THE ART OF BUSINESS PLANNING WORKSHOP
THE STRAGEY PLAN
VISION:
A one to two sentence statement of what your business will be in the world, community and marketplace.
The vision is WHAT are you doing and should showcase a desired End-State.
A vision statement should:



Be clear and simple
Avoid elaborate language and buzzwords
Not be confused with a mission statement
Example: No child will go thirsty.
Things to Think About:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What needs to be changed in your industry?
Why should people care about your company?
What does success look like for your organization?
What is your desired end-state?
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MISSION:
How are you going to accomplish the vision as a company? The mission is HOW you are going to
complete your vision and WHY you exist.
A mission statement shoud:
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


Be clear and concise
Can easily be explained to others
Be actionable
Be recognizably yours
Example: “Charity water is an organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to developing nations.
Things to Think About:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What type of organization are you?
Why do you exist?
What is the broadest way of describing your work?
For whom do you do this work? (demographic)
Where do you do this work? (geographics)
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CORE VALUES:
What does your company stand for? Your core values should be what your company lives by,
demonstrates, and what your employees emulate.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Brainstorm and determine what values are important to you and your team
Consolidate and define your brainstormed list
Frame, define, and rename if necessary so your core values accurately reflect your
company’s culture. (i.e. “Flexible” vs. “Adaptable” vs. “Roll with the punches”)
Evaluate your values as a complete set holistically.
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PRODUCT AND SERVICES:
Outline of what you offer to the market and what problem does it solve? You would be surprised how
many companies are not clear in this area. They either have too broad of a service offering and claim to
do everything or they may have a product that is super customized but no market.
In this section you should list all of your major products or services.
For each product or service:


Describe the most important features. What is special about it?
Describe the benefits. That is, what will the product do for the customer?
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SWOT ANALYSIS:
Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats - This is the heart and soul of the strategic planning
process. In order to complete this section you should have knowledge of the marketplace and know your
competitors.

POSITIVE
STRENGTHS (leverage)
NEGATIVE
WEAKNESSES (correct)
OPPORTUNITIES (prioritize)
THREATS (counter)
EXTERNAL
INTERNAL

Strength/Weaknesses- are internal with in the company’s control (ex. Ability to win business,
positioned as a niche player, access to capital, knowledge and certifications)
Opportunities/Threats – are external and beyond your control (ex. Market changes, economy,
new regulations, competitors, new market players, demographic shifts)
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STRATEGIES:
List strategies that maximize strengths and opportunities and mitigates weakness and threats. They can
be bullet points.
A great way to start off is by using your SWOT matrix:
STRENGTHS (internal,
positive)
WEAKNESSES (internal,
negative)
OPPORTUNITIES
(external, poistive)
Strength-Opportunity
Strategies:
THREATS (external,
negatives)
Strength-Threats
Strategies:
Which of the company’s
strengths can be used to
mazimize the opportunities
you previously identified?
Weakness-Opportunity
Strategies:
How can you use the
company’s threats to
minimize the threats you
previously identified.
What actions can you take
to minimize the company’s
weaknesses using the
opportunities you
previously identified?
Weakness-Threats
Strategies:
How can you minimize the
company’s weakness to
avoid the threats you
previously identified?
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ACTION ITEMS AND TASK:
This is an actionable drill down of strategies. Think about the priority of each task, time frame you can
complete tasks as well as who the department, or owner is of the tasks.
Think Short Term (7-14 days), Middle Range (1 – 2 months), and Long Term (2+ Months)
It’s often a good idea to create a list or table for your action items to easily identify the priority of the task,
the estimated time of completion, and the owner. This also allows you to filter tasks by different metrics.
Task
Task #1
Task #2
Task #3
Priority or Risk
High
Medium
Low
Estimated Time to
Completion
6 Months
4 Weeks
2 Days
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Owner
Jane Doe
John Doe
John Doe