Applied Strategic Planning

From the recent experience of three of America's most sought-after strategic planning consultants — seasoned pros who are serving as advisors to more than 100 top organizations from coast to coast — comes the first completely pragmatic guide to identifying, systematizing, and implementing the kind of long-term strategies that will enable you to compete successfully well into the next century. With its emphasis on the integration of business and functional plans, performance audits, organizational culture, gap analysis, and values clarification, Applied Strategic Planning surpasses other strategic planning manuals in all the vital ways that spell the difference between tomorrow's big winners and tomorrow's also-rans! Find out how to:

• Determine if your organization is ready for strategic planning
• Effectively communicate a corporate vision
• Recognize the role of culture in changing strategic direction
• Integrate your plan into your company's day-to-day operations — both horizontally and vertically
• Master methods of strategic business modeling
• Write effective mission statements
• Use consultants effectively
• Create contingency plans

Both incisive and fun to read, Applied Strategic Planning makes many of its points through the use of humorous drawings, anecdotes, and cartoons — many of which come directly from the experiences of top companies before they had a workable strategic plan in effect. And you'll find numerous charts, diagrams, and checklists that make the book especially easy to apply in your own organization, whatever its size or structure. If you're looking to navigate expertly through today's unpredictable business climate, this is the one book you simply cannot afford to be without!

1. Introduction to Applied Strategic Planning
2. The Process of Envisioning
3. Culture and Applied Strategic Planning
4. Potential Roles of the Consultant
5. Planning to Plan
6. Environmental Monitoring and Application Considerations
7. Values Scan
8. Mission Formulation
9. Strategic Business Modeling
10. Performance Audit
11. Gap Analysis
12. Integrating Action Plans — Horizontally and Vertically
13. Contingency Planning
14. Implementation
15. Conclusions and Recycling Considerations

An all-encompassing mini-MBA. Unfortunately, the authors tries to sell you more books about the same subjects. The best I can say is that it is funny and broad.