Strategic Planning Tools
Defining a Competitive Strategy
This tool shows how to define a competitive strategy that will distinguish you from your competitors and enable your company to win and maintain market share. It employs a multi-step process that asks leaders to answer a logical series of questions related to the competition. Among other things, it results in an analysis of potential factors that could be used against you by your competitors – and your readiness to deal with those contingencies.
Developing a Purpose Statement
Every organization needs a purpose statement. This tool explains what a purpose statement is and provides examples. It includes a process for developing a purpose statement. It also includes four questions that need to be answered in order to develop a strong purpose statement.
This tool is used to develop a vision statement – a clear picture of where the organization wants to be in the future. It helps leaders identify the vision “drivers” of the organization. Hint: Use this tool in conjunction with LRI’s Integrated Strategic Planning® chart.
Core values are those activities that are essential to the success of the organization. In healthy organizations, people share a clear understanding of what these core values are and how they are measured. This tool helps people identify and develop the core values. It is best used in conjunction with the Six Rings Model: Integrated Strategic Planning.
Glossary of Strategic Planning Terms
This handy tool provides concise definitions for all the words typically used in strategic planning terms like "core" and "strategy" and "goal" are clearly defined and their relationship to one another spelled out. This tool contains more than 20 words and phrases. It's an indispensable aid to groups launching a strategic planning process.
Keys to Successful Strategic Thinking
This tool describes the characteristics of a successful strategy. It lays out a series of strategic questions, recommendations, and strategic options. It shows the traps to avoid. We recommend this as an excellent guide to all strategic planning processes.
This tool concisely defines nine types of strategies. It lists the factors that should drive an organization’s choice of strategy and includes helpful hints to guide your choice of strategy. This is an extremely useful tool to use as part of a strategic planning process.
This tool concisely defines nine types of strategies. It lists the factors that should drive an organization’s choice of strategy and includes helpful hints to guide your choice of strategy. This is an extremely useful tool to use as part of a strategic planning process.
This tool is great for assessing the relative value of various strategic options. It is useful for facilitating group discussions about alternative strategies. It has two dimensions: ease of implementation and degree of impact. This is a valuable tool for leaders who want to explore various strategic investments.
This tool is useful for visualizing the steps in a typical strategic planning process, from the initial environmental scan to the narrowing of strategies and developing of related performance targets. Managers and leaders can use this tool to communicate their planning process to other managers, employees, board members and other stakeholders.
The Six Principals of Strategic Positioning
This tool is for leaders who want to understand the six principals of successful strategic positioning. It ensures that leaders are asking the right questions about the overall goals of the company, it's business model, and the value that the company creates. Research has shown that companies that follow these six fundamental principles establish and maintain a distinctive strategic position.
The Six Rings Model: Integrated Strategic Planning
This tool defines the six elements of a strategic plan and shows their relationship and inter-dependence. This is a valuable tool to use in guiding an effective strategic planning process.
The Three Levels of Strategic Planning
This tool shows the relationship between the three levels of long-range planning and the various parts of the organization they affect. Leaders can use this tool to explain the relationship between top-level strategic planning and information technology (IT) strategy, for example. They can also use this tool to illustrate the importance of having a top-level strategic plan in place prior to addressing organizational strategy or IT strategy.