Why is strategic planning important in an organization?

A company should dedicate most of its time in the first few months of establishment, or before establishment, to strategic planning. According to a recent study and research by Harvard Business Review, it was observed that companies that host meetings for only a few hours per month to discuss their strategy for the organization have decreased productivity, performance, and accountability for lower effectiveness and outcomes.

Before we understand its importance in an organization, we should know what strategy planning truly means. The method devised to achieve pre-set goals of a business enterprise, with the help of research data, previous experiences, and administrative planning is known as strategic planning.

One vision for the entire business

A business has multiple departments working under it. We have digital marketing strategies, lead or sales generation departments, strategies to improve employee performance by integrating training, etc. A strategy has one common goal for every employee so they feel responsible towards their organization, work hard every day and realize that their efforts are important to account for since only after combining individual efforts from different departments strategic plan can achieve company goals.

One vision can unite all employees and build a sense of community belonging towards the organization, improving productivity and establishing a higher intellect to think of broader aspects for their company.

Review company biases

Every decision an administrative unit takes has biases. Consider cognitive biases where leaders and team members pick up an idea that is trending without checking its validity or the inertia bias that drives them to choose a strategy they are more comfortable with rather than choosing one that is more goal-oriented. Proper strategic planning can review such company biases.

Confirmation bias is a problem that commonly arises out of prolonged leadership. When a member of the organization has remained at a high position, they have a confidence level and an eye to looking up resources for strategic planning that support their viewpoint and ignore those that don’t coincide with what they have already decided. A confirmation bias must always be taken care of because it hampers the quality of leadership and overall company planning.

However, when strategic planning is a common topic of discussion, people keep mentioning the review of common biases to overcome them.

Track key performance indicators

A strategic plan is a way to find and locate key performance indicators or KPIs. By defining the goals of an organization, they can determine their present position and whether the aims they had set in the past align with what they have achieved to date. If they have not yet been able to meet up standards, this strategy can also improve the performance to observe a positive change in KPIs.