Strategic Planning Process
Ideally, information professionals will be involved in the strategic planning process for the entire organization. The process is most straightforward if it is a top-down initiative, with detailed instructions provided to each business unit about how the strategic plan is to be completed so that there is consistency in the vision and objectives. Input from all business units should then fit into an umbrella plan developed by the executive team. In this scenario, information professionals will provide background information on what is happening in the industry and markets served by the organization and help formulate plans for providing timely, actionable information to the organization on an ongoing basis.
If a company does not have a formal …show more content…
strategic planning process, information professionals should still develop a strategic plan to conceptualize and guide how information services will be delivered in the present and the future in their organizations. The plan should then be widely disseminated so that a clear understanding of the strategic direction of the information center is established throughout the organization.
SLA's recently revised professional competencies note that the information professional "aligns the information organization with, and is supportive of, the strategic directions of the parent organization or of key client groups through partnerships with key stakeholders and suppliers." Today's most successful information centers are those that have assumed responsibility for making sure their goals and initiatives are aligned with those of the parent organization.
ALIGNING THE INFORMATION FUNCTION WITH ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS
Creating a Strategic PlanFAQ
What is the benefit to having a strategic plan?
The strategic planning exercise forces us to define the core values of our organization and key business activities required for meeting strategic objectives. The planning process is a time to brainstorm, to share knowledge about events and activities that impact the business and to think creatively about the future. If the process is initiated at the executive level and then carried down to departments and business units throughout the organization, the resulting document becomes a unified plan of action that everyone in the company understands and uses for business decision-making. Department managers can work with their employees to develop individual performance objectives that roll up to departmental objectives and these roll up to corporate strategic objectives. Communicated properly, the strategic plan gives departments and employees a common vision of the business, where it is going and how it is going to get there.
Where do I start if I want to create a strategic plan?
Look within your organization first to determine if there is a strategic planning process in place. The strategic planning or corporate planning department in your company may provide you with a template to follow. If not, your colleagues in the marketing department should be able to advise you about how this activity is dealt with in your company. Annual reports frequently refer to major initiatives in the strategic plan and can help you think through the part of your plan dealing with how objectives of the library or information center are aligned with corporate objectives.
Who can help me prepare a strategic plan if this is the first time one is being written?
Consider reaching out to colleagues in other departments who have this kind of experience to find a mentor for writing your plan. If the budget allows, you might consider hiring a consultant to facilitate the planning process. It is challenging to hire a consultant to create the complete strategic plan for your organization since they typically do not have the inside knowledge of the organization that the library or information center personnel possess. However, it will be effective to have a consultant facilitate the session(s) in which you work with your staff to generate ideas, discuss opportunities, and set priorities to be incorporated into the plan. Some fresh, objective ideas might be interjected with this outside facilitation. You don't have to achieve perfection with your first attempt to write a strategic plan, so you might do some background reading and launch out on your ownarmed with your knowledge of the company, the industry, relevant information resources and awareness of trends in information delivery and use.
What is the time frame covered by a strategic plan?
Some organizations have abandoned or given less attention to a rigorous long-range strategic planning process in the past few years due to the rapid pace of change in business and in technology. These organizations have found that long-range strategic plans (five or more years) do not materialize due to business changes, environmental changes, or technology changes they had not anticipated when the plans were written. Strategic plans typically give major emphasis to a one-year time span, and may include high-level two-to five-year plans.
What are basic components of a strategic plan?
Peter Drucker suggests three simple questions that must be answered in a strategic plan:
· What is the business?
· What will it be?
· What should it be?
The strategic plan frequently includes a mission statement, followed by goals, objectives and strategies.
Performance indicators may be included for each goal. Goals are written statements that describe the direction or activity that will lead to improvement in organizational performance and business success. Goals are not necessarily quantitative. Objectives determine more specific, measurable, and achievable standards that define success or failure. Strategies are action steps. These are typically fleshed out in more detail, with allocation of financial and personnel resources, in the operating plan. Performance indicators are used to measure success of objectives highlighted. This structure is not set in stone and can be modified to reflect specific organizational environments. See the sample strategic plan in this unit for further …show more content…
ideas.
What is the difference between a strategic plan and an operating plan?
The operating plan is much more tactical, focusing on how to achieve the overall strategy. It describes HOW to get things done, while the strategic plan identifies WHAT should be done.
Who should see the strategic plan once it is written?
Assuming that there is not an organizational strategic planning process and that you are developing a plan for the information center, the plan should definitely be shared with your colleagues in the information center. It should also be shared with your manager and with your manager's manager. The strategic plan has been proven an effective marketing aidused in promoting appropriate information services to various departments, and it is a useful tool as you negotiate for resources, for example, with the finance department. It may be appropriate to share all of the plan, or parts of it, with vendors so they will be able to partner with you on specific objectives.
How frequently should a strategic plan be revised?
The strategic plan is a living document and should be reviewed at least quarterly. You need to check progress for action steps identified in the plan, and make adjustments to reflect any changes in the business environment. It should not be a document that is written, placed in a file, and never looked at until the process starts over the following year! Plans are typically revised on an annual basis to respond to current events and competitive activities.
Are strategic plans really necessary?
Reflect on the answer to this question given by Orit Gadiesh, Chairman, Bain & Co.: "In the current environment, companies can't afford not to have a set of guiding principlesa system of core values that communicates "true north" to the entire organization. These days many of the operational decisions that enact the strategy are being made in the field, near the customers, rather than at the top. But with a clear set of strategic principles in place, it's actually easier for people in the field to make quick, confident decisions that are consistent with overall strategy."
(Fast Company, Issue No. 21, January 1999, page 78). ALIGNING THE INFORMATION FUNCTION WITH ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS
Strategic PlanSample
Various formats can be used for writing a strategic plan. Ideally, you will be able to take advantage of the strategic planning process already occurring in your organizationusing the same template and the same terminology in order to be consistent with the vision of the organization and aligned with plans submitted by other departments and by the leadership team. Remember that strategic planning begins at the macro level. More granular detail is provided for key initiatives.
The strategic plan can be as simple as a 3 or 4-page document or outline, organized into sections with headings that will resonate in your organization. If you are not working with an internal template, the strategic plan can be developed under these main headings:
Description of the business/information center
Mission, goals, and objectives
Strategies and tactics to achieve mission, goals and objectives
As opposed to the strategic plan, the operating plan is usually built from goals and objectives of the strategic plan; it provides greater detail and lists specific tasks or activities, resources to be allocated, and timelines for achieving the goals identified in the strategic plan.
A suggested framework for the strategic plan is:
Part I
· Situational analysis
· Mission statement
Part II
· Goals, objectives, & strategies
· Timelines and success criteria (These can also be incorporated directly into objectives and strategies)
The first part of the strategic plan is a clearly articulated analysis of your businessthat is, the business of your information centeras it exists now. This segment should describe:
Key activities of the information center that support the business of the larger organization Information center customers and their level of satisfaction with the products and services they are receiving today, as well as Weaknesses and threats currently facing the information center
A mission statement for the information center places the rest of the plan in context.
The second part of the plan is a response to the question: "What will the business be?" Short-range plans, based on the here-and-now, will be integrated into a concrete, unified plan of action committing available resources to carry out those actions. The question: "What shall we do?" must also be addressed. This is where you have an opportunity to position yourself and your library/information center for the futurehighlighting new directions and specifying what will be abandoned in place of high-priority organizational initiatives.
Sample Strategic Plan
If global expansion and improved customer responsiveness are two major strategic initiatives in your organization, how might the information center refocus its priorities and activities to play a critical role in helping the organization realize these goals? To illustrate how information center initiatives can be realigned to match organizational efforts, your strategic plan might unfold as follows.
Part I
Situational Analysis
This part of the plan reflects on your specific organization and your library/information center activities.
It should describe the business need for retooling information center services and products to support global expansion and customer satisfaction efforts. It will highlight personnel strengths/weaknesses, initiatives and systems already in place that support emerging goals, and lessons learned since the launch of those initiatives. The most important part of the situational analysis is why and how you plan to refocus information center activities to better manage information at a global level and to improve collection and dissemination of customer information.
Sample Mission Statement
Information professionals will collaborate with other departments, using their expertise in the areas of information evaluation and selection, contract negotiation and content delivery to promote corporate objectives by:
Ø Providing desktop access to a core set of premium information resources for employees located around the world
Ø Improving portal information on country-specific economic and business conditions and general information on global markets
Ø Collecting more in-depth information on key
customers
Part II
Sample Goals, Objectives & Strategies
Goal 1 Improve access to information required for global business activitiessupporting timely, well-informed business decisions.
-Objective 1 Access: determine locations of strategic importance for realizing corporate objectives that are currently under-served by information center. --Strategy 1 Conduct needs assessment with statistically relevant number of users in each location t to get consensus on what resources are considered critical. --Strategy 2 Evaluate vendor offerings for desktop products. License and market tools selected. --Strategy 3 Use web survey product for quarterly spot surveys regarding user satisfaction with desktop resources.
-Objective 2 Content: Identify new products to be offered by information center that provide in-depth competitive insights and general market information in all countries targeted for expansion.
--Strategy 1 Review analysis and writing skills of information center staff with intent of identifying persons to synthesize information and write white papers on topics related to global business conditions. Start by end of first quarter.
--Strategy 2 Prepare recommendations on pros/cons of outsourcing country-specific research, as well as financial modeling and forecasting components of research by end of second quarter.
--Strategy 3 Revamp information center portal to promote new information center products in second quarter.
Sample Success Criteria for Goal 1
· Less time wasted searching for authoritative business information
· Common base of information used in business discussions and decision-making across world-wide locations
· Competitive advantage evidenced by increased revenue from targeted countries
· Increased visibility and value attributed to information center products/services
Goal 2 Improve corporate customer-responsiveness and retain more customers
-Objective 1 Make customer database more robust by adding current, significant news items to internal information about top customers.
--Strategy 1 Work with IT to make database accessible via the library portal
--Strategy 2 Scan web for relevant free content about top 15 customers; add content or create links to those services. Begin immediately. Update weekly.
--Strategy 3 Work with Sales reps to collect and publish stories about successes with external customers by end of third quarter.
--Strategy 4 Set up Alert services in appropriate external databases to complement web and internal data; obtain copyright permission for adding to various portal sites by end of Q1 and implement once permission is secured. Stop paper clipping service upon contract renewal
Sample Success Criteria for Goal 2
· More effective enterprise-wide dissemination and sharing of external information
· Fewer urgent requests for customer information coming to the information center
· Common knowledge of customer activities throughout the organization
· Positive feedback from external customers
· Increased sales to top customers
· Higher retention of top customers
For each goal in the plan, the following must be included:
· Dates for completion based on your planning cycle
· Names of individuals or teams who will be responsible for completing those activities
· Stakeholders (such as customers, stockholders, suppliers, or internal colleagues)
Successful strategic planning is characterized by honest, objective examination of the status quo. Information professionals must be flexible enough to readily make adjustments to emerging organizational priorities. They must embrace practical, realistic, short-term goal-setting practices to extend or redirect their current business operations in alignment with shifting organizational priorities. The strategic planning process requires an open mind, out-of-the-box thinking, a vision of future possibilities, a desire to improve, and an increasing comfort level with risk-taking.
If a company does not have a formal …show more content…
strategic planning process, information professionals should still develop a strategic plan to conceptualize and guide how information services will be delivered in the present and the future in their organizations. The plan should then be widely disseminated so that a clear understanding of the strategic direction of the information center is established throughout the organization.
SLA's recently revised professional competencies note that the information professional "aligns the information organization with, and is supportive of, the strategic directions of the parent organization or of key client groups through partnerships with key stakeholders and suppliers." Today's most successful information centers are those that have assumed responsibility for making sure their goals and initiatives are aligned with those of the parent organization.
ALIGNING THE INFORMATION FUNCTION WITH ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS
Creating a Strategic PlanFAQ
What is the benefit to having a strategic plan?
The strategic planning exercise forces us to define the core values of our organization and key business activities required for meeting strategic objectives. The planning process is a time to brainstorm, to share knowledge about events and activities that impact the business and to think creatively about the future. If the process is initiated at the executive level and then carried down to departments and business units throughout the organization, the resulting document becomes a unified plan of action that everyone in the company understands and uses for business decision-making. Department managers can work with their employees to develop individual performance objectives that roll up to departmental objectives and these roll up to corporate strategic objectives. Communicated properly, the strategic plan gives departments and employees a common vision of the business, where it is going and how it is going to get there.
Where do I start if I want to create a strategic plan?
Look within your organization first to determine if there is a strategic planning process in place. The strategic planning or corporate planning department in your company may provide you with a template to follow. If not, your colleagues in the marketing department should be able to advise you about how this activity is dealt with in your company. Annual reports frequently refer to major initiatives in the strategic plan and can help you think through the part of your plan dealing with how objectives of the library or information center are aligned with corporate objectives.
Who can help me prepare a strategic plan if this is the first time one is being written?
Consider reaching out to colleagues in other departments who have this kind of experience to find a mentor for writing your plan. If the budget allows, you might consider hiring a consultant to facilitate the planning process. It is challenging to hire a consultant to create the complete strategic plan for your organization since they typically do not have the inside knowledge of the organization that the library or information center personnel possess. However, it will be effective to have a consultant facilitate the session(s) in which you work with your staff to generate ideas, discuss opportunities, and set priorities to be incorporated into the plan. Some fresh, objective ideas might be interjected with this outside facilitation. You don't have to achieve perfection with your first attempt to write a strategic plan, so you might do some background reading and launch out on your ownarmed with your knowledge of the company, the industry, relevant information resources and awareness of trends in information delivery and use.
What is the time frame covered by a strategic plan?
Some organizations have abandoned or given less attention to a rigorous long-range strategic planning process in the past few years due to the rapid pace of change in business and in technology. These organizations have found that long-range strategic plans (five or more years) do not materialize due to business changes, environmental changes, or technology changes they had not anticipated when the plans were written. Strategic plans typically give major emphasis to a one-year time span, and may include high-level two-to five-year plans.
What are basic components of a strategic plan?
Peter Drucker suggests three simple questions that must be answered in a strategic plan:
· What is the business?
· What will it be?
· What should it be?
The strategic plan frequently includes a mission statement, followed by goals, objectives and strategies.
Performance indicators may be included for each goal. Goals are written statements that describe the direction or activity that will lead to improvement in organizational performance and business success. Goals are not necessarily quantitative. Objectives determine more specific, measurable, and achievable standards that define success or failure. Strategies are action steps. These are typically fleshed out in more detail, with allocation of financial and personnel resources, in the operating plan. Performance indicators are used to measure success of objectives highlighted. This structure is not set in stone and can be modified to reflect specific organizational environments. See the sample strategic plan in this unit for further …show more content…
ideas.
What is the difference between a strategic plan and an operating plan?
The operating plan is much more tactical, focusing on how to achieve the overall strategy. It describes HOW to get things done, while the strategic plan identifies WHAT should be done.
Who should see the strategic plan once it is written?
Assuming that there is not an organizational strategic planning process and that you are developing a plan for the information center, the plan should definitely be shared with your colleagues in the information center. It should also be shared with your manager and with your manager's manager. The strategic plan has been proven an effective marketing aidused in promoting appropriate information services to various departments, and it is a useful tool as you negotiate for resources, for example, with the finance department. It may be appropriate to share all of the plan, or parts of it, with vendors so they will be able to partner with you on specific objectives.
How frequently should a strategic plan be revised?
The strategic plan is a living document and should be reviewed at least quarterly. You need to check progress for action steps identified in the plan, and make adjustments to reflect any changes in the business environment. It should not be a document that is written, placed in a file, and never looked at until the process starts over the following year! Plans are typically revised on an annual basis to respond to current events and competitive activities.
Are strategic plans really necessary?
Reflect on the answer to this question given by Orit Gadiesh, Chairman, Bain & Co.: "In the current environment, companies can't afford not to have a set of guiding principlesa system of core values that communicates "true north" to the entire organization. These days many of the operational decisions that enact the strategy are being made in the field, near the customers, rather than at the top. But with a clear set of strategic principles in place, it's actually easier for people in the field to make quick, confident decisions that are consistent with overall strategy."
(Fast Company, Issue No. 21, January 1999, page 78). ALIGNING THE INFORMATION FUNCTION WITH ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS
Strategic PlanSample
Various formats can be used for writing a strategic plan. Ideally, you will be able to take advantage of the strategic planning process already occurring in your organizationusing the same template and the same terminology in order to be consistent with the vision of the organization and aligned with plans submitted by other departments and by the leadership team. Remember that strategic planning begins at the macro level. More granular detail is provided for key initiatives.
The strategic plan can be as simple as a 3 or 4-page document or outline, organized into sections with headings that will resonate in your organization. If you are not working with an internal template, the strategic plan can be developed under these main headings:
Description of the business/information center
Mission, goals, and objectives
Strategies and tactics to achieve mission, goals and objectives
As opposed to the strategic plan, the operating plan is usually built from goals and objectives of the strategic plan; it provides greater detail and lists specific tasks or activities, resources to be allocated, and timelines for achieving the goals identified in the strategic plan.
A suggested framework for the strategic plan is:
Part I
· Situational analysis
· Mission statement
Part II
· Goals, objectives, & strategies
· Timelines and success criteria (These can also be incorporated directly into objectives and strategies)
The first part of the strategic plan is a clearly articulated analysis of your businessthat is, the business of your information centeras it exists now. This segment should describe:
Key activities of the information center that support the business of the larger organization Information center customers and their level of satisfaction with the products and services they are receiving today, as well as Weaknesses and threats currently facing the information center
A mission statement for the information center places the rest of the plan in context.
The second part of the plan is a response to the question: "What will the business be?" Short-range plans, based on the here-and-now, will be integrated into a concrete, unified plan of action committing available resources to carry out those actions. The question: "What shall we do?" must also be addressed. This is where you have an opportunity to position yourself and your library/information center for the futurehighlighting new directions and specifying what will be abandoned in place of high-priority organizational initiatives.
Sample Strategic Plan
If global expansion and improved customer responsiveness are two major strategic initiatives in your organization, how might the information center refocus its priorities and activities to play a critical role in helping the organization realize these goals? To illustrate how information center initiatives can be realigned to match organizational efforts, your strategic plan might unfold as follows.
Part I
Situational Analysis
This part of the plan reflects on your specific organization and your library/information center activities.
It should describe the business need for retooling information center services and products to support global expansion and customer satisfaction efforts. It will highlight personnel strengths/weaknesses, initiatives and systems already in place that support emerging goals, and lessons learned since the launch of those initiatives. The most important part of the situational analysis is why and how you plan to refocus information center activities to better manage information at a global level and to improve collection and dissemination of customer information.
Sample Mission Statement
Information professionals will collaborate with other departments, using their expertise in the areas of information evaluation and selection, contract negotiation and content delivery to promote corporate objectives by:
Ø Providing desktop access to a core set of premium information resources for employees located around the world
Ø Improving portal information on country-specific economic and business conditions and general information on global markets
Ø Collecting more in-depth information on key
customers
Part II
Sample Goals, Objectives & Strategies
Goal 1 Improve access to information required for global business activitiessupporting timely, well-informed business decisions.
-Objective 1 Access: determine locations of strategic importance for realizing corporate objectives that are currently under-served by information center. --Strategy 1 Conduct needs assessment with statistically relevant number of users in each location t to get consensus on what resources are considered critical. --Strategy 2 Evaluate vendor offerings for desktop products. License and market tools selected. --Strategy 3 Use web survey product for quarterly spot surveys regarding user satisfaction with desktop resources.
-Objective 2 Content: Identify new products to be offered by information center that provide in-depth competitive insights and general market information in all countries targeted for expansion.
--Strategy 1 Review analysis and writing skills of information center staff with intent of identifying persons to synthesize information and write white papers on topics related to global business conditions. Start by end of first quarter.
--Strategy 2 Prepare recommendations on pros/cons of outsourcing country-specific research, as well as financial modeling and forecasting components of research by end of second quarter.
--Strategy 3 Revamp information center portal to promote new information center products in second quarter.
Sample Success Criteria for Goal 1
· Less time wasted searching for authoritative business information
· Common base of information used in business discussions and decision-making across world-wide locations
· Competitive advantage evidenced by increased revenue from targeted countries
· Increased visibility and value attributed to information center products/services
Goal 2 Improve corporate customer-responsiveness and retain more customers
-Objective 1 Make customer database more robust by adding current, significant news items to internal information about top customers.
--Strategy 1 Work with IT to make database accessible via the library portal
--Strategy 2 Scan web for relevant free content about top 15 customers; add content or create links to those services. Begin immediately. Update weekly.
--Strategy 3 Work with Sales reps to collect and publish stories about successes with external customers by end of third quarter.
--Strategy 4 Set up Alert services in appropriate external databases to complement web and internal data; obtain copyright permission for adding to various portal sites by end of Q1 and implement once permission is secured. Stop paper clipping service upon contract renewal
Sample Success Criteria for Goal 2
· More effective enterprise-wide dissemination and sharing of external information
· Fewer urgent requests for customer information coming to the information center
· Common knowledge of customer activities throughout the organization
· Positive feedback from external customers
· Increased sales to top customers
· Higher retention of top customers
For each goal in the plan, the following must be included:
· Dates for completion based on your planning cycle
· Names of individuals or teams who will be responsible for completing those activities
· Stakeholders (such as customers, stockholders, suppliers, or internal colleagues)
Successful strategic planning is characterized by honest, objective examination of the status quo. Information professionals must be flexible enough to readily make adjustments to emerging organizational priorities. They must embrace practical, realistic, short-term goal-setting practices to extend or redirect their current business operations in alignment with shifting organizational priorities. The strategic planning process requires an open mind, out-of-the-box thinking, a vision of future possibilities, a desire to improve, and an increasing comfort level with risk-taking.