Strategic Planning is a well-defined, misunderstood, widely agreed upon definition, but an often misused term. Strategy has origins dating back to its military usage with planning associated with it as early as the 6th century. Strategic planning refers to the defining of the organization’s go-forward plan for the future in the corporate world by accompanying desired outcomes. Over recent decades, the corporate strategic planning models, processes are broad, and taken on many different associations. “Strategic Planning” explores the basic components of what should be done in the planning process to make it worthwhile and in its corporate context - delivering value, profits and securing competitive advantage.
Organizations will not be successful in the long-run without a good strategic plan in place and a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) Analysis. A SWOT analysis provides a good overview of whether the company’s overall situation is fundamentally healthy or unhealthy.