What is a vision statement? It is what you want to achieve over time as an organization. To create a vision statement first it must be decided where an organization wants to be in the future. This can be hard to articulate succinctly. Sometimes it helps to use the exercise called “the cover story.” It involves imagining five years from now your organization has become the focus of a feature journal article and is on the cover of the magazine. What would you want written as the title on the cover and what should be written in the first paragraph of the article. It should be daring and concise and very visible. Susan B Komen’s vision statement is an excellent example of how a vision can be audacious yet very descriptive; “to cure the world of breast cancer.” A vision statement is where you want to be in the future whether that is next year, in five years, or some undefined point in the future. The next step is to develop strategic goals. They should be designed to fulfill the vision statement. Once again using Susan B Komen’s vision as an example a strategic goal could be “to fund breast cancer research” or “to improve breast cancer awareness.” The trick when selecting strategic goals is to limit the number. Too many goals dilute resources reducing forward progress on the vision. Typically it is recommended that only five or six goals are established. Each strategic goal is advanced using strategic objectives. An objective is a specific task executed to further the goal. Objectives are the actual daily business of an organization. They are the action that expends the resources of the organization. For example if your veterinary clinic had a strategic goal of “to provide the best dental services,” an objective might be “send our technicians for dental prophylaxis continuing education” or “buy a digital dental radiology unit.” They should be achievable, specific, have measurable actions, and have a predetermined time period. Successful strategic planning requires continuous scanning of the business environment. It is what defines strategic in strategic planning. Scanning maintains tabs on relevance, achievement of objectives and goals, and it identifies both risks and opportunities. A simple list of ways to gather this data includes but is not limited to surveys, newspapers, journals, web sites, blogs, listserv sites, Facebook, tweet, personal interactions, legislative changes or trends, and phone calls to your place of business. Basically, every available piece of data pertaining to a business’s environment should be collected for analysis. It cannot be stressed enough that any information reflecting a trend or change, potential or real, should be collected. What makes a piece of data worthy of analysis? Sometimes it is the number of times the same information is repeated, sometimes it is the topic, and sometimes it is potential impact on your business. It is hard to predict in black and white terms what will rise in significance at any one time. A good strategic planning process remains open to considering any piece of information at anytime. Analysis of the information should be based on the impact to the mission and vision statements and more directly goals and objectives. Analysis might recommend no change to the current plan, it could stop one or more objectives, it might ignite new objectives, and it might cause a change in strategic goals. It will impact the allocation of the organizations resources. A well run strategic management will perform this process every day and every meeting will have a large part of the agenda devoted to strategic planning. Sometimes the hardest part of changing to strategic management is the necessary evolution of governance style. A good strategic planning administration is a small management team with a mandate to foster and further the strategic plan. Selection to the team should be solely competency based. This team is responsible for the periodic and timely analysis of environmental scanning data and adjustment of the objectives and goals. Lastly and very importantly, this team is responsible for clearly articulating the plan to the whole organization.
entire organization to engage in the plan. Communication should be both ways, allowing for good ideas to filter up as well as down. Transparency allows for accountability at all levels of the organization. A good strategic management team drives and fosters the plan through supporting an open atmosphere of strategic thinking. In sum, strategic planning is a process that uses a mission and vision statement to define strategic goals and objectives. These goals and objectives are the business of the organization. Their importance to the organization is determined by environmental scanning. Opportunities and risks to the organization are also predicted by a good scanning system. It requires a small nimble and open management team, which fosters and encourages organization-wide strategic thinking. In today’s ever changing socioeconomic world it is becoming clear that businesses and organizations need to leave behind the “old ways” to stay viable. Management styles must evolve to allow quicker, more nimble, proactive organizations. Of the new management models emerging, the most commonly used is strategic planning. It provides rapid responses, preemptive plans, and an adaptability to the rapidly fluctuating professional and business environments. WA
— Dr. Lisa Parshley is the owner of Olympia Veterinary Cancer Center in Olympia, WA. She can be reached at lisa.parshley@ovccpets.com.
Good communication and adequate transparency allows the
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