what is the difference between corporate plan and business plan

The Differences Between Business Planning & Corporate Planning

• Small Business
• Business Planning & Strategy
• Business Plans
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What Is the Difference Between a Marketing & Business Plan?

Disaster recovery plan vs. business continuity plan, corporate development & planning.

• What Is a Strategic Business Plan?
• What Happens When an Organization Has No Coherent Strategy?

Business success is dependent upon clear and decisive planning. Sure, strong sales and customer retention drive profit success. However, the increased sales and improved customer retention is a product of the business planning that occurs behind the scenes. Of the many types of planning that businesses use, business planning and corporate planning are the most common.

Business Planning

Business planning defines the strategies the business will use to meet its goals and missions. Business planning provides details on the business’ operations, products and services, and marketing strategies as it relates to the inclusive industry. This process expounds the operation strategies from short- and long-term views while focusing on the overall activity of the company. The business plan does not identify specific employee strategies but rather provides industry strategies.

Corporate Planning

Corporate planning defines the strategies that the employees will take to meet the business’ goals and missions. This type of planning, also known as strategic planning, focuses on staff responsibilities and procedures. As with business planning, strategic planning requires a close look at the company’s missions, strengths and weaknesses. However, corporate planning identifies the step-by-step process of the business, such as the actual steps the staff will take to counteract challenges, train employees and achieve accomplishments. Corporate planning also provides specific, measurable goals with realistic time lines.

Interdependency

Business planning and corporate planning are interdependent. Although business planning can exist without corporate planning, the goals of the business plan are much more attainable with corporate planning. As with business planning, the corporate plan can exist without a business plan. However, without business planning, the overall goals and missions of the business are not clear. Therefore, the corporate planning becomes incomplete.

There are many effects of business and corporate planning. Not only does the planning process help businesses to succeed, it helps businesses to determine when new directions and changes are needed. A close analysis can result in early recognition of potential issues and dangers, as well as help the company to quickly adapt to customer demand and needs.

Considerations

Business and strategic plans should be reviewed periodically. The plans should be reviewed to compare the business’ current standpoints against those that were outlined in the plans. Adjustments should be made, if necessary, to align the business’ actual activities to the defined plans. When analyzing needed changes, consideration should be given to the industry’s environment and trends, as well as the economy’s stability, customer demand and business needs. The balancing of the business and strategic plans should outline the moves or changes that the business will strive to implement and framework the strategies that the employees will use to meet the business’ missions and goals.

• Free Management Library: Basic Description of Strategic Planning
• Plan Ware: Business Planning Papers: Developing a Strategic Plan
• Free Management Library: Business Planning
• MasterCard International: The Plan
• Small Business Administration: Manage Your Business From Start to Finish

Writing professionally since 2004, Charmayne Smith focuses on corporate materials such as training manuals, business plans, grant applications and technical manuals. Smith's articles have appeared in the "Houston Chronicle" and on various websites, drawing on her extensive experience in corporate management and property/casualty insurance.

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Comparing Business Planning and Corporate Planning

The differences between business planning and corporate planning.

Both business planning and corporate planning involve defining goals for your business and creating plans to support those goals. While they may seem similar at first, each one is used for a specific purpose. It can help to think of business planning as the “what” of your business goals, while corporate planning is the “how”. Learn more about the purpose of each one below.

Business Planning: The “what”

Business planning is the “what” of your business. Your business plan should answer questions about what your business is now and where you see it going in the future.

Business planning involves creating preliminary documents, goals, and plans for your business. This may be necessary when you first have the idea for a business or when you’re changing or adding something to the core of your business. Before you can start getting into the specifics of corporate planning, you’ll need to create a more generalized business plan.

Your company’s business plan should include your company mission and your company strengths and weaknesses. You’ll want to define your short-term and long-term goals regarding growth, finances, and more.

Corporate Planning: The “how”

Successful corporate planning involves creating strategies to help you achieve those business goals you’ve defined in your business plan. Specifically, how are you going to support your company’s mission, and what steps will you and your employees need to take to reach those goals?

To get started in the corporate planning process, you’ll want to take a look into your company’s mission, strengths, and weaknesses. Gather any relevant information on your business’s finances and operations. Relevant documents may include cash-flow statements, credit reports, P&L statements, and up-to-date records of business transactions .

Once you’ve gathered all of the necessary information, you can set specific, measurable goals as part of your corporate plan. These may be goals regarding expansion, sales, employee performance, and more. Here are some sample goals to give you an idea of what to include in your corporate planning strategies:

Increase sales on x product by 30% during the fall quarter

Add 3 employees to x department in the next two months

Increase followers on social media by 100

Once your specific goals are defined, then you can devise specific strategies to help you reach those goals.

Business Planning or Corporate Planning: Which Do I Need?

Both business planning and corporate planning are essential to setting goals and achieving them. No matter the size of your business, these plans and strategies can serve as the framework for your business’s future. As your business grows and your goals evolve, you’ll also want to review your corporate plans to be sure they are aligned with your goals.

Our attorney and dedicated team can help you develop goals and strategic plans for your business through corporate planning. We’ll help you avoid any legal troubles while creating a plan for achieving your business goals. Our team is well versed in corporate law, and we would love to offer you our expertise. Click below for a free consultation to learn more about what we can do for your business.

Business Plan Vs Strategic Plan Vs Operational Plan—Differences Explained

Noah Parsons

5 min. read

Updated October 27, 2023

Many business owners know and understand the value of a business plan.  The business plan is a key component  of the startup and fundraising process and serves as a foundation for your organization. However, it only tells part of the story. To get the whole picture and have a framework on which to build your business you also need a strategic plan and an operational plan.

• What is a business plan?

In its simplest format, a  business plan  describes the “who” and the “what” of your business. It lays out who is running the business and what the business does. It describes the products and services that your business sells and who the customers are. 

• What is a strategic plan?

A  strategic plan  looks beyond the basics of a business plan to explain the “how”. It explains the long-term goals of the business and how it expects to achieve those goals over the long term. A strategic plan explores future products and services that your business might offer and target markets that you might expand into. The plan explains your strategy for long-term growth and expansion.

• What is an operational plan?

An operation plan zooms into the details of your business to explain how you are going to  achieve your short-term goals . It is the “when” and “where” of your planning process. The operational plan covers the details of marketing campaigns, short-term product development, and more immediate goals and projects that will happen within the next year.

• What is the difference between a strategic plan and a business plan?

First, let’s look at the difference between a business and a strategic plan. For review:

A  business plan  covers the “who” and “what” of the business. The  strategic plan  gives us long-term goals and explains “how” the business will get there, providing a long-term view.

In broader terms, the business plan tells us who by showing us:

• Who is running the business? What makes them qualified? What do they bring to the table that adds value?
• Who is the competition? What do they offer and what makes you different?
• Who is your customer? How big is the market? Where are they? What do they want and how will you give it to them? Also, how will you connect with your market?

The business plan answers the “what” by telling us:

• What the business provides and how it’s provided. 
• Product, services, and operations are all explained so that readers understand how customer needs are met.

The strategic plan, on the other hand, outlines long term goals and the “how”, focusing on the following:

• Where will the business be in 3, 5, or even 10 years?
• How will you expand to offer different products and services over time?
• Will your market and industry change over time and how will your business react to those changes?
• How will you grow your market and reach new customers?
• What needs to happen so you can achieve your goals? What resources do you need to get there?
• How will you measure success? What metrics matter and how will you track them?

So, your business plan explains what you are doing right now. Your strategic plan explains long-term aspirations and how you plan to transition your business from where it is today to where you want it to be in the future. The strategic plan helps you look more deeply into the future and explains the key moves you have to make to achieve your vision.

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• What is the difference between strategic planning and operational planning?

While strategic planning looks at the long term and explains your broad strategies for growth, an operational plan looks at the short term. It explains the details of  what your business is going to do  and when it’s going to do it over the next twelve months or so. An operational plan covers details like:

• What activities need to happen to achieve your business goals?
• When will each activity take place, who will do it, and when do you need to reach specific milestones?
• How will your business operate? What suppliers will you work with? When do you need to have them in place?
• What marketing campaigns will you run and what will they cost?
• What investments will you make in your products and services this year?

The bottom line, your operational plan is the short-term action plan for your business. It’s the tasks, milestones, and steps needed to drive your business forward. Typically an operational plan provides details for a 1-year period, while a strategic plan looks at a  3-5 year timeline , and sometimes even longer. The operational plan is essentially the roadmap for how you will execute your strategic plan.

• How to use your business plan for strategic development and operations

A great business plan can encompass both the basic plans for the business, the long-term strategic plan, and the near-term operational plan. Using a lean planning method, you can tackle all three phases of planning and make the process easy to review and revise as your business grows, changes, and adapts.

Start with a simple plan

The lean planning methodology starts with a simple,  30-minute business plan  that outlines the fundamentals of your business: who you are, what you are doing, and who your customers are. It’s a great way to provide a brief overview of your business.

Expand your plan

From there, you can expand your plan to include your longer-term strategy. Adding greater detail to elements of the plan to explain long-term goals, milestones, and how your products and services will change and expand over time to meet changing market conditions.

Finally, your lean plan will cover  financial forecasts  that include monthly details about the short-term revenue and expenses, as well as longer-term annual summaries of your financial goals, including profitability and potential future loans and investments.

• Use your business plan to manage your business

Regardless of the type of plan, you are working on, you need a team of players on hand to help you plan, develop, and execute both the operational and strategic plans. Remember, your business needs both to give it a clear foundation and a sense of direction. As well as to assist you with identifying the detailed work that has to happen to help you reach your long-term goals. 

Learn how  LivePlan  can help you develop a business plan that defines your business, outlines strategic steps, and tracks ongoing operations. You can easily share it with your team and all of the right stakeholders, explore scenarios and update your plan based on real-world results. Everything you need to turn your business plan into a tool for growth.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

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More Like this

What is the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan.

It is not uncommon that the terms ‘strategic plan’ and ‘business plan’ get confused in the business world. While a strategic plan is a type of business plan, there are several important distinctions between the two types that are worth noting. Before beginning your strategic planning process or strategy implementation, look at the article below to learn the key difference between a business vs strategic plan and how each are important to your organization.

Definition of a business plan vs. a strategic plan

A strategic plan is essential for already established organizations looking for a way to manage and implement their strategic direction and future growth. Strategic planning is future-focused and serves as a roadmap to outline where the organization is going over the next 3-5 years (or more) and the steps it will take to get there.

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A strategic plan serves 6 functions for an organization that is striving to reach the next level of their growth:.

• Defines the purpose of the organization.
• Builds on an organization’s competitive advantages.
• Communicates the strategy to the staff.
• Prioritizes the financial needs of the organization.
• Directs the team to move from plan to action.
• Creates long-term sustainability and growth impact

Alternatively, a business plan is used by new businesses or organizations trying to get off the ground. The fundamentals of a business plan focus on setting the foundation for the business or organization. While it looks towards the future, the focus is set more on the immediate future (>1 year). Some of the functions of a business plan may overlap with a strategic plan. However, the focus and intentions diverge in a few key areas.

A business plan for new businesses, projects, or organizations serves these 5 functions:

• Simplifies or explains the objectives and goals of your organization.
• Coordinates human resource management and determines operational requirements.
• Secures funding for your organization.
• Evaluates potential business prospects.
• Creates a framework for conceptualizing ideas.

In other words, a strategic plan is utilized to direct the momentum and growth of an established company or organization. In contrast, a business plan is meant to set the foundation of a newly (or not quite) developed company by setting up its operational teams, strategizing ways to enter a new market, and obtaining funding.

A strategic plan focuses on long-term growth and the organization’s impact on the market and its customers. Meanwhile, a business plan must focus more on the short-term, day-to-day operational functions. Often, new businesses don’t have the capacity or resources to create a strategic plan, though developing a business plan with strategy elements is never a bad idea.

Business and strategic plans ultimately differ in several key areas–timeframe, target audience, focus, resource allocation, nature, and scalability.

While both a strategic and business plan is forward-facing and focused on future success, a business plan is focused on the more immediate future. A business plan normally looks ahead no further than one year. A business plan is set up to measure success within a 3- to 12-month timeframe and determines what steps a business owner needs to take now to succeed.

A strategic plan generally covers the organizational plan over 3 to 5+ years. It is set with future expansion and development in mind and sets up roadmaps for how the organization will reach its desired future state.

Pro Tip: While a vision statement could benefit a business plan, it is essential to a strategic plan.

Target Audience

A strategic plan is for established companies, businesses, organizations, and owners serious about growing their organizations. A strategic plan communicates the organization’s direction to the staff and stakeholders. The strategic plan is communicated to the essential change makers in the organization who will have a hand in making the progress happen.

A business plan could be for new businesses and entrepreneurs who are start-ups. The target audience for the business plan could also be stakeholders, partners, or investors. However, a business plan generally presents the entrepreneur’s ideas to a bank. It is meant to get the necessary people onboard to obtain the funding needed for the project.

A strategic plan provides focus, direction, and action to move the organization from where they are now to where they want to go. A strategic plan may consist of several months of studies, analyses, and other processes to gauge an organization’s current state. The strategy officers may conduct an internal and external analysis, determine competitive advantages, and create a strategy roadmap. They may take the time to redefine their mission, vision, and values statements.

Alternatively, a business plan provides a structure for ideas to define the business initially. It maps out the more tactical beginning stages of the plan.

Pro Tip: A mission statement is useful for business and strategic plans as it helps further define the enterprise’s value and purpose. If an organization never set its mission statement at the beginning stages of its business plan, it can create one for its strategic plan.

A strategic plan is critical to prioritizing resources (time, money, and people) to grow the revenue and increase the return on investment. The strategic plan may start with reallocating current financial resources already being utilized more strategically.

A business plan will focus on the resources the business still needs to obtain, such as vendors, investors, staff, and funding. A business plan is critical if new companies seek funding from banks or investors. It will add accountability and transparency for the organization and tell the funding channels how they plan to grow their business operations and ROI in the first year of the business.

The scalability of a business plan vs. strategic plan

Another way to grasp the difference is by understanding the difference in ‘scale’ between strategic and business plans. Larger organizations with multiple business units and a wide variety of products frequently start their annual planning process with a corporate-driven strategic plan. It is often followed by departmental and marketing plans that work from the Strategic Plan.

Smaller and start-up companies typically use only a business plan to develop all aspects of operations of the business on paper, obtain funding and then start the business.

Why understanding the differences between a business plan vs a strategic plan matters

It is important to know the key differences between the two terms, despite often being used interchangeably. But here’s a simple final explanation:

A business plan explains how a new business will get off the ground. A strategic plan answers where an established organization is going in the future and how they intend to reach that future state.

A strategic plan also focuses on building a sustainable competitive advantage and is futuristic. A business plan is used to assess the viability of a business opportunity and is more tactical.

10 Comments

I agree with your analysis about small companies, but they should do a strategic plan. Just check out how many of the INC 500 companies have an active strategic planning process and they started small. Its about 78%,

Strategic management is a key role of any organization even if belong to small business. it help in growth and also to steam line your values. im agree with kristin.

I agree with what you said, without strategic planning no organization can survive whether it is big or small. Without a clear strategic plan, it is like walking in the darkness.. Best Regards..

Vision, Mission in Business Plan VS Strategic Plan ?

you made a good analysis on strategic plan and Business plan the difference is quite clear now. But on the other hand, it seems that strategic plan and strategic management are similar which I think not correct. Please can you tell us the difference between these two?. Thanks

Thank you. I get points to work on it

super answer Thanking you

Hi. I went through all the discussions, comments and replies. Thanks! I got a very preliminary idea about functions and necessity of Strategic Planning in Business. But currently I am looking for a brief nice, flowery, juicy definition of “Business Strategic Planning” as a whole, which will give anyone a fun and interesting way to understand. Can anyone help me out please? Awaiting replies…… 🙂

that was easy to understand,

Developing a strategic plan either big or small company or organization mostly can’t achieve its goal. A strategic plan or formulation is the first stage of the strategic management plan, therefore, we should be encouraged to develop a strategic management plan. We can develop the best strategic plan but without a clear plan of implementation and evaluation, it will be difficult to achieve goals.

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Understanding The Distinction Between a Business Plan & Business Planning

In the dynamic world of entrepreneurship, our choice of words matters. Our vocabulary can often become a veritable alphabet soup of jargon, acronyms, and those buzzwords (I'm looking at you, "disrupt").

And let's not get started on business cliches – "circle back," "synergy," “deep-dive,” etc.

Yet sometimes, it's worth pausing to consider the words we casually sprinkle around in our business conversations. In a previous article, we explored the differences between strategic and tactical business planning , two related but distinct approaches to guiding a business. Now, we're going to delve into another pair of terms that often get used interchangeably but have unique implications: "business plan" (the noun) and "business planning" (the verb).

The business plan, a noun, is a tactical document. It's typically created for a specific purpose, such as securing a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan . Think of it as a road map – it outlines the route and the destination (in this case, the coveted bank loan). But once you've reached your tactical goal (in this case, getting the loan), it often gets shoved in the glove compartment, forgotten as part of the organization's action plan until the next road trip (i.e., additional funding ).

Business planning is not a static concept, but rather a dynamic verb. It's an ongoing process that necessitates continual adjustments. It's about creating a holistic, interconnected value-creating strategic plan that benefits all stakeholders. This includes attracting top-tier employees, ensuring a return on lending or investment, and making a positive impact on the community, whether online or in real life.

That being said, the customer remains at the heart of this process. Without customers, there are no sales, no revenue, and no value. Everything else is contingent on this key element.

If we were to compare the business plan to a map, then business planning would be the journey. It's a continuous process of making strategic decisions, adapting to new paths, and steering the business towards its goals. Sometimes, it even involves redefining objectives midway.

So, let's do a "deep-dive" (I couldn't resist) into these two terms, examining their application in the real world. Along the way, we'll uncover some tools that can aid us in the ever-evolving process of strategic business planning and the more finite task of crafting a winning business plan.

The Business Plan is a Document

Alright, let's take a closer look at a phrase we've all tossed around: the business plan. Imagine it as the detailed blueprint of your organization's goals, strategies, and tactics. It's like the North Star for your entrepreneurial ship, shedding light on the key questions: what, why, how, and when (speaking of questions, here are some FAQs about the business plan ).

Writing a solid business plan isn't easy , especially if you're just dipping your toes into the world of business planning. But don’t worry; we'll get to that (eventually).

So, let's break it down. What does a business plan document consist of, exactly?

• Executive Summary: Just as it sounds, this is a quick overview of the nitty-gritty that's in the rest of your business plan. It's the introduction to your organization, highlighting your mission statement and serving up the essential details like ownership, location, and structure.
• Company Overview: This is where you will detail your products and/or services, their pricing, and the operational plan. If you're opening a restaurant, this section is where you present your menu, and it's also where you talk about your ingredient sourcing, the type of service you'll provide, and the ambiance you're aiming for. 
• Market Analysis Summary: This section demands a comprehensive analysis of your industry, target market, competitors, and your unique selling proposition. Without access to top-notch (and often not free) research tools, it can be challenging to find current industry data. Check out our  guide on the best market research tools to get started.
• Strategy and Implementation Summary: Here, you'll lay out your short-term and long-term objectives along with the strategies you'll implement to attract and retain customers. This is where you’ll talk about all the different marketing and sales strategies you'll use to charm your future customers.
• Management Summary: This is your chance to spotlight your company's key personnel. Detail the profiles of your key leaders, their roles, and why they're perfect for it. Don't shy away from acknowledging talent gaps that need to be filled, and do share how you plan to fill them!
• Pro Forma Financials: This is where you get down to the dollars and cents with a detailed five-year revenue forecast along with crucial financial statements like the balance sheet and the profit & loss statement.

A business plan is an essential instrument, not just for securing funding, but also for communicating long-term goals and objectives to key stakeholders. But, while a business plan is essential for many circumstances, it's important to understand its scope and limitations. It's a tactical tool, an important one, but it's not the be-all and end-all of business strategy. Which brings us to our next point of discussion: business planning.

Business Planning is a Process

If we view the business plan as a blueprint, then business planning is the architect. But let's be clear: we're not building just any old house here. We're building the  Winchester Mystery House of business. Just as the infamous Winchester House was  constantly under construction , with new rooms being added and old ones revamped, so too is your business in a state of perpetual evolution. It's a dynamic, ongoing process, not a one-and-done event.

In the realm of business planning, we're always adding 'rooms' and 'corridors' – new products, services, and market strategies – to our 'house'. And just as  Sarah Winchester reputedly consulted spirits in her Séance Room to guide her construction decisions, we consult our customers, market data, and strategic insights to guide our strategy. We're in a constant state of assessing, evolving, executing, and improving.

Business planning touches all corners of your venture. It includes areas such as product development, market research, and strategic management. It's not about predicting the future with absolute certainty – we’re planners, not fortune tellers. It's about setting a course and making calculated decisions, preparing to pivot when circumstances demand it (think global pandemics).

Business planning is not a 'set it and forget it' endeavor. It's akin to being your company's personal fitness coach, nudging it to continually strive for better. Much like physical fitness, if you stop the maintenance, you risk losing your hard-earned progress.

Business Planning Case Study: Solo Stove

Now that summer is here, my Solo Stove stands as a tangible testament to effective business planning.

For those unfamiliar, Solo Stove started with a simple yet innovative product – a smoke-limiting outdoor fire pit that garnered over $1.1 million on Kickstarter in 2016, far exceeding its original objective. Since then, it has expanded its portfolio with products tailored to outdoor enthusiasts. From flame screens and fire tools to color-changing flame additives, each product is designed to fit seamlessly into modern outdoor spaces, exuding a rugged elegance that resonates with their target audience.

This strategic product development, a cornerstone of business planning, has allowed Solo Stove to evolve from a product to a lifestyle brand. By continually listening to their customers, probing their desires and needs, and innovating to meet those needs, they've built a brand that extends beyond the products they sell.

Their strategy also includes a primary "Direct To Consumer" (DTC) revenue model, executed via their e-commerce website. This model, while challenging due to increased customer acquisition costs, offers significant benefits, including higher margins since revenue isn’t split with a retailer or distributor, and direct interaction with the customer.

Through its primary business model,  Solo Stove has amassed an email database of over 3.4 million customers . This competitive advantage allows for ongoing evaluation of customer needs, driving product innovation and improvement, and enabling effective marketing that strengthens their mission. The success of this approach is evident in the company's growth: from 2018 to 2020,  Solo Stove’s revenue grew from $16 million to $130 million , a 185% CAGR.

While  85% of their revenue comes from online DTC channels, Solo Stove has also enhanced their strategic objectives by partnering with select retailers that align with their reputation, demographic, and commitment to showcasing Solo Brands’ product portfolio and providing superior customer service.

Solo Stove's success underscores how comprehensive business planning fosters regular assessment, constant evolution, and continual improvement. It's more than setting goals – it's about ceaselessly uncovering ways to deliver value to your customers and grow your business.

However, even successful businesses like Solo Stove can explore additional strategic initiatives for growth and diversification, aligning with their strategic direction and operational planning. For instance, a subscription model could provide regular deliveries of products or a service warranty, creating a consistent revenue stream and increasing customer loyalty. Alternatively, a B2B model could involve partnerships with adventure tourism operators, who could purchase Solo Stove products in bulk.

These complementary business models, when integrated into the operational plan, could support the primary DTC model by driving customer acquisition, providing ongoing revenue streams and expanding the customer base. This strategic direction ensures that Solo Stove continues to thrive in a competitive market.

The Interplay between the Business Plan (Noun) and Business Planning (Verb)

In the realm of business strategy, there's an intriguing chicken-and-egg conundrum: which comes first, the business plan or business planning? The answer is both straightforward and complex: they're two sides of the same coin, each indispensable in its own right and yet inextricably linked.

The process of business planning informs and modifies the business plan, just as the business plan provides a strategic foundation for the planning process. This interplay embodies the concept of Model-Based Planning™, where the business model serves as a guide, yet remains flexible to the insights and adaptations borne out of proactive business planning.

Let's revisit the Solo Stove story to elucidate this concept. Their business model, primarily direct-to-consumer, laid the groundwork for their strategy. Yet, it was through continuous business planning  –  the assessment of customer feedback, market trends, and sales performance –  that they were able to refine their model, expand their product portfolio, and enhance their growth objectives. Their business plan wasn't a static document but a living entity, evolving through the insights gleaned from ongoing business planning.

So, how can you harness the power of both the tactical business plan and strategic business planning in your organization? Here are a few guiding principles:

• Embrace Model-Based Planning™: Start with a robust business model that outlines your strategic plan. But remember, this isn't set in stone—it's a guiding framework that will evolve over time as you gain insights from your strategic planning process.
• Make business planning a routine: Regularly review and update your business plan based on your findings from market research, customer feedback, and internal assessments. Use it as a living document that grows and adapts with your business.
• Foster open communication: Keep all stakeholders informed about updates to your business plan and the insights that informed these changes. This promotes alignment and ensures everyone is working towards the same goals.
• Be agile and adaptable: A key part of business planning is being ready to pivot when necessary . Whether it's a global pandemic or a shift in consumer preferences, your ability to respond swiftly and strategically to changing circumstances is crucial for long-term success.

Fanning the Flames: From Planning to Plan

The sparks truly ignite when you understand the symbiotic relationship between tactical business plans, strategic business planning, and the achievement of strategic goals. Crafting a tactical business plan (the noun) requires initial planning (the verb), but then you need to embark on continuous strategic planning (the verb) to review, refine, and realign your strategic business plan (the noun). It's a rhythm of planning, execution, review, and adjustment, all guided by key performance indicators.

Business planning, therefore, isn't a one-off event, but rather an active, ongoing process. A business plan needs constant nurturing and adjustment to stay relevant and guide your organization's path to success. This understanding frames your business plan not as a static document, but as a living, breathing entity, evolving with each step your business takes and each shift in the business landscape. It's a strategic roadmap, continually updated to reflect your organization's objectives and the ever-changing business environment.

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The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Strategic Planning

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Corporate strategic planning is essential to businesses and one of the basics of a business plan. It allows you to proceed toward your objectives with direction and focus. However, setting strategic goals is more complex than writing them down during a board meeting. The process requires careful evaluation and analysis to garner the best business results. 

Corporate strategy includes all the steps in strategic planning that turn your high-level goals into actionable objectives, maintain and elevate your competitive position and provide quantifiable feedback to keep a flexible and workable strategic framework. 

In This Article

What Is Corporate Strategic Planning?

Objective setting, allocating resources, making strategic trade-offs, why is corporate strategic planning important, what is the difference between corporate strategy and business strategy.

• Formulation
• Implementation
• Modification
• Establish the Your Corporate Strategic Objectives
• Develop Strategies for Achieving Goals
• Implement Your Corporate Strategy
• Monitor Your Strategic Plan’s Performance
• Analyze the Plan’s Success

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Corporate strategic planning is a branch of strategy that focuses on the organization. A corporate strategic plan manages a business’s objectives and overall direction, and the associated processes are critical to the organization’s strategic objectives.

The corporate strategic planning process includes defining companywide strategic goals from the top tiers of an organization and implementing them throughout every level. For many businesses, corporate strategic planning is the first step and strategic planning goals define annual budgeting and allocation of resources. 

Corporate strategic plans can be external, focusing on business objectives and the overarching direction for the organization, or internal, such as corporate diversity and inclusion strategic plan.

A corporate strategy — in terms of business planning basics — has four main components, each providing valuable insight through self-evaluation. The four elements of corporate strategic planning include the following:

The Four Elements of Corporate Strategic Planning

Visioning involves creating a high-level direction for your business, including business plan basics like corporate values and vision and mission statements. Setting a vision for your company’s future is a robust tool in corporate leadership. In general, companies plan between three and five years ahead. 

Your vision and values will guide your daily operations and procedures, and involving key team members fosters engagement throughout the organization. 

Aligning your strategic objectives with the overarching vision for your business is the key to successful objective setting. Strategic objectives are the high-level goals of your business and describe what your team needs to do to fulfill its mission over the next three or five years.

The objective setting takes your qualitative goals into measurable objectives , which is critical to get your ideas into an actionable format. In the context of goal setting in an organization, the most effective strategic goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound (SMART). Communication is also vital in the objective-setting phase. It ensures that team members are focused on priority tasks and operating in a unified manner, aiming towards furthering the company in the future.

With your objectives outlined, you now have a clear list of priorities to allocate human and capital resources. With a clear and actionable overview of your strategic goals, you can plan, manage and assign resources to facilitate reaching them. Determining how best to allocate resources to teams and business units is integral to your overall planning process. 

Also known as prioritization is one of the most challenging core elements of corporate strategy. Taking advantage of every opportunity may not be possible, and almost all business decisions contain an element of risk. Anyone who manages strategic plans and initiatives in an organization must consider all these factors to determine the optimal strategy when setting strategic goals. 

Businesses must balance risk and reward and pay close attention to risk management processes to maximize returns and minimize threats to operational procedures. 

Strategic plans are more than just abstract ideas conceptualized in a board room. When actualized correctly, they power organizational alignment and allow teams to direct their efforts in the most productive places. Strategic planning communicates your mission and vision throughout your organization to effect strategic change at every level and prioritize your most important objectives in your daily operations. 

Strategic planning can highlight your shortcomings and biases and present new opportunities to streamline your operations. Then, you can track your goal process with actionable key performance indicators (KPIs) and align them with your business processes. 

Most importantly, a well-conceived strategic plan provides a competitive advantage in your industry, allowing you to anticipate competitors’ next moves and stay one step ahead. With actionable strategies in mind, your business can accomplish goals ahead of the competition and ensure you provide the best possible results for your customers. 

There is a marked difference between business-level strategy vs. corporate-level strategy. Corporate strategies operate at a higher level than business strategies and focus on growth and profits. A business strategy, on the other hand, focuses on competing in the marketplace. Organizations should develop their business strategies with their corporate strategy in mind. 

Stages of Corporate Strategic Planning

Like any successful strategic plan or initiative, teams must tackle corporate strategic planning in four stages. The four stages of corporate strategic planning include the following:

1. Formulation

For an actionable strategic plan, you must take the time to create a roadmap of your most profitable action to achieve your strategic objectives. In this phase, you and your team will set your strategic plan goals and explore the best means to achieve them. Consider conducting a SWOT analysis — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats — for your business to reveal growth opportunities and areas within your operations that require attention. Consider looking into successful corporate strategic plan examples as part of your research. 

Before you start, ensure you have a purpose for formulating your strategy based on your core vision and mission. You’ll consider current events and trends as part of your SWOT analysis. Ensure you set actionable and measurable goals in the formulation phase of strategic goal setting and communicate them effectively throughout your organization. 

Often, organizational leaders formulate a corporate strategy. Every team member adds a different perspective to the process, so drawing on their input could illuminate and provide a more pronounced competitive edge for your business. 

2. Implementation

Implementation is the phase where your corporate strategies become corporate actions . Your team has designed and communicated your strategy, so that all members understand their roles and responsibilities. Setting up KPIs aligned with your strategic objectives is critical in the implementation phase, as it provides quantifiable feedback on positive impacts and information on opportunities for change. 

During implementation, your team must focus on details and day-to-day processes to implement quick changes. Corporate strategy is a fluid process that requires daily attention to succeed.

3. Evaluation

Evaluating the strategies you executed in the implementation phase provides you with valuable feedback on the efficacy of your corporate strategy. Some businesses  perform a gap analysis to identify the need for new products or additions in the gap between their current and desired future positions. 

At this stage of the process, your data is vital. An   integrated plan management software allows you to track resources, changes, schedules, and the quality of your corporate strategic initiatives. With actionable data on team members and projects, you can make changes and refine your corporate strategy.

4. Modification

In the modification phase, your team can correct and refine underperforming elements of your corporate strategy. You have identified your strongest areas, which your team could leverage to assist in further implementation in areas that need further attention. 

How to Create a Successful Corporate Strategic Plan

You and your team may be used to taking a reactive route where you only deal with problems as they arise. However, this can stifle your vision and make it difficult to see the big picture or prepare for obstacles along the way. By following the fundamentals of strategic planning, your company can gain a better understanding of common issues that complicate your short- and long-term goals and make you more proactive in resolving them.

A progressive approach is critical to corporate strategic planning success, so you can pay attention to each step and garner the best results. The five steps in the strategic management process include the following: 

1. Establish the Your Corporate Strategic Objectives

Corporate strategic objectives must be clear, achievable and easy to communicate. Consider what business objectives your team needs to achieve and communicate these objectives throughout all levels of your organization. Foster collaboration, allow everyone in your organization to think strategically and offer suggestions for achieving your corporate strategic initiatives. 

Employees throughout your organization can provide valuable input to drive your objectives forward. Gather as many insights as possible and set your objectives with as much information as possible. At the end of this step, you should have a broad view of what your business wants to achieve and how the various teams can contribute. 

2. Develop Strategies for Achieving Goals

From your broad overview, you can now break your objectives into specific projects and courses of action within those projects. Include metrics and KPIs to quantify the success or failure of each. Establish objectives and key results (OKR) framework so each goal has quantifiable key results to measure the initiative’s success. 

Pay attention to your human resources during this critical step. Think outside the box, eliminate silos within your teams, and ensure every team member has roles and responsibilities aligned with their strengths. 

3. Implement Your Corporate Strategy

It’s time to take your strategic plan off the boardroom table and implement it into your business workflow . Making your corporate strategy successful requires focus and input from every team member. Ensure everyone in your organization can clearly see and understand their role within your strategy and how their actions move your plan forward. 

You can reply heavily on your OKR framework here for each individual to have a solid view of their roles. When team members see their impact on your overall strategy, they will be more engaged and productive in their efforts to achieve your objectives. Team engagement comes from management and managers should focus on managing outcomes, not people, for the best results. 

Partnering with an integrated planned management specialist is essential for maximizing employee productivity and engagement. Strategic planning software can give you a competitive edge. User-friendly interfaces, clearly defined goals, and change management will make implementation smoother, faster and easier for team members.

4. Monitor Your Strategic Plan’s Performance

Remember that your strategic plan is fluid and needs regular monitoring for your organization to maintain a competitive position. Again, use your valuable human resources and consult everyone who owns a strategic objective. Foster an environment where you can receive honest input on the strategic plan’s progress so your management doesn’t feel more comfortable concentrating their team’s efforts in weak areas. 

Ensure your plan is flexible enough to catch it early if your organization’s efforts go off course. If there’s an opportunity to produce better results, you can stay ahead of the competition and execute it immediately. Measuring your team’s performance with employee performance metrics is an excellent method of assessing where you’re achieving your outcomes and where you may need to rethink the allocation of resources. 

Consider organization performance reporting to analyze how your business performance compares with your goals and initiatives. You can assess your successes and make adjustments when necessary. 

5. Analyze the Plan’s Success

Analyzing the impact of your corporate strategy is vital to set a benchmark for what elements to continue with and change. It clearly shows areas to improve and strengthens your teams’ engagement and commitment to your strategic initiatives. Include team members from across your organization when you conduct your analysis and foster open and thorough communication so they can share their insights and experiences. 

Together, you can define your plan’s strengths and opportunities for improvement . Once you have gathered input from across your teams, your strategic team can apply this insight to your new strategic initiatives and amplify your successes. 

Organizations that struggle to get their important initiatives from the boardroom into reality and keep their performance on track may falter with their objectives. With AchieveIt, your business can improve visibility, uniformity and accountability within your strategic planning process.

Our automated platform and strategic planning software enable your teams to connect, execute your goals and evaluate how your essential plans are performing. Integrated plan management solutions from AchieveIt can revitalize how your organization reaches for its goals with dashboards, reporting, updates and more strategic planning tools.

Some of the many ways AchieveIt can help you with your corporate strategy include the following:

• Streamlining your corporate strategic execution:  Create alignment and organize your strategic initiatives with our process-focused software to integrate and execute corporate strategies. 
• Using automated updates:  AchieveIt focuses on the end user, integrating process updates from different sources for a seamless automated update system. 
• Consistent expert support and training:  AchieveIt conducts regular business reviews, so you can measure your return on investment (ROI) and access quantifiable data about how your corporate strategy aligns with your progress. Your strategic expert is there to provide feedback if needed, and on-site training allows for excellent change management, improved adoption rates and better team engagement. 
• Data-driven insights and accessible results:  You can filter and create outcome-specific reports aligning with your corporate strategy with a holistic view of your strategic business progress to combine your data with applicable contexts. This actionable information gives you a clear picture of what works and what needs work. 

Many businesses use outcomes-based corporate strategies to drive them towards goals, benefit their bottom line and motivate their teams. With AchieveIt, your organization can improve the execution of key plans and initiatives , increase visibility and improve accountability from a centralized, integrated plan management platform. 

Whether you have an existing corporate strategy, want an implementation partner, or like some help streamlining your corporate strategy, you can use AchieveIt’s two-pronged approach to strengthen your competitive position . The combination of our management software and an experienced consultant ensures your initiatives are correctly set up for effortless execution.

Schedule a demo today if you would like to learn more about AchieveIt strategic management software. Alternatively, take a self-guided tour and experience the magic of AchieveIt firsthand. Together we can connect, manage and execute key plans and initiatives with innovative corporate strategic plan management. 

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• Strategic planning vs business planning: how they’re both key to success

Any thriving hospitality business needs thorough planning to make sure it succeeds. If you’ve heard the terms business planning and strategic planning, you might think they’re interchangeable, but they’re actually two distinct things companies need at different times for continued success.

The biggest difference is that business plans are mostly used when you are starting to build a business so you can quickly and smoothly create your vision. Strategic planning is what existing companies use to grow and improve their businesses.

If you’re looking for a career in hospitality management, it’s important to know the difference between the two and how to use them to best effect. In this article, we’ll go over what strategic planning and business planning are and how they are important to running a successful hospitality business.

We’ll also look at how you can learn to harness different planning methods and get the skills needed to develop your career.

Business planning

A business plan is one of the first things a fledgling business will draft. Alternatively, it can be used to set business goals when launching a new product or service.

The business plan will usually look at short-term details and focus on how things should run for around a year or less. This will include looking at concepts such as:

• What the business idea is
• Short-term goals
• Who your customers are
• What your customers need
• What investment or financing you will need to start your business
• How you make revenue
• What profitability to expect
• How you can appeal to potential shareholders
• What the short-term operational needs of the business are
• What the company’s values are
• What the budget is for different parts of the business

This means market analysis and research are vital when you are making a business plan.

What are the objectives of business planning?

The primary objective of a business plan is to have all the main details of your business worked out before you start. This will give you a roadmap to use when you launch your business or when you start offering a different product or service.

For example, if you wanted to become an event planner   and open your own event planning business, your plan might include how to get funds to rent an office and pay staff.

Strategic planning

A strategic plan is where you set out the company’s goals and define the steps you will need to take to reach those goals.

A strategic plan would include:

• What current capabilities the company has
• Making measurable goals
• A full strategy for business growth
• How the company’s values, mission and vision tie in with the services and products the company intends to offer
• Who in the organization will handle certain roles
• What the timeline is for reaching certain goals
• A SWOT analysis, looking at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the company
• Examining the external environment for factors that will affect your company using a PEST (political, economic, social and technological) analysis

A strategic plan can be a long-term blueprint. You might find you use basically the same strategic plan for several years.

What is the objective and strategy of planning?

The aim of a strategic plan is to provide a tool that allows you to improve your business, grow the company, streamline processes or make other changes for the health of your business. Strategy implementation and meeting strategic objectives should generally lead to growth.

What is the difference between business planning and strategic planning?

There are a few major differences between strategic planning and business planning, which are outlined below.

Scope and time frame

A strategic plan is usually long-term, typically covering at least two to five years. By contrast, a business plan usually covers a year or less, since this is roughly how long it usually takes for a business to become established.

A business plan focuses on starting a business in its early stages. A strategic plan is used to guide the company through later stages. Put simply, the business plan is about direction and vision, while the strategic plan focuses on operations and specific tactics for business growth.

Stakeholders

A strategic plan will be presented to stakeholders and employees to make sure everyone knows what is going on in the company. This will help reassure everyone with a stake or role in the business.

By comparison, a business plan will often be shown to investors or lenders to help show the business idea is worth funding.

Flexibility and adaptability

A strategic plan typically has more flexibility. This is because it is meant to be in place for a longer period of time and the company should already be established. There is more leeway for refining strategy evolution, while your business plan should remain stable.

Similarities between business planning and strategic planning

Both of these activities will require some of the same analytical components, such as market analysis, financial projections and setting objectives you can track. Of course, both also require you to be highly organized and focused to ensure your business model or strategy development is appropriate for your business.

When to use strategic planning vs business planning

As we’ve already mentioned, you’ll generally use a business plan when you’re setting up a business or moving in a new direction. This will dictate much of the day-to-day running of a business. You would use strategic planning when you want to work on growth and drive innovation.

Can a business plan be used for strategic planning?

No, a business plan and a strategic plan are two different concepts with specific goals. While a business plan outlines short or mid-term goals and steps to achieve them, a strategic plan focuses on a company’s mid to long-term mission and how to accomplish this.

If you want to prepare for success, you need to make sure you are using the right type of plan.

Integrating strategic planning and business planning

While the two plans are different, you may end up using them together to ensure optimal success. As with any type of management role, such as hotel management , strategic and business plan management requires effective communication between different departments.

This includes different strategy managers as well as strategic and operational teams. You also need to make sure that, when you are using either plan, you find the right balance between flexibility and strict adherence to the plan. With strategic planning, this means constant strategy evaluation to assess your tactics and success.

Can strategic planning and business planning be used simultaneously?

In many hospitality careers ,  you’ll want to juggle growth and new directions, so you could end up using both planning types. However, it’s most common for the two to be distinct. This is because you’ll generally be using a business plan only when you are starting a new venture.

What are the career prospects in strategic and business planning?

There are plenty of options for what you can do if you have skills in strategic planning and business planning. Almost every management role will require these planning skills, including how to write strategic planning documents and measure success.

If you want to work in the hospitality sector, you could look into hotel planning and other careers with a business management degree . These will enable you to grow and nurture a business, but there is also a lot of scope to start your own business. Great planning skills can give you a real competitive advantage.

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What skills do I need for a career in planning?

If you want to work in planning and management, you should work on various skills, such as:

• Decision-making
• Analytical skills
• Risk assessment knowledge
• Market analysis and forecasting
• Team management
• Communication, both written and verbal
• Organization

What qualifications can help with a career in strategic planning or business planning?

If you want to work in hotel planning and management, the most common route is to get a hospitality degree from a well-respected hospitality school in Switzerland . This will help you get the skills and knowledge you need to properly plan businesses as well as handle the execution of these plans.

Business degrees also teach you many transferable skills, such as good communication with your strategy team or data analysis, that you can use in almost any role in hospitality. They can also reduce the need to work your way up through the hospitality industry.

How can hospitality school help with planning careers?

Attending hospitality school can help you learn skills dedicated to hospitality as well as more general management, business and planning skills. This includes everything from how to handle a team to specifics such as hotel revenue management strategies .

If you find a hospitality school offering professional hospitality internships , you’ll also get experience in managing hotels and hospitality venues, helping you leap ahead in your career.

Hospitality degrees to kickstart your career

Our international business course combines leading industry expertise with essential internships to provide an exceptional foundation for a thriving career in the hospitality industry.

Both strategic and business planning are vital to build and grow a business. While business planning focuses on setting up the business and handling investment, vision and overall goals, strategic planning concentrates on growing the business and processing operational efficiency and resource allocation on a longer-term basis.

If you want to learn how to develop a hotel business plan  or manage a hospitality venue, one of the best ways to get started is to study for a hospitality degree. This will give you hands-on experience of the strategic planning process or business management as well as the skills you need to succeed.

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Business plan vs Strategic Plan - What You Must Know

Like everything else in life, the nature of business needs a plan in place to follow and measure. Crafting a strategic roadmap isn't just a suggestion—it's a necessity.

This is one of the key elements of a startup or even a business division within an organization that is expanding or diversifying. It has every resource element and needs to be mapped out for the business, including projected milestones for the future.

However, every business strategist needs to know that there are some subtle differences between what constitutes a business plan, and the several differences it has with a strategic plan. Let’s walk through the different elements that comprise each and understand the outcome each aims to achieve.

Introducing The Business Plan

A business plan is exactly what the name suggests— a plan to start and run a business or a new entity of an existing business; usually either an expansion in a newer region or a diversification into a new market. Business plans are mainly created for internal reference purposes or external funding purposes, with the latter being the common usage. They form the basis of all business strategies and decisions made at the ownership level in an organization. The most essential components of a business plan include:

Organizational Plan - This is the core of a business plan, and it includes the mission and vision statement, along with the market in which the company plans to operate. This plan also encompasses thorough market research to gauge the potential of the business, crucial for securing funding or sponsorship. It articulates the rationale behind the business's growth trajectory, outlining clear timelines for achieving milestones along the way.

Financial Plan - A robust financial plan is the bedrock of any successful business venture, where cash flow reigns supreme, and a meticulously crafted balance sheet serves as the ultimate scorecard. A financial plan includes some of the most important elements of the entire business plan and includes elements like projected cash flow statements, capital requirements, a summary of projected overheads, a projected balance sheet including assets and liabilities, and income and expense statements.

Remember to regard this as the central nervous system, for it permeates and influences almost every aspiration the enterprise hopes to attain.

Sales and Marketing Plan - We mentioned “almost” everything above for this very reason. Sales and marketing form the other significant component of the business plan. These include sales forecasts and overheads, marketing and brand management summaries, and market share projections that the business hopes to achieve within a time frame.

Business plans are indeed comprehensive and all-encompassing. They form the basis of the business's existence or the rationale for investments in it. But what about translating these plans into action? How do we ensure that the sky-high goals set forth are actually achievable?

The Actionables- A Strategic Plan

Strategic plans constitute the basis of operations and responsibilities within the business. These plans lay the paths out for each member of the organization to follow and define the functional outline and the key outcomes for every project and process within the business. A strategic plan goes on to define the operations and their outcomes within the organization, its departments, and its employees. The single thread connecting strategic planning with the business plan is the vision of the organization, and for obvious reasons— vision serves as the guiding light for strategy formation, which, in turn, directs the day-to-day operations of the business.

Why A Strategic Plan is Crucial to The Organization

In a word— synchronization. A robust and well-laid-out strategic plan establishes the much-needed sync between teams and their objectives. Not only that, it also provides a guide for daily operations alongside the focus and direction that teams often need to get the job done, on time and within budget. When all these components are integrated into a cohesive network, the true value of a strategic plan emerges—a seamless and grand orchestration of departments, teams, and individuals using the resources allocated to them to achieve the key performance indicator that they are responsible for.

Elements to Consider in a Strategic Plan

When tasked with creating a strategic plan for your business, you will need to incorporate certain components that will ensure that the stakeholders are aligned completely with the organization’s goals and objectives. These include:

Vision and Values - The vision statement is the most important component of the strategic plan and the most overarching. It propels the organization towards established goals and the values that every employee and stakeholder must incorporate.

Goals - These are short, medium, or long-term, depending on the scope of the strategic plan. They provide the much-needed context for the organization to undertake initiatives that meet the vision while maintaining the values.

Guiding Principles - Often, organizations face crossroads where they must decide which steps to take next, to reach their vision. Principles are included in strategic plans to align teams towards the vision when faced with a dilemma and form a critical part of strategic planning.

Action Plans - A sum of key initiatives, processes, and projects that are required to be performed on a pre-determined periodic basis for the goal to be accomplished. These also include the time frames for each stakeholder responsible for each option. They usually follow the DACI format for each action (Driver, Approver, Contributor, Informed)

SWOT Analysis - The quintessential component, the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis of the strategic plan lends context to all business actions vis-a-vis the external environment. This includes competitors, market forces and conditions, identification of internal and external threats, and several other factors.

Read This - SWOT Analysis: How to Strengthen Your Business Plan

Here’s a table highlighting the main differences between a Business Plan and a Strategic Plan with a focus on the key components of each—

Learning All About Strategic Planning

In all businesses, a strategic plan serves as the foundational blueprint, akin to a meticulously drawn map for a general. It provides the essential guidance and direction needed for the entire organization to navigate toward success. It is crucial, therefore, to acquire the necessary skills and certifications for employment as a business strategist who would be entrusted with creating it. Know more about how to become a successful and sought-after business strategist today!

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Business Plan vs. Strategic Plan: What’s the Difference?

by Ken D. Foster | Jul 26, 2023 | Business

A business plan and a strategic plan are both essential frameworks for any type of business. Whether you want to start your business or grow your existing one, formulating these plans is necessary to achieve your business goals.

A business plan and a strategic plan serve different purposes and focus on various aspects of a business. In this article, let’s explore the differences between the two.

Table of Contents

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a comprehensive framework that outlines a company’s vision, mission, and goals, as well as how they plan to achieve them. It is usually created when starting a new business or making significant changes to an existing business.

A business plan helps business owners and management to stay focused on their objectives.

What Is a Strategic Plan?

A strategic plan, on the other hand, is a long-term, high-level framework that outlines a company’s strategic direction and goals. It focuses on defining a company’s vision and implementing strategies to achieve it. A strategic plan is made for an extended period, usually five years.

A strategic plan is developed by a company’s owners, top-level executives, and board members.

Difference Between Business Plan and Strategic Plan

Here are the differences between a business plan and a strategic plan.

Key Elements of a Business Plan

• Company Description: Detailed information about a company’s history, mission, and objectives.
• Executive Summary: A concise overview of the entire business plan, highlighting the most critical points.
• Products (Or Services): A description of the product or services offered by a company. 
• Market Analysis: Analysis of the target market, industry trends, and competitors.
• Marketing and Sales Strategy: An overview of how a company intends to market and sell its products.
• Operational Plan: Details about the day-to-day operations, resources, and logistics.
• Financial Projections: Forecasted financial statements, including revenue, expenses, and cash flow.

Key Elements of a Strategic Plan

• Vision and Mission: Detailed information about the purpose and aspirations of a company. It should also include the core values of a company. 
• SWOT Analysis: An assessment of a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• Strategic Goals: The objectives that a company aims to achieve in the long term. The goals set should be specific and measurable. 
• Strategic Initiatives: The actions a company should undertake to achieve its strategic goals. Make sure to also formulate the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track progress. 
• Resource Allocation: Identifies the necessary financial, human, and technological resources for implementing the goals. 

A business plan is a comprehensive framework that provides a detailed roadmap for the entire business, while a strategic plan is a high-level framework that focuses on defining the long-term direction and objectives of the company. Both plans are vital for business success and should complement each other to make a company achieve its goals.

If you want help to frame a business plan or strategic plan for growing your company, book a coaching session with Ken D Foster . Ken has over 35 years of experience in personal and business development. He can help you define your company’s vision and accelerate its growth.

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Corporate Planning vs. Strategic Planning

Imagine you are the captain of a ship navigating through uncharted waters. You have a destination in mind and a crew to guide you, but without a map and a well-thought-out plan, your journey may be riddled with uncertainty and setbacks. This analogy perfectly encapsulates the importance of corporate planning and strategic planning in the business world. While they both involve charting a course for success, they have distinct differences that can significantly impact the direction and success of an organization. In this article, we will explore the contrasting nature of corporate planning and strategic planning, highlighting their unique attributes and shedding light on why they are both crucial for long-term business growth and sustainability.

The Essence of Corporate Planning

Corporate planning can be likened to the foundation upon which a business is built. It encompasses the overall framework and structure that guides an organization’s activities, ensuring alignment with its overarching mission and goals. Corporate planning is primarily concerned with establishing the company’s identity, defining its purpose, and outlining its long-term objectives. It sets the stage for the development of strategies and the allocation of resources to achieve those objectives.

In essence, corporate planning is a holistic approach to managing an organization. It involves analyzing the internal and external factors that impact the company’s performance, identifying areas of strength and weakness, and formulating plans to optimize operations and leverage opportunities. A comprehensive corporate plan not only focuses on financial targets but also encompasses aspects such as human resources, marketing, technology, and customer satisfaction. It serves as a roadmap that guides decision-making at all levels of the organization.

Unveiling the Power of Strategic Planning

While corporate planning sets the foundation, strategic planning takes the reins by defining the specific maneuvers needed to steer the organization towards its long-term goals. Strategic planning is more focused and action-oriented, aiming to identify and exploit opportunities in the market while mitigating potential risks.

At its core, strategic planning involves analyzing the external business environment, monitoring industry trends, and assessing the competition. By gaining a deep understanding of these factors, organizations can develop strategies to differentiate themselves, capitalize on market gaps, and respond effectively to emerging challenges. Strategic planning is dynamic and adaptive, requiring continuous evaluation and adjustment to stay ahead of the curve.

The Key Distinctions

To fully grasp the difference between corporate planning and strategic planning, let’s dive deeper into their distinguishing characteristics:

• Scope: Corporate planning takes a broader perspective, encompassing the entire organization, its various departments, and functions. Strategic planning, on the other hand, is narrower in scope, focusing on specific business units or initiatives within the larger corporate framework.
• Time Horizon: Corporate planning typically looks further into the future, spanning multiple years or even decades. Strategic planning, however, is more short-term in nature, usually covering a period of one to five years. This shorter time frame allows for agile decision-making and quick adaptations to market dynamics.
• Level of Detail: Corporate planning provides a high-level overview of the organization’s goals and strategic priorities. It sets the direction for strategic planning, which delves into the specifics of how those goals will be achieved through targeted actions, resource allocation, and performance metrics.
• Flexibility: Corporate planning is relatively stable and changes infrequently, as it defines the fundamental principles and values of the organization. Strategic planning, on the other hand, is highly flexible and subject to revision as market conditions evolve and new opportunities arise.
• Stakeholder Involvement: Corporate planning involves input from a wide range of stakeholders, including senior executives, board members, and key decision-makers across the organization. Strategic planning, while informed by corporate planning, often involves a smaller subset of stakeholders who are directly responsible for executing specific strategies.

In summary, corporate planning sets the stage by defining the organization’s purpose and long-term objectives, while strategic planning provides the tactical maneuvers needed to achieve those objectives within a shorter timeframe and in response to the changing business landscape.

The Symbiotic Relationship

It is important to note that corporate planning and strategic planning are not mutually exclusive but rather interdependent. A well-defined corporate plan serves as a guiding framework for strategic planning efforts, ensuring that all actions are aligned with the organization’s overall vision and mission. On the other hand, strategic planning provides the necessary agility and flexibility to adapt and respond to emerging opportunities and challenges, ultimately driving the organization towards its long-term goals.

By integrating corporate and strategic planning, organizations can strike the delicate balance between stability and agility, ensuring sustainable growth and competitive advantage. Corporate planning provides the necessary structure and direction, while strategic planning enables organizations to navigate the ever-changing business landscape with confidence and purpose.

The Need for Both

Attempting to draw a line between corporate planning and strategic planning, claiming one to be more important than the other, would be a futile exercise. Both are indispensable pillars of effective organizational management, each fulfilling a unique role and purpose.

Corporate planning sets the stage for success, by providing a clear direction and purpose for the organization as a whole. It fosters a shared understanding of the company’s goals and values, aligning all stakeholders towards a common vision. Strategic planning, on the other hand, translates that shared vision into actionable steps. It empowers teams and individuals to drive initiatives, make informed decisions, and adapt to the ever-changing business landscape.

In the absence of a solid corporate plan, organizations risk losing sight of their long-term objectives and may drift aimlessly in a sea of uncertainty. Conversely, without strategic planning, a well-defined corporate plan may remain nothing more than an abstract concept, lacking the practicality and focus required for effective implementation.

To thrive in the dynamic and highly competitive business environment, organizations must embrace both corporate planning and strategic planning as essential components of their management frameworks. By nurturing a symbiotic relationship between the two, companies can chart a clear course for success while staying agile and responsive to emerging opportunities. It is this harmonious coexistence that ensures organizations remain resilient and adaptable, capable of weathering any storm and achieving sustainable growth.

So, let us raise our anchor, armed with a robust corporate plan and a well-crafted strategic plan, and set sail towards the horizon of success. Bon voyage!

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Corporate Planning vs. Strategic Planning

Understanding the Difference: Corporate Planning vs. Strategic Planning

Have you ever wondered how organizations plan for their future? How they set goals, allocate resources, and make critical decisions to ensure success? Planning is a fundamental aspect of any business, and two commonly used approaches are corporate planning and strategic planning. While they may sound similar, these two concepts have distinct purposes and play different roles in shaping an organization’s direction. In this article, we will explore the key differences between corporate planning and strategic planning, helping you understand their significance and how they contribute to organizational success.

Corporate Planning: Steering the Ship

Corporate planning involves the process of defining an organization’s overall vision, mission, and goals. It focuses on the long-term objectives and the broad strategies required to achieve them. At its core, corporate planning is about setting a direction for the entire organization and aligning its various functions towards a common goal.

Think of corporate planning as steering a ship. The captain charts the course, determines the destination, and ensures that every crew member is working towards reaching that destination. Similarly, corporate planning sets the course for an organization by outlining its purpose, values, and goals. It sets the foundation upon which other planning activities, such as strategic planning, are built.

Corporate planning typically involves a top-down approach, where senior executives and leaders define the organization’s goals and develop strategies to achieve them. It considers both internal and external factors, such as market conditions, industry trends, and competitor analysis, to create a comprehensive plan for the future.

Features of Corporate Planning

Here are some key features of corporate planning:

• Vision and Mission: Corporate planning establishes the organization’s vision and mission, defining its purpose and direction.
• Long-Term Focus: It looks ahead and sets goals for the organization that span multiple years.
• Top-Down Approach: Corporate planning is driven by senior leaders and executives.
• Comprehensive Perspective: It considers both internal and external factors to develop a holistic plan.
• High-Level Strategies: It outlines broad strategies to achieve organizational goals.

Strategic Planning: Navigating the Terrain

While corporate planning sets the direction, strategic planning focuses on how to navigate the terrain to reach the destination. It is concerned with the specific actions, initiatives, and tactics required to achieve the goals outlined in the corporate plan. Strategic planning is about making informed choices on where to focus resources and how to leverage strengths to gain a competitive advantage.

Imagine you are trekking through a dense forest. The strategic planning process is like mapping out the trail, identifying the most efficient route, and planning for potential obstacles. It involves analyzing the environment, understanding strengths and weaknesses, and formulating strategies to achieve specific objectives.

Strategic planning is often more detailed and granular compared to corporate planning. It takes into account the unique characteristics of different business units, products, or markets within an organization. While corporate planning sets the overall direction and goals, strategic planning tailors the approach to different areas of the organization.

Features of Strategic Planning

Let’s delve into the key features of strategic planning:

• Goal Alignment: Strategic planning ensures that the goals set in the corporate plan are translated into actionable targets for different units or departments.
• Short to Mid-Term Focus: It encompasses plans for a specific timeframe, usually ranging from one to five years.
• Collaborative Approach: Strategic planning involves input from various levels and functions within the organization.
• Specific Analysis: It examines internal and external factors at a more detailed level to inform strategy formulation.
• Tactical Implementation: Strategic planning outlines the specific initiatives and tactics required to achieve objectives.

What Sets Them Apart?

Now that we have a clear understanding of corporate planning and strategic planning, let’s highlight the key differences between the two:

These distinctions make it clear that while corporate planning sets the strategic direction, strategic planning focuses on the practical steps needed to achieve the organization’s goals.

The Parallels and Synergy

Although corporate planning and strategic planning have different scopes and focuses, they are interrelated and work together to drive organizational success. Corporate planning provides the big picture framework and foundation that strategic planning builds upon. Without a clear corporate plan, strategic planning efforts may lack direction and coherence.

Think of a puzzle – the corporate plan provides the border pieces that define the overall shape and structure of the puzzle. Strategic planning then fills in the intricate details, connecting the individual pieces to complete the picture.

By aligning strategic plans with the broader corporate plan, organizations can ensure that their actions and initiatives are in line with their long-term goals. This alignment fosters synergy among different departments, business units, and functions, enabling a coordinated effort towards achieving overall success.

Benefits of Corporate Planning and Strategic Planning

Both corporate planning and strategic planning offer significant benefits to organizations. Let’s explore some of these advantages:

Corporate Planning Benefits:

• Direction: Corporate planning provides a clear sense of direction for the organization, setting the stage for success.
• Alignment: It helps align all stakeholders towards common goals, fostering a sense of unity and purpose.
• Efficiency: By outlining long-term objectives, corporate planning enables efficient allocation of resources and efforts.
• Adaptability: A well-defined corporate plan allows organizations to adapt to changing market conditions or industry trends.

Strategic Planning Benefits:

• Focus: Strategic planning ensures that resources and efforts are channeled towards achieving specific objectives.
• Competitive Advantage: It helps organizations leverage their strengths and identify opportunities to gain an edge over competitors.
• Accountability: By setting measurable targets and milestones, strategic planning enhances accountability and performance.
• Flexibility: Strategic plans can be adjusted or refined based on feedback and evaluation, enabling organizations to stay agile.

By recognizing and harnessing the benefits of both corporate planning and strategic planning, organizations can enhance their overall effectiveness and achieve sustainable growth.

Corporate planning and strategic planning are vital components of effective organizational management. While corporate planning focuses on setting the vision and long-term goals, strategic planning translates those goals into actionable plans and initiatives. Although they have different scopes and timeframes, these two planning approaches complement each other, working together to steer organizations towards success.

Remember, corporate planning acts as the captain, steering the ship and setting the course, while strategic planning is the navigator, charting the path and guiding the journey. By understanding the difference between these two planning approaches and leveraging their benefits, organizations can navigate the business landscape with confidence, adapt to changes, and thrive in an ever-evolving market.

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The Difference Between a Plan and a Strategy

Setting strategy should push your organization outside its comfort zone.

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Planning is comforting but it’s a terrible way to make strategy, says Roger Martin , former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. In contrast, setting strategy should push your organization outside its comfort zone – if you’re doing it right.

“Plans typically have to do with the resources you’re going to spend. Those are more comfortable because you control them,” Martin explains. “A strategy, on the other hand, specifies a competitive outcome that you wish to achieve, which involves customers wanting your product or service. The tricky thing about that is that you don’t control them.”

Key topics include: strategic planning, competitive strategy, risk management, innovation, and travel and tourism industry.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

• Watch the original HBR Quick Study episode: A Plan Is Not a Strategy (June 2022)
• Find more episodes of the HBR Quick Study series on YouTube .
• Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org

ANNOUNCER: HBR On Strategy .

HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy , case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock new ways of doing business. Today, we bring you a conversation with one of the world’s leading thinkers on strategy – Roger Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.  In this episode, you’ll learn the difference between strategy and planning AND how to escape the common traps of strategic planning. Martin says starting with a plan is comforting to many of us, but it’s a terrible way to make strategy. His episode, called “A Plan is Not A Strategy,” originally aired as part of the HBR Quick Study video series in June 2022. Here it is.

ROGER MARTIN: This thing called planning has been around for a long, long time. People would plan out the activities they’re going to engage in. More recently, has been a discipline called strategy. People have put those two things together to call something strategic planning. Unfortunately, those things are not the same, strategy and planning. So,  just putting them together and calling it strategic planning doesn’t help. What most strategic planning is in the world of business has nothing to do with strategy. It’s got the word, but it’s not. It’s a set of activities that the company says it’s going to do.

We’re going to improve customer experience. We’re going to open this new plant. We’re going to start a new talent development program. A whole list of them, and they all sound good, but the results of all of those are not going to make the company happy because they didn’t have a strategy. So, what’s a strategy? A strategy is an integrative set of choices that positions you on a playing field of your choice in a way that you win. So, there’s a theory. Strategy has a theory. Here’s why we should be on this playing field, not this other one, and here’s how, on that playing field, we’re going to be better than anybody else at serving the customers on that playing field.  That theory has to be coherent. It has to be doable. You have to be able to translate that into actions for it to be a great strategy. Planning does not have to have any such coherence, and it typically is what people in manufacturing want– the few things they want, to build a new plant, and the marketing people want to launch a new brand, and the talent people want to hire more people– that tends to be a list that has no internal coherence to it and no specification of a way that that is going to accomplish collectively some goal for the company.

See, planning is quite comforting. Plans typically have to do with the resources you’re going to spend. So we’re going to build a plan. We’re going to hire some people. We’re going to launch a new product.  Those are all things that are on the cost side of businesses. Who controls your costs? Who’s the customer of your costs? The answer is, you are. You decide how many square feet to lease, how many raw materials to buy, how many people to hire.  Those are more comfortable because you control them. A strategy, on the other hand, specifies an outcome, a competitive outcome that you wish to achieve, which involves customers wanting your product or service enough that they will buy enough of it to make the profitability that you’d like to make. The tricky thing about that is that you don’t control them. You might wish you could, but you can’t. They decide, not you. That’s a harder trick. So that means putting yourself out and saying, here’s what we believe will happen. We can’t prove it in advance, we can’t guarantee it, but this is what we want to have happen and that we believe will happen. It’s much easier to say, I’ll build a factory, I will hire more people, et cetera, than I will have customers end up liking our offering more than those of competitors.

The tricky thing about planning is that while you’re planning, chances are at least one competitor is figuring out how to win. When US air carriers were busily planning what routes to fly and da-da-da, there was this little company in Texas called Southwest that had a strategy for winning. And at first, that looked largely irrelevant because it was tiny. What Southwest Airlines was aiming for was an outcome.

What they wanted to be is a substitute for Greyhound, a way more convenient way to get around at a price that wasn’t extraordinarily much greater than a Greyhound bus. Southwest said, everybody else is flying hub and spoke. They have hubs, and they fly hub and spoke. We’re going to fly point to point so that we don’t have aircraft waiting on the ground because you only make money when you’re in the air.

We’re going to only fly 737s, one kind of aircraft, so that our gates are set up for those, our systems are set up for those, our training, our simulations are set up. We’re not going to offer meals on the flights because we’re going to specialize in short flights. We’re not going to book through travel agents. We’re going to encourage people to book online because that’s less expensive for everybody and more convenient. So, their strategy ended up having a substantially lower cost than any of the major carriers so that they could offer substantially lower prices.

Because it had a way of winning, it got bigger and then bigger and then bigger and then bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until it flies the most passenger seat miles in America. The major carriers were not trying to win against one another. They were all playing to play, as I say. They were playing to participate, maybe buy more planes, get more gates, maybe grow some, not having a theory of here’s how we could be better than our competitors.

And that was fine until somebody came along and said, here’s a way to be better than everybody else for this segment. And so that segment then goes. It’s gone. And the main playing to play players have to share a smaller pie that’s left over after Southwest takes whatever share it wants.

If you’re trying to escape this planning trap, this comfort trap of doing something that’s comfortable but not good for you, how do you start? The most important thing to recognize is that strategy will have angst associated with it. It’ll make you feel somewhat nervous because as a manager, chances are you’ve been taught you should do things that you can prove in advance.

You can’t prove in advance that your strategy will succeed. You can look at a plan and say, well, all of these things are doable. Let’s just do those because they’re within our control. But they won’t add up to much. In strategy, you have to say, if our theory is right about what we can do and how the market will react, this will position us in an excellent way.

Just accept the fact that you can’t be perfect on that, and you can’t know for sure. And that is not being a bad manager. That is being a great leader because you’re giving your organization the chance to do something great. The second thing I do is say, lay out the logic of your strategy clearly. What would have to be true about ourselves, about the industry, about competition, about customers for this strategy to work?

Why do you do that? It’s because you can then watch the world unfold. And if something that you say is in the logic that would have to be true for this to work is not working out quite the way you hoped, it’ll allow you to tweak your strategy. And strategy is a journey, what you want to have as a mechanism for tweaking it, honing it, and refining it so it gets better and better as you go along.

Another thing that helps with strategy is not letting it get overcomplicated. It’s great if you can write your strategy on a single page. Here’s where we’re choosing to play. Here’s how we’re choosing to win. Here are the capabilities we need to have in place.

Here are the management systems. And that’s why it’s going to achieve this goal, this aspiration that we have. Then you lay out the logic, what must be true for that all to work out the way we hope. Go do it, and watch and tweak as you go along.

That may feel somewhat more worry-making, angst-making than planning, but I would tell you that if you plan, that’s a way to guarantee losing. If you do strategy, it gives you the best possible chance of winning.

HANNAH BATES: That was Roger Martin — Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. That video is part of the HBR Quick Study YouTube series – short takes on big topics in business and work. It was edited and produced by Scott LaPierre, with video and animation by Dave Di Iulio, Elie Honein, and Alex Belser. More HBR Quick Study videos can be found on YouTube or HBR.org. HBR On Strategy will be back next Wednesday with another hand-picked conversation about business strategy from the Harvard Business Review. In the meantime, we have another curated feed that you should check out: HBR On Leadership . And visit us any time at HBR.org, where you can subscribe to Harvard Business Review and explore articles, videos, case studies, books, and of course, podcasts, that will help you manage yourself, your teams, and your career. This episode of HBR On Strategy was produced by Anne Saini, and me, Hannah Bates. The show was created by Anne Saini, Ian Fox, and me. Special thanks to Maureen Hoch, Adi Ignatius, Karen Player, Anne Bartholomew, and you – our listener. See you next week.

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The difference between a strategic plan and a business plan.

Every business needs a strategic plan. Every business needs a business plan. It’s knowing precisely what each plan entails and when that plan can be of most use that makes the difference between these two essential documents.

Let’s start by defining the purpose behind each type of plan. This can help both budding entrepreneurs and veteran CEOs avoid the mistake of pursuing the wrong kind of plan at the wrong time in the growth cycle of their companies.

The Strategic Plan

As we have noted before, a strategic plan “is a written document that points the way forward for your business.” The focus of a strategic plan can include (but isn’t limited to):

• Expanding business operations
• Reaching into new market segments
• Solving organizational problems
• Potential restructuring a business

By staying focused on your original purpose, goals, and objectives, strategic planning reintroduces you to “the big picture.” It’s the basis for business owners to achieve their vision, which they communicate to stakeholders in a strategic business plan and program.

A strategic plan serves as a roadmap for determining what will likely lie ahead for your business in the next 3-5 years, while also including a series of actions or activities that can turn strategy into operational reality.

Want additional insight? Read 4 Step Guide to Strategic Planning now to learn more

The Business Plan

Generally speaking, a business plan is needed when a company is in its earliest phase of growth. This plan offers a description of how your business will operate, its objectives for growth and financial success, and how it aims to get there. Essentially, it articulates the  why  behind a business. Key elements include:

• Executive summary and mission statement
• Projected staffing and equipment needs
• Short- and long-term marketing strategy
• Financial statement, including anticipated startup expenses and capitalization
• Outline of management structure and operational processes

A business plan “is a broader, more preliminary document that sets your course when your company may still be nothing more than a twinkle in your eye,” notes BDC of Canada. This plan “not only accurately summarizes what your business is all about, but why it’s a viable proposition.”

Strategic Business Planning

Strategic planning is the systematic process for developing an organization’s direction. This includes pinpointing objectives and actions required to achieve that future vision, and metrics to measure success.

A business plan, as described by the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, Inc., aims to define “the initial goals and objectives of the company, its structure and processes, products and services, financial resources [and] all of the basics that go into forming a company ” and getting it up and running.

TAB offers its members a different kind of approach— strategic business planning . It’s the basis for business owners to achieve their vision, which they will then communicate to stakeholders in a strategic business plan and program.

Action steps embodied in a strategic business plan include:

• Understanding your business. Assess where your business is today. Review core business information and revisit your vision, mission statement, and core values.
• Analyzing your strengths, weaknesses, and threats. Conduct a SWOT analysis to evaluate where your business is operating at peak efficiency and where organizational weaknesses (and threats from competitors) might stunt future growth.
• Defining objectives and set goals. Drill down into specific objectives that will help you achieve your vision—everything from developing new marketing strategies and launching a new product to re-allocating key financial resources.
• Putting the plan in action . Take action steps to translate the plan from paper to reality. Break tasks down into small steps, assign a responsible party to be accountable for each task, and establish a schedule for reviewing your overall plan on a regular basis.

As we enter into a new year, strategic business planning is more urgently needed than ever before. Want to learn more? Register for our free TAB white paper, “4 Step Guide to Strategic Planning.”

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Home >> #realtalk Blog >> Manage a business >> Business plan, strat…

Business plan, strategic plan, operational plan: why all 3 are important

By Andrea Nazarian

When you’re in the early stages of running your business, it’s easy to get lost when thinking about all the things you need to organize in order to grow. This is where making a business plan, strategic plan and operational plan comes into play. 

A business plan outlines the “what” and “how” of your business, while a strategic plan sets the long-term vision. Operational plans dive into day-to-day tasks. We’ll explain their roles, differences, and how they work together. 

In this post, we’ll break down these concepts, explain the difference between them and why all three are important.  By understanding these plans, you’ll gain the tools to steer your ship, set big goals, and navigate the everyday waters with confidence and success.

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What is a Business Plan?

A business plan, just like a blueprint for building a house, shows the general path for your business to follow. Besides the essential facts, it’s the tool that conveys your vision to potential investors, partners, and your own team.

A business plan is your business’s roadmap to success. It’s a detailed guide that helps you understand where your business is headed and how to get there. In this plan, you outline your business goals, what products or services you offer, who your customers are, and how you’ll reach them. 

Writing a business plan is one of many tips for starting a business you can tap into to get off the ground. 

Your business plan includes financials 

Your business plan also includes financial details, like how much money you’ll need and how you’ll make money. It’s important to outline everything because it helps you make smarter decisions, attract investors or loans, and stay on track as you grow. 

Think of your business plan as a game plan that keeps you focused and prepared for whatever comes your way.

What is a Strategic Plan?

A strategic plan is a detailed plan that lays out where you want your business to be in the future and how you’ll get there. In this plan, you outline your long-term goals, the actions you’ll take to move towards those goals, and the major steps to reach those goals.

A strategic plan helps you make smart choices about things like which products to focus on, how to stand out from competitors, and where to expand. It’s like your compass for making decisions that match your vision. 

Goal setting in your strategic plan 

Setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound) is a clear way to put your strategic plan into actionable tasks. 

This plan also keeps you flexible – you can adjust it as your business grows and the market changes. By having a solid strategic plan, you’re setting yourself up for success, making sure all your actions lead to reaching those big dreams you have for your business.

What is an Operational Plan?

An operational plan is where the nitty-gritty of running your business happens. An operational plan is like your playbook for your day-to-day tasks . 

It spells out exactly how you’ll execute your strategies outlined in your strategic plan and reach your goals outlined in your business plan.

In your operational plan, you break things down: who’s doing what, when and how. It’s like giving clear instructions to your team on tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities.

From managing the kitchen in a restaurant to handling customer orders in a salon, it’s all in the operational plan.

It also covers how you’ll maintain quality, manage resources, and handle any bumps along the way. Think of it as your action plan – turning your grand ideas into reality, step by step. 

What’s the Difference Between a Business Plank, Strategic Plan and Operational Plan?

Business plan.

• Focus: This is the big blueprint for your entire business. It explains what your business does, who your customers are, how you’ll make money, and your long-term goals.
• Timeframe: Usually covers a few years and includes financial projections.
• Use: It’s your pitch to investors and guides your business decisions.

Strategic plan:

• Focus: This is the long-term vision. It’s about where you want your business to go and the major steps to get there.
• Timeframe: Often covers 3-5 years.
• Use: It guides big choices like expanding, new products, and setting direction.

Operational plan:

• Focus: This is the detailed game plan for your day-to-day business operations. It’s about how you’ll execute your strategies.
• Timeframe: Covers the short term, usually a year or less.
• Use: It’s the instructions for your team on tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities.

In short, a business plan is your overall roadmap, a strategic plan sets the direction for growth, and an operational plan makes sure everything runs smoothly day by day. They work together to keep your business on track and thriving.

Why is Having a Business Plan, Strategic Plan and Operational Plan Important?

Having a business plan, a strategic plan, and an operational plan is like having a superhero trio for your business. Here’s why they’re so important:

Business Plan:

• Clarity: It gives you a clear path for your business journey. You know what you’re doing, who your customers are, and how to make money.
• Guidance: It helps you make smart choices and stay on track to reach your goals.
• Attractiveness: Investors and lenders like to see a solid plan before supporting your business.

Strategic Plan:

• Direction: It’s like a compass for your long-term vision. It tells you where your business is headed and how to get there.
• Big Goals: It sets ambitious goals like growing big, launching new things, and standing out from the crowd.
• Adaptation: It helps you adjust when things change, keeping your business aligned with your dreams.

Operational Plan:

• Smooth Sailing: It’s your step-by-step guide for daily tasks. You know who does what and when.
• Efficiency: It makes things run smoothly and helps you manage resources well.
• Quality Control: It ensures your products or services are top-notch and consistent.

Together, these plans are like your business’s superpowers. They make sure your business is not just surviving, but thriving..

Strategic Plan Example

Let’s say your restaurant, Brenda’s Bistro, wants to become the ultimate dining spot in your community, celebrated for your fantastic dishes and top-notch hospitality.

Brenda’s Bistro’s mission is to create unforgettable dining experiences by offering a diverse menu crafted from locally sourced ingredients, while delivering outstanding customer service.

• Achieve a 20% increase in revenue within the next two years.
• Expand the customer base by targeting families and young professionals through special promotions.
• Introduce a new themed menu every season to keep customers excited and engaged.

Strategies and Initiatives:

• Strengthen Brenda’s Bistro online presence by sharing engaging content on your website and social media accounts regularly.
• Partner with local farmers to ensure your ingredients are fresh, sustainable, and support the community.
• Launch loyalty programs and offer discounts to encourage repeat visits.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Monitor revenue growth every quarter to track progress toward your goal.
• Collect customer feedback through surveys and online reviews to measure satisfaction.
• Evaluate the success of your seasonal menus based on the number of orders and positive feedback.

How to Make a Strategic Plan

Crafting a strategic plan isn’t a one-size-fits-all deal; each company’s unique goals require a tailored approach. 

Let’s break down the essential steps to shape that core plan.

1. Gather the key people

Start by bringing together the important voices. This usually includes your executive board, managers, and sometimes outside investors. 

Their insights and suggestions are like puzzle pieces that fit into a successful strategic plan.

2: Find your business’ strengths and weaknesses 

Your strategy needs to know where your company stands both inside and out. Begin with a SWOT analysis, checking your internal strengths and weaknesses, plus external opportunities and threats. 

Gather insights from gap analysis, looking at competitors, and listening to customer and employee feedback give you the bigger picture.

3. Set Goals

Now, create goals from all that info. Match these goals with your mission, vision, and values. 

Pick the ones that make a big impact, make sense for the long haul, and line up with your values. Examples can be reaching certain sales targets, or a certain number of followers on your business’ social media. 

4.Make a game plan 

Time for an action plan. Break down each goal into strategies, initiatives, and tactics. Depending on your goals, these could be marketing plans , tech upgrades, or smart partnerships. 

You don’t need tons of details here; that’s what the operational plan covers. Also, set up key performance metrics to measure your progress.

5. Review and and tweak

Schedule regular check-ins to review your plan. This is where you reflect and adjust if needed. Good financial info comes in handy here. 

How often you do this depends on your business’s rhythm – maybe monthly for new businesses or yearly for more established ones.

Remember, your strategic plan is your map to success. Tailor it, review it, and let it guide you toward your goals.

Now that your strategic plan is sorted, let’s dive into the power of operational planning to make those goals a reality.

How to Make an Operational Plan

It’s time to take that big-picture strategic plan and break it into doable steps. First, check out the long-term goals. 

Figure out which departments need to team up to reach which goal. Ask questions like: What kind of resources does the business already have access to? 

What’s missing? Any money financial risks coming up? This helps you see which parts of your business need a boost to hit those goals.

1. Nail down your budget

Make a budget based on what each department in your business needs to reach the big goals. What does your kitchen staff need? How about front-of-house staff?

With your match-up between goals and areas, spread your budget where it’ll give the best bang for your buck. 

Remember to keep some cash aside for surprises and changes. A solid budget is like a shield against unexpected stuff.

2. Set targets

Each goal you’re chasing needs a target. Think carefully here – not too wild that your team loses heart, but not too tiny that the big plan stays out of reach. 

Realistic targets are your secret weapon. An example target could be selling 100 orders’ worth of a certain dish by the end of the month.

3. Check in with your team regularly 

Don’t just set and forget. Schedule regular check-ins with your staff to see how things are going. 

Are you hitting those targets? Are things humming along? 

These feedback sessions with your employees are like checkups for your plan. If things are off, you can tweak the plan to get back on track.

Homebase’s free mobile app has a built-in messenger tool to make it easy to stay connected. Send messages to individuals, groups, or your entire team.

3. Stay open and data-driven

Keep communication flowing during reviews. And don’t forget the data – it’s your treasure map. 

Numbers show where you’re doing well and where there’s room to improve. Use your POS software or an employee management tool like Homebase to help you make data-informed decisions on how to improve your business operations. 

With Homebase’s workforce forecasting and smart scheduling tools, you can save on labor costs for your business. 

With all this, your operational plan becomes a real powerhouse, making sure your business charges ahead toward those big dreams.

Make Your Business Plan, Strategic Plan and Operational Plan Work for You

In the bustling world of business, having a roadmap is essential for success. The triumphant trio of a business plan, strategic plan, and operational plan work together to steer your ship towards greatness. 

These plans aren’t just fancy paperwork – they’re important tools that guide your every move. 

By understanding each plan’s role and significance, you’re armed with the superpowers needed to navigate the complex business waters. 

A business plan provides clarity, a strategic plan offers direction, and an operational plan ensures smooth sailing. Together, they fuel your business’s journey from survival to thriving, making sure you’re not just a player in the game, but a true champion.

Here are 10 small business tools you can use to put these three plans into action.

FAQs About Business Plan, Strategic Plan and Operational Plan

Why do i need a business plan.

A business plan acts as a roadmap for your business journey. It outlines your goals, customers, and how you’ll make money. It’s crucial for attracting investors and making smart decisions. 

What’s the purpose of a strategic plan?

A strategic plan sets your long-term vision and goals. It guides big choices like expanding and standing out. It’s like a compass, helping you stay on course towards success.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan and an operational plan?

While a strategic plan sets long-term goals, an operational plan focuses on day-to-day tasks. It’s like a playbook that tells your team exactly what to do to reach those goals.

Remember:  This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your particular situation, please consult a lawyer, CPA, or other appropriate professional advisor or agency.

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How to Differentiate Between Corporate Plan & Policy

As you look for better ways to manage your business, it’s important to create both corporate plans and company policies. Think of corporate planning as the road map you use when you take a car trip, and company policies as the maintenance activities that keep the car running so you can arrive at your destination. Start by laying out long-term strategies, then create procedures to help manage your employees.

Corporate Plans

Corporate plans include long-term strategies that help you shape a vision and mission for your business. They include goals such as opening new locations, diversifying your product line, creating a financial model to generate profits in specific ways or building a company you can take public or sell. Corporate plans differ from departmental plans in that they are more end-result oriented, while department plans focus on operating tactics that help achieve those goals. For example, you might set a corporate strategy of raising profits this year by eliminating interest payments. Your departments would create individual plans to lower costs, sell assets, pay down debts, negotiate better credit terms or eliminate the use of credit.

Corporate Policies

Corporate policies guide employees in how they work, often targeting behaviors, creating procedures and setting limitations. For example, you might set a corporate plan for reducing travel expenses. You would then set company policies that include a per diem for meals, require travel and lodging expenses to be approved in advance and mandates that employees submit receipts, not credit card statements, when turning in expense reports. Common corporate policies cover such areas as attendance, dress, use of company property, parking, requesting vacation time and breaks.

Creating Plans

To differentiate between your plans and policies, start by outlining your business goals. Write a list of objectives you want to achieve this year, and then create three- and five-year plans. Discuss with your management team how realistic your goals are and then come up with your final objectives. Create plans to reach each of your goals, including strategies such as increasing sales, decreasing costs, buying or merging with a competitor, diversifying, decreasing employee turnover, reducing tax liabilities or expanding your distribution. Communicate your plans to your department managers and ask them to create plans for their departments that will help you reach your corporate goals. Based on their feedback, you will be able to determine which of your company plans are realistic.

Creating Policies

Once you know where you want your company to go and how you want to get there, create policies that will help your employees maximize their productivity and help achieve the departmental goals and plans your managers created. If you don’t have an employee handbook or policy guide, create one. This will be a separate document from your corporate plan. Consider hiring a human resources expert to develop your company policies, having her meet with each department head to learn what their ultimate goals are.

• U.S. Small Business Administration: Writing Employee Handbooks
• U.S. Small Business Administration: Essential Elements of a Good Business Plan

Sam Ashe-Edmunds has been writing and lecturing for decades. He has worked in the corporate and nonprofit arenas as a C-Suite executive, serving on several nonprofit boards. He is an internationally traveled sport science writer and lecturer. He has been published in print publications such as Entrepreneur, Tennis, SI for Kids, Chicago Tribune, Sacramento Bee, and on websites such Smart-Healthy-Living.net, SmartyCents and Youthletic. Edmunds has a bachelor's degree in journalism.

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