Strategic Planning Kit For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13

Putting Your Plan into Action

In This Chapter

• Using a scorecard to measure your progress and track results
• Developing action plans for your short-term goals
• Cascading goals for buy-in
• Assessing the financial viability of your strategic plan
• Setting up a management system

You've arrived! If you're at this chapter in sequence, you've reached the point where you can actually operationalize and give your plan life. You've developed your business strategy and have a clear road map designed to reach your vision. You've identified what you're best at (Chapter 5), developed your mission, vision, and values (Chapter 6), sized up your internal and external environment (Chapters 7, 8, and 10), determined your growth strategies (Chapter 11), selected new markets to reach (Chapter 9), and established your strategic objectives and goals (Chapter 12). The next step (this chapter) is to put your plan into action and manage it.

As you work through this chapter, remember that C-level leaders and board of directors expect your strategy to be well thought out, concise, persuasive, and easy to understand in just a few presentation slides. Keep in mind that less is more as you write your strategy. Leaders and directors are looking for whether you have the skill to implement the strategy, not how deep you can get into the specifics.