspective on the company’s trajectory, facilitating highlevel decisions that steer any firm towards its envisioned future. During these sessions, leaders have the opportunity to reflect on the past year’s accomplishments, setbacks, and lessons learned, setting the stage for refined strategic goals that encapsulate the company’s aspirations and market realities.
• Quarterly or BiAnnual Reviews : For more immediate tactical considerations and midterm strategic alignment, quarterly or biannual reviews are highly effective. These intervals are particularly suited for adapting to and capitalizing on market dynamics, technological advancements, and competitor movements. They strike a balance between strategic foresight and operational flexibility, enabling leaders to make informed adjustments without being overwhelmed by the granularity of daily business operations. This cadence encourages a proactive stance towards internal and external shifts, ensuring that the organization remains responsive and resilient.
• Monthly or Continuous Reviews : In sectors where innovation and change are the norms, such as technology, or during periods of significant organizational change, a more agile approach to strategy reviews might be required. Monthly or even continuous strategic assessments allow for a dynamic response mechanism to rapidly unfolding developments. This approach is akin to having a finger on the pulse of the market, enabling realtime pivots and strategies that leverage immediate opportunities or mitigate unforeseen risks. It is particularly beneficial in environments where being first to market or swiftly adapting to regulatory changes can be a critical competitive advantage.

In the end, the journey towards strategic excellence is both iterative and dynamic, demanding a careful balance between consistency and flexibility. Leaders must navigate this path with a deep understanding of their firm’s unique challenges and opportunities, adapting their strategic review frequency to the ever-shifting sands of the business landscape. By doing so, they not only ensure their firm’s alignment with its long-term objectives but also foster a culture of agility and resilience that can weather the storms of change.

In essence, the strategic review process is not just about adjustment and adaptation; it’s about embedding a forward-thinking ethos at the heart of the organization. It is this ethos that will empower businesses to not just survive but thrive, turning the unpredictability of change into a wellspring of innovation and growth. Through a nuanced approach to strategic review frequency, informed by a deep understanding of the factors that shape their environment, leaders can chart a course for sustained success in an increasingly complex and volatile world.

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• Contributors

What to Say When Launching a Strategic Review Process

Patrick Ryan is a Senior Vice President at Edelman Smithfield. This post is based on his Edelman piece.

A chaotic energy filled the halls of an S&P 500 company. The head of HR was managing a flood of employees in her office with questions about how their benefits could be impacted if the company is sold. Meanwhile, the company’s head of communications was busy fielding reporter inquiries from Bloomberg and other media outlets, while down the hall, the CEO was on the phone with frustrated clients. In the ensuing weeks, HR noticed an uptick in employee attrition and difficulties recruiting talent.

The company’s clients and employees were reacting to an announcement that its board of directors would “review strategic alternatives, including a potential sale of the company.” They were understandably concerned about the implications for them. Like many boards and management teams, the company’s leadership had failed to anticipate how disruptive such an announcement can be. Had they planned appropriately, they would not have been caught so flatfooted.

Below, we review challenges that publicly announcing a strategic review can create. We then outline communications practices for addressing these obstacles.

With pressure on boards to run strategic reviews, boards and management teams should carefully consider the implications of publicly disclosing a process.

Pressure to disclose a strategic review often comes from activist shareholders. While a muted M&A market in late 2022 and early 2023 may have caused some activists to shift their focus elsewhere, many market observers believe this lull will be temporary. According to Morgan Stanley, “The growth in the private equity industry, sophistication of corporate clients and overall strength of corporate balance sheets and earnings should result in increased M&A activity in 2023 and beyond.” [1] Given a potential uptick in M&A, increased levels of shareholder activism, and valuations resetting, many companies can expect pressure to sell themselves.

Boards that decide to run a process face a foundational decision: Should they publicly disclose it? Research from Jenny Zha Giedt at the George Washington University School of Business outlines the potential benefits and risks of these announcements. The research validates what we see in our advisory work: While the announcement of a strategic review can lead to a more robust process and higher premiums, it also often brings negative consequences for a company and for shareholder value. [2] These consequences, outlined below, are significant enough that most financial advisors recommend against disclosure in most circumstances.

What’s at stake when announcing a strategic review?

The risks of disclosing a strategic review go beyond the negative attention and share price impact if the process does not yield a sale. The perception of putting up a “for sale” sign often creates less obvious issues:

• A public process consumes substantial time from directors and management, distracting them from overseeing and running the business.
• The company may face challenges retaining and recruiting employees.
• Relatedly, productivity can suffer as employees worry about things like job security and whether they’ll have to relocate in the event of a sale.
• Other stakeholders including customers, especially those with long-term contracts, often have concerns about how a sales process could affect them.
• Competitors may capitalize on the perceived instability following the announcement, costing you market share.

After the announcement of a strategic review, a company can say little about the ongoing process. What’s the point of communicating with stakeholders if you can’t tell them anything of substance?

The suggestion that a company can mitigate the above risks with multi-stakeholder communications will surprise many who have been involved in these situations, given the legal and practical restrictions on what companies can say. This attitude ignores the nuances of these announcements as well as important dynamics around stakeholder communications.

For example, even when employee communications can say little about the process, the fact that management is reaching out, in and of itself, shows that leadership is thinking of them and promotes the perception of transparency. This supports employee morale. Additionally, as noted below, there are things the company can say and do in these situations to reduce uncertainty.

A company’s announcement of a strategic review has parallels with the onset of a reputational crisis. In a crisis’ early stages, stakeholder uncertainty is heightened, and companies have few facts to provide as they seek to understand and respond to the situation while limiting litigation risk. Best practices nonetheless call for frequent leadership communications and engagement. [3] Why then, when a strategic review announcement creates turmoil for employees and others, should companies ignore the need for stakeholder communications until damage is done?

Best communications practices for announcing a strategic review process

Below are recommendations for companies choosing to disclose a strategic review. Some boards will decide that a public disclosure is beneficial at the start of the process. Others will choose to acknowledge a strategic review once news of it has leaked, and/or they are facing activist pressure. The following recommendations apply in either situation.

• Identify likely stakeholder concerns pre-announcement and prepare a detailed and prioritized outreach plan to address them to the extent possible.

When planning for the announcement, carefully consider the potential reactions of your key audiences. This thought process can help answer important questions, such as, which clients warrant outreach to apprise them of the announcement, and from whom?

When considering who to alert directly about the news, review existing practices. If you never share corporate news with vendors, for example, the announcement of a strategic review may not be the best time to begin. Instead, be ready to answer their likely questions.

• Acknowledge and place bounds on uncertainty.

Conveying certainty where none exists can damage credibility. Following the announcement of a strategic review, management teams should get comfortable admitting that they don’t know when or how the process will end.

Companies can reduce rumors, especially among employees, by placing bounds on the uncertainty. For example, the announcement should articulate what the board is considering, such as joint-ventures, divestitures, and/or a sale of the company.

Messaging should acknowledge the possibility of remaining a standalone company, which manages expectations and helps reinforce a “business as usual” mindset. Relatedly, management should avoid speculating about potential outcomes or details of the process in its communications or interactions.

• Ensure consistency of messages when tailoring communications for various stakeholders.

While it’s tempting for executives to provide differing messages to Wall Street and employees, inconsistencies will hurt managers’ credibility. For example, if the company press release notes that a sale is a potential outcome of the process, don’t downplay the possibility with employees.

Communications should nonetheless emphasize and expound upon points relevant to the target audience.

• Communicate with employees frequently and empower people managers.

While you can say little, employees appreciate the act of reaching out and acknowledging their concerns. Remember, however, that internal communications frequently become public. Listen to your legal counsel, and avoid risky tactics like employee town halls with open Q&A.

When considering how to best communicate with employees, T. Larkin and Sandar Larkin’s decades-long research on employee communications during company transformations and periods of uncertainty offers helpful insights. [4] Among the most important points for companies announcing a strategic review is the value of using frontline/people managers as information resources for employees. You can empower them in this role by providing incremental information and talking points to address questions.

Leadership communications to, and interactions with, employees should convey a “business as usual” message. Remember that employee scrutiny of leadership communications and behavior will increase post-announcement.

• Thoughtfully manage press leaks.

Expect inquiries from reporters immediately after the announcement, even if your company rarely appears in the news. The media loves a good M&A sale process.

While it’s best to adopt a general policy not to comment on rumors to avoid setting a precedent with reporters, companies sometimes benefit from speaking with an inquiring reporter on background, i.e., not for attribution, to gather intelligence, shape a potential story, and prevent the spread of misinformation. This may include situations where the reporter is speaking with a self-interested bidder.

• Maintain communications with Wall Street.

A strategic review is not an excuse to stop communicating with shareholders. Most publicly announced reviews don’t end in a sale, so keep in touch with your shareholder by continuing most routine IR activities. [5] In limited situations, you may even consider talking to “arb investors” (carefully) to hear their point of view on the process and perceived obstacles to completion. In all conversations, be prepared to quickly pivot away from questions about the process.

When announcing a strategic review, carefully consider your communications and IR strategy to protect shareholder value.

Boards planning to conduct strategic reviews should carefully consider the benefits and risks of public disclosure. Those deciding to announce a process will benefit from thoughtful communications planning, which can support employee productivity and retention and limit stakeholder distractions during an uncertain time for the company. Boards that fail to do so risk destroying shareholder value and make themselves vulnerable to activists.

1 Source: Morgan Stanley, 2023 M&A Outlook: 4 Trends to Watch as Deal-Making Accelerates (February 10, 2023). Available at: https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/mergers-and-acquisitions-outlook-2023-trends (go back)

2 Source: Zha Giedt, Jenny, Economic Consequences of Announcing Strategic Alternatives (July 11, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2695287 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2695287 (go back)

3 See, for example, Doorley, John, and Garcia, Helio Fred, “Crisis Communication” in Reputation Management , 3 rd edition. (go back)

4 Larkin, T. and Larkin, Sandar, Communicating Change: Winning Employee Support for New Business Goals. (go back)

5 Source: Zha Giedt, Jenny, Economic Consequences of Announcing Strategic Alternatives (July 11, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2695287 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2695287 (go back)

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Northwest healthcare properties reit announces $885 million sale of uk portfolio and concludes formal strategic review.

Northwest sells UK portfolio for £500 million (C$885 million) at a 5.9% cap rate

Since the beginning of the formal strategic review, the REIT has sold assets for gross proceeds of approximately C$1.6 billion

Northwest's Board concludes formal strategic review process

Northwest is committed to continued asset sales to simplify the business and strengthen the balance sheet, aiming to become an institutional-quality REIT

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 8, 2024) - Northwest Healthcare Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: NWH.UN) (the "REIT" or "Northwest"), a leading owner and operator of healthcare real estate infrastructure in North America, Brazil, Europe and Australasia, is pleased to announce that it has sold its UK portfolio for gross proceeds of £500 million (C$885 million). The completion of this strategic sale transaction concludes the REIT's previously announced strategic review process.

Sale of UK Portfolio

The REIT's UK portfolio was sold to Assura PLC (1) ("Assura"), a publicly-listed REIT on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: AGR) for total consideration of £500 million (C$885 million), of which 80%, £400 million (C$708 million), was paid in cash with the remainder paid in shares of Assura valued at £100 million (C$177 million) calculated on a 30-day VWAP basis. The REIT's stake in Assura equates to approximately 8% of Assura's public float.

The sale price of the REIT's UK portfolio represents a cap rate of 5.9%. Debt totaling C$690 million, with a weighted average interest rate of 7.9%, will be repaid with the net proceeds from the transaction. Management anticipates the transaction will be accretive to Adjusted Funds From Operations ("AFFO") (2) by approximately 6 cents per unit on an annualized basis.

Conclusion of Formal Strategic Review

The completion of the sale of the REIT's UK portfolio marks the culmination of the strategic review and concludes the REIT's formal strategic review process, originally announced on August 8, 2023. As previously announced by the REIT, the strategic review process was led by a committee of independent trustees of the REIT (the "Committee") with the Committee engaging Canadian banks, Scotiabank and RBC Capital Markets, and international bank Deutsche Bank Securities, each as co-advisors to provide financial advisory services, and DLA Piper (Canada) LLP as legal counsel.

As a result of the REIT's strategic review process and actions taken by the Board of Trustees of the REIT while the strategic review process was underway, Northwest undertook the following actions:

divested properties for proceeds of C$1.4 billion at a blended cap rate of 6.5% and investments in unlisted securities for proceeds of C$0.2 billion;

actively managed debt maturities in advance of asset sales

reduced outstanding debt (including convertible debentures) from C$4.2 billion to C$3.0 billion, and decreased consolidated debt to gross book value (including convertible debentures) to 47.6%;

continued to strengthen corporate governance and the composition of the management team;

improved liquidity through a revised distribution policy; and

enhanced disclosure and investor engagement.

Dale Klein, Non-Executive Chair of the Board, stated: "The management team, in collaboration with the Board, remains committed to maximizing value for unitholders by continuing to execute on identified initiatives. This includes a commitment to further asset sales in order to continue to simplify the business and strengthen the balance sheet. These strategic actions will help us to continue deleveraging as we work towards our goal of becoming an institutional-quality REIT." Craig Mitchell, CEO of Northwest, added: "We are pleased with the progress on the accretive dispositions completed over the last year and the positive impact they have had on our balance sheet. We remain committed to achieving favourable leverage levels and continuing to strengthen our financial position.

Our focus on cure assets and social infrastructure, along with investments in care and life sciences will continue to drive our future growth.

Additionally, we are committed to operational efficiency by streamlining operations and reducing costs to ensure efficient and effective operations. We believe these efforts will support our strategic initiatives and yield greater cost savings in the coming quarters.

We are in the right asset class, meeting the growing demand for quality healthcare facilities. We are excited about the future and are building a solid foundation for growth in healthcare real estate."

Upcoming Q2 2024 Conference Call

The REIT will be hosting its Q2 2024 conference call on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. ET. The dial-in numbers for the conference call are as follows:

North America (toll free): 1-844-763-8274 Overseas or local (Toronto): 1-647-484-8814

A replay will be available until September 14, 2024, by accessing:

US Toll Free: 1-877-344-7529 International Toll Free: 1-412-317-0088 Canada Toll Free: 1-855-669-9658 Replay Access Code: 9526679

(1) Further information on Assura is available on the investor relations section of their website ( https://www.assuraplc.com/investor-relations ) (2) AFFO is a supplemental non-IFRS financial measure. See "Non-IFRS Measures" below.

About Northwest

Northwest provides investors with access to a portfolio of high-quality international healthcare real estate infrastructure comprised as at March 31, 2024, of interests in a diversified portfolio of 210 income-producing properties and 17.4 million square feet of gross leasable area located throughout major markets in North America, Brazil, Europe and Australasia. The REIT's portfolio of medical office buildings, clinics, and hospitals is characterized by long-term indexed leases and stable occupancies. Northwest leverages its global workforce in eight countries to serve as a long-term real estate partner to leading healthcare operators. For additional information please visit: www.nwhreit.com .

Forward Looking Information

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by such terms such as "may", "might", "will", "could", "should", "would", "occur", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "continue", "likely", "schedule", or the negative thereof or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. The forward-looking information in this news release includes statements regarding the extent to which the sale of the UK portfolio is expected to be accretive to AFFO per unit, the potential future sale of assets, plans to continue deleveraging and simplifying the business, the REIT's goals of becoming an institutional-quality REIT and expected operational efficiencies and cost savings.

The REIT has based these forward-looking statements on factors and assumptions about future events and financial trends that it believes may affect its financial condition, financial performance, business strategy and financial needs. These assumptions include, but are not limited to, those relating to the REIT's ability to complete future asset sales and deleverage, the REIT being able to realize operational efficiencies and cost savings, interest rates remaining stable or decreasing, the REIT's properties continuing to perform, and currency exchange rates remaining stable.

Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based on assumptions that management of the REIT believe are reasonable, there can be no assurance that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the REIT's control, including, among other things, the risks that the REIT will be unable to realize the accretion, deleveraging, cost savings and other goals noted in this news release, as well as the business and industry risks identified in the REIT's annual information form and MD&A filed under the REIT's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca .

The forward-looking statements in this news release relate only to events or information as of the date hereof. Except as required by applicable Canadian securities laws, the REIT undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Non-IFRS Measures

Some financial measures used in this press release, such as AFFO per Unit, are used by the real estate industry to measure and compare the operating performance of real estate companies, but they do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. These non-IFRS financial measures should not be construed as alternatives to financial measures calculated in accordance with IFRS.

The REIT's method of calculating these measures may differ from the methods of other real estate investment trusts or other issuers, and accordingly may not be comparable. Further, the REIT's definition of AFFO differs from the definition recommended by REALpac.

Additional information regarding the REIT's non-IFRS measures, including definitions and reconciliations to the most directly comparable IFRS measure, where applicable, can be found in the REIT's Q1 2024 Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A"), in the 'Performance Measurement' and 'Results from Operations' sections. The MD&A is available on the REIT's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca .

Craig Mitchell, CEO, [email protected] ,

Stephanie Karamarkovic, CFO, [email protected] ,

Alyssa Barry, Investor Relations, [email protected] , [email protected] , (416) 366-2000 Ext. 2202

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/219169

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Proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system

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This consultation is seeking views on our proposed approach to revising the NPPF. It also seeks views on a series of wider national planning policy reforms.

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This consultation seeks views on our proposed approach to revising the National Planning Policy Framework in order to achieve sustainable growth in our planning system.

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DII Executive Board approves budget flexibility to expedite process for new championship opportunities

Board oks priorities for 2024-25 and discusses operating plan and marketing research.

The Division II Executive Board on Wednesday voted to adopt a recommendation from the Division II Strategic Planning and Finance Committee that expedites the process for a new Division II championship and optimizes student-athlete opportunities.

After the division adopted legislation in January that established 35 as the number of sponsoring schools required to add a Division II championship in a men's or women's sport, flexibility was desired for the board to act outside the championships triennial budget process, which calls for board approval before the membership votes on a new championship at the NCAA Convention. Such approval ensures fiscal responsibility and appropriate funding for the new championship.

"Today the board took important steps to gain needed flexibility in the budget process to ensure student-athlete access to new Division II championships is not hindered," said Colleen Perry Keith, chair of the Executive Board and president at Goldey-Beacom. "This decision affords us the ability to be nimble and add a new championship, should the opportunity surface between budget years."

The board was apprised of planning for the Division II Think Tank on Sept. 16-17, during which a representative group of Division II leaders will discuss the challenges facing college athletics and begin developing strategies and solutions. Feedback from the Think Tank will be forwarded to the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee, which will develop the next membership census to be distributed in January. Census results and a membership review will then inform the operating plan, scheduled for release in January 2026.

Make It Yours brand research 

An update was provided on the continued activation of the Make It Yours brand. The division's current focus is influencing the perception of Division II among its target audiences, which includes prospective student-athletes and their influencers, such as parents/guardians. Extensive research among those target audiences has been conducted to better understand their thoughts and concerns. Initial returns have indicated current student-athletes are prioritizing their personal development, but still rely on schools to fulfill their needs, while prospective student-athletes can struggle with starting the process of selecting a college and thus rely on influencers. The data gathered through this research will help determine a media activation plan that will launch in 2025.    

2024-25 Division II priorities

The board also voted to approve the division's priorities for the 2024-25 academic year, which were approved by the Management Council last month. In addition to the marketing and branding research and the development of the division's next operating plan, a focus has been placed on:

• The Championships Committee's review of regionalization and bracketing.
• A membership vote at the 2025 NCAA Convention to add women's wrestling as a National Collegiate Championship.
• The national Student-Athlete Advisory Committee's goals, best practice guides and civic engagement resource.
• Deregulation of legislation in the Division II Manual and review of sports wagering legislation.
• Partnership and development opportunities for the membership.

Next meeting

The board's next meeting will occur Oct. 28-29 in Indianapolis, at which time chair and vice chair elections will take place.

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