BUS602: Marketing Management

Every organization should have a written plan for its future development, documenting the outcomes of the strategic planning process. Your plan should outline how the organization plans to achieve its aims and objectives. It should demonstrate that there is effective control and management of the organization by including a governance section with examples of controls.

It is important that your written plan is 'bought into' by your full organization by involving people at the earliest stages and is not merely a paper exercise. There are a range of organizations that can guide you in deciding what type of written plan is most relevant for your organization's needs, and can assist you in developing such plans.

The extent and detail of your written plan will depend on the nature and size of your group or organization, but the following are headings to guide you in structuring your strategic/business plan:

Executive summary

A summary of the plan; you may wish to make this summary something you can promote outside the organization, to build support and keep stakeholders informed.

Introduction

The purpose of the plan; background about where the plan is in its development; brief statistics about the numbers of staff/volunteers; a description of service users (snapshot).

Purpose

Cover the (new) mission, vision, and values for the organization – this is the backdrop for the plan; say how you use these important statements.

Internal appraisal

Provide a concise review of the current health of the organization; summarize the strengths and weaknesses and their implications; make sure you cover key achievements in the previous period. Ensure you provide an overview of governance arrangements.

Future potential

Outline what the challenges are for the future (external opportunities, threats, other player potential, stakeholder needs etc.)

Strategic aims and priorities for change for the next three years

Cover the main areas of work the organization needs to focus on for the next three years. Each objective should have key tasks and outcomes associated with it – from which you can develop annual goals and teams and individuals can develop their work plans.

Delivering the plan (resources and timetable) 

This is where you need to be convincing about the organization's ability to resource the plan. Attach a budget and a 'timeline' to show when and how the strategic objectives will be met and how they will be managed (covering all the main areas of work of the organization).

Source: DIY Committee Guide, https://www.diycommitteeguide.org/download/strategic-plan-step-5-writing-your-plan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License.