Every business needs to consider some facets of strategic planning. Whether this is for general information purposes or it’s in an attempt to monitor key results, corporate planning is integral. Keeping your business in alignment is critical for overall success but there are some key steps that you should follow when developing your roadmap.
Between putting your business through a performance review and assessing areas of practice, there are a few primary elements of corporate planning that every business should leverage.
1. Refine your goal-setting.
Every business takes its own goals into account but few have a way of tracking them on an individual case-by-case basis. Whether this is because of poor prior results or a lack of overall structure, many businesses neglect their key results to their own detriment. That’s where the OKR methodology proves beneficial. OKRs—objectives and key results—are part of a goal-setting framework that keeps businesses in alignment. Using OKR software can make this process even smoother and help you repeat a similar outcome for your key results quarter after quarter. It’s also great to help your team members set individual goals as well. Adding OKR software to your corporate planning can make a world of difference.
2. Determine your position.
Once you’ve assessed the key results and company goals you need to track, do you know where you stand in regard to those? Performance management and positioning are critical at this step of corporate planning. You don’t necessarily need an OKR tool to suss this out but you do need the insight to view your entire organization critically and provide high-degree feedback. Use industry and marketing data at this step alongside the OKR framework to better understand where your business stands in the market.
3. Assess priorities.
Whether they’re your team members’ responsibilities or larger company objectives, you need to be able to prioritize. This is integral to both goal management and corporate planning as a whole. Your business strategy should consist of prioritizing high-level action items and fitting smaller business objectives as needed. It improves corporate visibility and helps you pivot in real-time. Use your knowledge base to check in on your priorities and see where there’s room for improvement. Don’t switch priorities without employee engagement or general approval, though, as this can cause friction.
4. Line up your assets.
Part of corporate planning means being ready for anything. As a CEO or owner, this means setting up the right tools and assets. This could be Slack, Trello, Asana, or a partnership with electronic payments companies. It could also mean retaining a litigation team for ongoing legal advice. The acquisition of a legal team shouldn’t be taken lightly. The attorney-client relationship is critical. For risk management and amazing results, the Global Legal Law Firm is the way to go—found at globallegallawfirm.com. Global Legal’s attorneys work across many areas of practice, from assisting HR teams to advising boardroom decisions and smart goals. 360-degree feedback is essential to your legal success as a corporate entity.
5. Review and revise.
You’ve set up tools like a payment processor and vendor services. You’ve chosen the best OKR software to help you refine your best practices and receive live progress updates. You have a template for success and you believe you’re ready to track your key results and metrics. Before you implement anything into a startup (or if you’re one of many industry giants), you need to review your plan and revise it as needed. Look for areas of opportunity. Set stronger company-level OKRs. Ensure plan usability for new users and veterans alike and have analytics tracking set up.
Successful corporate planning is akin to an art form. Whether you’re managing a remote team or you’re revising performance management, it’s integral to metric tracking and overall success. Incorporate the key elements of successful planning and watch what it can do for your business.
