A strategic plan creates a broad view of a desired future, draws a map of how to reach that future, assesses things that will help or hinder efforts to follow the map, and lists specific things that can be done (and the sequence in which they will be done) to attain goals. Strategic plans may be developed at almost any scale, for use in setting goals for a corporation or a university, for use in smaller units such as departments, or as a personal exercise. Planning sharpens our awareness of who we are, what we are about, what affects us, what we intend to do, how we will know we are moving, and how we will measure success. Following is a suggested outline for a strategic plan.
On Vision and Mission
In any communication, there are two elements of the content of a message—Vision and Mission. The task is to create a vision, and to attract others to it.
A Vision describes what you want to be. (Your history is not your vision.) A vision grows from your past. (A vision is not your history). A vision is a place, not the map to get there.
A Mission statement is the child of a vision. It tells us:
- Who we are!
- What we are!
- How we do what we do.
- When we do what we do.
- Where we do what we do.
- Why we do what we do.
A mission statement is the parent of a new vision.
An example of a vision statement:
“I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream...
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood...
“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to spped up that day when all of God’s children, blackmen and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 28, 1963
Washington, DC
Vision Statement: This is a simple statement of where the planners see themselves in the future. It provides the overarching goal for the plan, a state of being to be realized by carrying out the strategies laid forth in the plan.
Mission Statement:The mission becomes the path for attaining the goal articulated in the vision statement. What will we do to attain our vision, and how will we do it?
In crafting vision and mission statements, care should be taken to distinguish the entity for whom the plan is written from similar entities. For example, a strategic plan for a university should have vision and mission statements that do not end up saying that the university is pretty much the same as every other university (see inset).
Background: This should orient readers and users of the plan toward the situation under which the plan is being written, providing an underlying rationale for the plan and its intended use.
Issues: These address particular needs of the planning entity, to be addressed over the life of the plan.
Environmental analysis: This section presents a list of known assets and liabilities that may affect the success of the plan. It is divided into two sections, looking at internal and external environments. For both internal and external environments, the analysis lists strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This is sometimes referred to as a SWOT analysis.
- Internal Environment. For the most part, these are factors that are more or less controllable to the degree that internal decisions can be made.
- Strengths. These are assets of the organization that can be used to advantage in pursuing the mission. They include things like staff, equipment or other facilities, operating budgets, prestige factors or reputation, or leadership abilities.
- Weaknesses. These are comparable liabilities that must be accounted for or overcome to the degree that they affect mission. Staff shortages or vacancies; out-of-date, missing, or unreliable equipment or facilities; inadequate operating budgets; poor morale; or disorganization are all typical weaknesses.
- Opportunities. These are internal factors that can be improved as part of the plan. Economies afforded through reorganization or refocus of the mission, improvement of personnel, means to increase revenues or overall fun
- Threats. These are things that can go wrong. Failed physical plant (the roof gives out) or equipment; loss of staff through retirement, illness, or resignation; internal disharmony; or loss of productivity for various reasons may all be identifiable sources of disadvantage, retarding or preventing execution of the mission.
- External Environment. Many of these factors are beyond our control, yet they still may significantly affect our ability to meet our mission.
- Strengths. An improvement in the business climate, increased government revenues (for public organizations), policy changes that make it easier to do business, etc., may make new assets or opportunities available to the organization.
- Weaknesses. Many of these are simply the converse of strengths. A downturn in the economy, increased competition, a less favorable business climate, etc., are typical external weaknesses.
- Opportunities. Innovation and repositioning in marketplaces, recognition of competitive niches, new priorities for government funders, the availability of new technologies, etc., may create a more favorable situation for those able to take advantage of emerging external opportunities.
- Threats. Loss of market share to competitors, a declining economy, changes in attitudes toward our products, changing expectations among our clients, are all factors that may threaten our ability to pursue our mission.
The Importance of Unique Vision and Mission Statements
In their 2004 book, The Future of Higher Education, authors Frank Newman, Lara Couturier, and Jamie Scurry comment on the rhetoric, reality, and risks of academic marketplaces, pointing out that competition is likely to increase. Competitive pressures, they concluded, will drive up costs unsustainably. Growth of private for-profit institutions will also increase competition for grants and students. Conversely, public universities will increase competition with private institutions for endowments funds.
Intensified competitive pressures in the higher education market, suggested Newman, require "skilled leadership and organizational mastery of change" within the institution and on governing boards, and greater than normal leadership development within the institution. The institution also needs a strategic plan that is "clear and specific enough that it can be implemented and visionary enough that it will matter if it is implemented." "Most plans are too vague and general," said Newman. "What is too often missing is a strategy that spells out in understandable terms how the institution will move forward, develop its unique character, and attract its clientele." "Strategic plans, claimed Newman, "must amplify and clarify the mission, making it specific and realistic" without tending toward vague generalities that tend to end up meaning "sort of like everyone else."
The University's 465 word mission statement contains only 13 words that distinguish it within the State, the two phrases "principal public research and graduate institution" and "land grant, sea grant, and urban grant institution," and nothing else to distinguish it from other universities. The University's vision statement is similar. If one removes the two phrases and "Rhode Island", the mission and vision statements do indeed end up making URI "sort of like everyone else."
URI Vision Statement
In our quest for knowledge, the University of Rhode Island is building a new culture for learning. We will share in the power of discovery through collaborative teaching, learning and research, and through independent inquiry and free speech. This culture generates a spirited public life for our students, who will become engaged and productive leaders. Our research, scholarship, critical analysis and creative expression serve Rhode Island, the nation and the world. In this evolving future, our commitment to continuous improvement and high quality will guide our decisions.
If the University's vision and mission were more easily distinguishable from other Rhode Island universities, there might be considerable market advantages, initially within the market for state appropriations and private donations. A Land Grant philosophy in teaching, research, and extension, for example, may be the critical distinguishing element, if the University could in fact rediscover and embrace that philosophy. Reemphasis of a land grant philosophy throughout the vision and mission statements would be the beginning point.
From “Confluence, Returning to Roots at URI,” by Pat Logan (March, 2005) (original—http://www.uri.edu/artsci/com/Logan/archive/miscellaneous/confluence.htm)
Assumptions: Although a strategic plan is not a forecast of the future, it is based upon expectations of conditions in the future. These should be stated. For example, if it is assumed that state budgets will remain essentially unchanged, a strategic plan for a university should assume no significant increase in state funding. Assumptions often state the most likely future state of factors identified in the SWOT analyses.
Performance goals: These are specific, usually quantifiable, standards by which performance will be measured. A university, for example, might set a goal of improving its relative rank as a research institution to move into the top 100 (or top 50 or top 10) or it might set a goal of a 10% improvement in graduation rate as a performance goal.
Operational Needs Analysis: There will be things that need to be done to reach the performance goals of the plan. These in turn generate a set of goals and needs, which are outlined in this section. For example, a University may decide that an opportunity exists to develop competitive programs in information technology. A performance goal may be to develop a program that can graduate 250 Information Technology specialists each year. The Operational needs analysis would suggest that the plan should include an objective of building new facilities for state of the art laboratories. To meet this objective, there may be a need for a campaign to influence state legislators to approve a bond referendum, corporations to contribute funds for equipment, and for a new hiring plan to make sure the University has the necessary personnel in place to further this objective.
Programs: Meeting needs may be done systematically through creation of organized activities. For example, as it expands its IT program, the university may decide to create a new school of information technology, featuring new departments, new curricula, and new research agendas. These activities are spelled out here.
Strategies: There may be many ways to meet goals. These are explored here. To launch its IT program, the University may decide that it needs to enlist the support of the private sector by holding stakeholder listening sessions, seeking good ideas from outside the university. It may decide to make the new School of Information Technology a centerpiece of its annual lobbying effort with state legislators. It may decide that internal reorganization and the identification of critical enabling technologies (computer labs and networks, production studios, smart classrooms, unified academic departments) are essential steps that must be taken.
Performance targets: These are goals to be met as the strategies are implemented and the plan is put in place. Specific results and benefits will be listed. These include overt products (new curriculum in web development, major in videography, increase in research publications in communications theory) as well as outcomes created when people use the products (graduates stimulate investment of local film production and web database firms).
Milestones and Schedules: These place the operational needs analysis objectives and needs, and the strategies for attaining each, on a timeline. In order to reach the plans goal for a new facility for the new School, a bond issue must be approved by the legislature in the third year of the plan, for example.
How Partners Can Help: When the plan requires the approval or support of external collaborators, it may be helpful to spell out the exact form in which that help would be most useful. That is, to create the new school of information technology, the enthusiastic leadership of the university President and Board of Governors is critical. Similarly, the university endowment office can help by making fundraising for future acquistion of equipment, endowment of distinguished faculty chairs, and scholarships a priority of the next capital campaign. This is not a traditional section of classical strategic plans, but it is a very smart approach in many situations, giving key players a clear indication of anticipated roles (answering, "what do you expect me to do?").
Measuring success: These should list measures by which the success (or failure) of the plan is to be judged. This may include such things as measures of prestige (the IT School's national ranking), external support (alumni donations increase when the school is announced), or internal harmony (faculty flock to develop new courses and to endorse new hires for the program).
The outline presented here has many real-world variations, and can be accomplished in myriad ways. No two plans will be alike. It is important to remember that much of the benefit of strategic planning is in the planning itself. The written document should capture the thought that took place, but it is the thought, and not the document itself, that is important. Planning is dynamic and constant, and each plan in a successfully planning organization is merely a snapshot of something that should never end.