Strategic planning

Strategic planning or corporate planning is an activity undertaken by an organization through which it seeks to define its future direction and makes decisions such as resource allocation aimed at achieving its intended goals. "Strategy" has many definitions, but it generally involves setting major goals, determining actions to achieve these goals, setting a timeline, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy describes how the ends (goals) will be achieved by the means (resources) in a given span of time. Often, strategic planning is long term and organizational action steps are established from two to five years in the future. Strategy can be planned ("intended") or can be observed as a pattern of activity ("emergent") as the organization adapts to its environment or competes in the market. The senior leadership of an organization is generally tasked with determining strategy. It is executed by strategic planners or strategists, who involve many parties and research sources in their analysis of the organization and its relationship to the environment in which it competes. Strategy includes processes of formulation and implementation; strategic planning helps coordinate both. However, strategic planning is analytical in nature (i.e., it involves "finding the dots"); strategy formation itself involves synthesis (i.e., "connecting the dots") via strategic thinking. As such, strategic planning occurs around the strategy formation activity.