THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

WHY?
The successful introduction of a product or service is unlikely to be achieved by intuition or luck. Equally the entrepreneurial or innovative spirit of a small or medium sized enterprise (SME) must be retained to ensure continuous adaptation to rapidly changing market conditions. It is also crucial that the intent of the organisation can be clearly communicated to customers, employees and investors.

WHEN?
The current business environment provides both tremendous opportunities to small and medium sized companies together with the corresponding challenge of continuous change management. Companies seeking to:

- Launch a new product
- Address a new market
- Expand internationally
- Obtain funding
- Reposition a business

...must invest in an appropriate planning process to give the best chance of capitalising on the product or service concerned.

WHAT?
The aim is to satisfy the above requirements without imposing a stifling bureaucratic system or process. Any plan must also be individual to the company concerned and derived from the knowledge of the management team. Plans 'imposed' by external organisations or consultants will not be integral to management teams and therefore will not form the basis of quality decision making. The planning process is not complex but requires time and focus. With all the other priorities being managed by SME's it is easy for this critical process to be neglected.

HOW?
Draak Strategic Marketing (DSM) operates by guiding management teams through a Strategic Planning Process. This involves a series of structured management team meetings interspersed with research and documentation review. DSM acts as a catalyst in a way that encourages the participants, through open discussion, to jointly decide in what direction they intend to take their company. It is this dialogue that is the core of the process.

RESULT?
The core output from the implementation of this process is the establishment of a common management position that forms the basis for decision making and the onward development of the business. This knowledge base is also documented in a manner such that it can be used to support a range of activities including: plan progress tracking, corporate presentations, business plan preparation, customer dialogue, employee communications, discussion with the financial community etc...
Regular review of this information will allow the management team to determine if progress is being made towards defined objectives as well as allowing intelligent, knowledge based adaptation of the plan as inevitable changes in the market occur.

TIME AND COST?
Each planning process is customised to the situation but will follow a managed series of steps. Time is allocated between each step for a documentation and review process. This will establish a solid foundation for future company decision making by establishing a common knowledge base of:

- The product or service envisaged
- Target markets
- The competition
- Strategy and objectives
- Implementation and tactics
- Management tracking & financial implications

The time scale is matched to the customer needs and resource availability –given unavoidable pressures on management time an overall period of between 4 and 6 months is 'normal'. The use of an external consultant also ensures some discipline is applied to completing the required plan on time.

Due to inevitable budget restraints on smaller, or entrepreneurial, companies; DSM costs are restricted to meetings and support documentation. It is expected that the client devotes some resource to data gathering and research. It should be noted that, in most cases, new company or product marketing plan development is supported by governmental funding, defraying all or part of the costs.

QUALIFICATIONS?
This planning process has been developed from over 25 years of international sales, marketing and customer support experience. This experience is complemented by a programme of formal education including a Post Graduate diploma in Strategic Marketing awarded by the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the United Kingdom.