What Is Strategic Business Planning

You might call business planning that converts the corporate strategy into clear actions with resources strategic business planning. While there may be some overlap between strategic planning and business planning, they are not the same thing.The differences are such that the umbrella term strategic business planning may be unhelpful.Understand that a strategic plan differs from a business plan in three ways -I define strategic planning differently to some others. Begin with a clear understanding of and commitment to the enduring purpose of the organization.

A business plan summarizes the firm’s operational and financial objectives for the near future. For the audiences inside the organization, a business plan functions as a kind of blueprint to guide the organization’s activities.

When the business plan clearly expresses the corporate strategy, the process of preparing it may be 'strategic'. External audiences such as prospective investors can also use strategic business plans.

It is the elephantine nature and long-term impact on organizational performance that sets strategic planning apart from other types of planning.

Spell out these broad strategic intentions of the strategic plan in other types of plans, including business plans.

However, as the details become finer grained, the confidence we can put in the figures starts to fall.

Very detailed financial projections, which might extend much beyond one or at most two years, cannot be believed.The description 'strategic business planning' may be confusing.If such business planning is business planning aligned with, and designed to implement corporate strategy there would not be much of a problem.Long-range planning with the present and sets out steps to meet estimated future needs.This usually involves extrapolating from past performance to forecast likely future performance.Strategic business planning is the planning done by top managers to guide the progress of an organization as a whole.Using such a description for planning at the corporate level can be confusing because it muddles two things.It also includes translation of this vision into objectives and a set of programs and projects to achieve them.The kind of thinking involved in business planning that is 'strategic', differs from long-range planning.Unfortunately, the terms strategic planning and business planning have multiple meanings. When put together as strategic business planning it can be even less clear.Let us look at each individually, and then see what sense we might make of them together.