Have you heard people talking about developing a strategic plan? Strategic planning might be a good idea.

The term strategic planning refers to a coordinated and systematic process for developing a plan for the overall direction of your organization’s endeavor for the purpose of optimizing future potential. A strategic plan is a plan that defines the goals for the entire organization.

A good strategic plan achieves the following: Reflects the values of the organization. Inspires action to achieve a big future. Explains how you’ll win in the market. Clearly defines the criteria for achieving success. Guides everyone in daily decisions. Strategy means consciously choosing to be clear about your organization’s direction in relation to what’s happening in the dynamic environment.

A good strategy achieves the following: Establishes a unique value proposition compared to your competitors. Executes through operations that provide different and tailored value to customers. Identifies clear trade-offs and clarifies what not to do. Focuses on activities that fit together and reinforce each other. Drives continual improvement within the organization and moves it toward its vision.

Strategic management refers to both strategy development and execution.

If we’re getting paid to work, we could just as well focus on the organization’s unique value proposition and not just our own unique value proposition.

So, are you doing things right or doing the right things? Strategic planning guarantees both. Doing the right things is critical, and doing things as well as possible is a must. So, it’s strategic planning or bust.