“Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to succeed, but more importantly, what’s your plan to succeed?”, these words by American entrepreneur Jim Rohn encapsulate the value behind strategic planning.

Regardless of a company’s size, three crucial elements remain essential: clear roles, a shared goal, and a practical plan to achieve it all together.

Corporate planning starts off with a very basic formula: Set a common goal, create strategies to achieve it, and align daily tasks with these strategies. However, practical application can get complicated due to overlaps, which, if mishandled, can lead to excessive work a misaligned results.

Maintaining clear distinctions between planning levels is crucial. Understanding the company’s hierarchy and empowering teams to prioritize tasks aligned with the bigger purpose are vital for success.

Harvard Business Review divides strategy and planning in three main levels: Corporate, Business, and Functional. Understanding the structure of each one is key in project management, as the hierarchy varies based on how teams contribute to achieving a goal.

Here are some ways to differentiate them and how they apply on an everyday scenario:

Corporate Planning

Even though the words strategy and planning can be interchanged easily in corporate lingo, the weight both have will depend on the role the person is sitting in.

For upper management, planning is their essence. Usually, Headquarters (whether literal or metaphorical) are in charge of deciding on the company’s overall goal, which is why they carry the responsibility of Corporate Planning.

After establishing a goal, the Headquarters assumes responsibility for practical matters, including stakeholder management, resource acquisition, and determining the specific roles for each team to accomplish the established goal.

Business Planning

After the top management sets a goal, it’s up to the next tier of the company, (i.e. divisions, departments, teams, etc.), to take charge of Business Planning.

During this step, each group creates plans that fit with the main goal set by the top management. Teams need to clearly outline their areas of operation, establish necessary policies, and set a pragmatic timeframe for implementation.

Ideally, these plans must match with the core business and functions of each team. These plans not only help achieve the main goal of the company, but they can also function as goals for smaller clusters within those same departments. This alignment ensures that every department is designated to a plan that is they are fully equipped to comply with.

Functional Planning

In the Functional Planning stage, third-tier groups draft a set of actionable tasks to achieve the departments’ strategy. This translates to selecting the departmental areas of work (marketing, research, etc.) and setting a sequence of feasible actions that are in the scope of every team member’s work.

In Functional Planning, they key to succeed is granular planning. Up to this moment, the plans are long-term ideas rather than every-day tasks, but when it comes to smaller projects, it is crucial to have tools that will help team members number their tasks and quantify their achievements, no matter how big or small.

During this phase, using project planning tools such as Monday, Asana, and Trello are recommended. These platforms simplify collaboration, automate data collection, and track progress and deadlines.

But when it comes to Functional planning, bottom-up approaches are crucial to raise any flags before they become a bigger obstacle, which is why Taskia is the ideal tool for it.

One of Taskia’s greatest assets is that it seamlessly interconnects corporate strategies with daily tasks, providing a clear sense of purpose to all team members by illustrating how their individual contributions align with organizational goals. With Taskia, employees gain valuable insights into how their efforts contribute to larger objectives, fostering a purpose-driven workforce.

Handling Overlaps

At times, particularly within multinational corporations, there can be overlaps in roles. Occasionally, strategies require an overarching objective to resonate with divisions, or tasks may need to be broken down to incorporate geographical contexts.

In these cases, coordinators play a crucial role. They are given the responsibility to act as intermediaries between overarching organizational goals and day-to-day operations. They handle sensitive information and are tasked with comprehending upper-management objectives, tailoring adaptable plans that suit the needs and contexts of their teams. They transform these objectives into more detailed strategies and actionable tasks specific to their respective teams. This process can involve translating a divisional strategy into departmental goals and further down the line.

Overlaps can happen, but they key to preventing detrimental overlaps lays on monitoring progress closely. Thanks to Taskia’s collaborative approach, designated team members can easily conduct regular check-ins and get a comprehensive view of project progress to ensure all areas are working swiftly and in harmony with each other.

Reporting and Readjusting

Amidst the complexity of large corporations, bottom-up reporting and consistent checks is what will ensure alignment across diverse teams. By understanding the progress made by each unit, managers can suggest adjustments in real-time to keep everyone on track toward common objectives.

Readjustments are healthy as long as they are accompanied with a clear direction. Constant communication and feedback are vital to navigate the evolving landscape of goals, strategies, and tasks. At the end, the key is to ensure that all teams’ efforts are synchronized.

In today’s ever-changing business world, role-defined, goal-oriented planning is a must rather than an added value. Using these tools like project planning softwares or consulting firms will give teams more power, making processes smoother, and achieving success in the long run.

We hope you can find the value behind strategic planning and make the most of these essential resources to drive your organization towards success.

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