You can’t go through life without a plan.
Sure, many small businesses may begin as nothing but a human with a dream, but once a company hits a certain size – much like a person – it
needs to start asking questions like “Why am I here?” and “Where am I going?” and “How will I get there?” This is the heart of a strategic development plan.
Rest assured, every truly successful company has strategic development plans, and they are attended to with great care. Apple would be a perfect example. Observe how practically every element of Apple’s public persona, from their futuristic products to their hypnotic TV ads to their cathedral-esque Apple Stores blend together to create a single unified vision of their company. From Philadelphia to Phnom Penh, an Apple product is instantly recognizable worldwide as distinctively Apple.
That is what a well-implemented strategic development plan can do.
Strategic Development Plans: Making Your Mission Statement Meaningful
The fundamental difficulty with maintaining a constant look and feel as a company grows is keeping everyone on the same page. After all, you probably have a mission statement somewhere with nice sentiments like, “We will strive to provide the highest-quality customer service while advancing the state of the industry.”
Well, a mission statement is a great start, but what does that actually mean? What’s your benchmark for “highest-quality customer service?” Which states of the industry, exactly, are you trying to advance, and which direction is “advancing” anyway? And, most importantly, how are you going to pull it off?
Once you can answer these questions fully, you can put together a strategic development plan that tells everyone in your company what the plan truly is. They’ll know where the company stands for, and what they’re expected to do to move it in that direction.
If a business begins as a human with a dream, and the mission statement is that dream, then strategic development plans are what make it reality.
Develop Your Own Plan
So, if you haven’t set about really thinking about how you’re going to turn your dream into reality, now is the time to start doing so. Dust off that old mission statement, and start seriously pondering what it would take to achieve.
Do that, and you’re well on your way to a strategic development plan.
How do YOU plan on building your company to match your dreams?