Strategic Planning

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This 2 day interactive class will review the fundamentals of developing and implementing an effective strategic plan that can lead to a community or region achieving a more competitive location for encouraging business investment and the attraction of a talented workforce.

The Strategic Planning course is a core course in the Certified Louisiana Economic Developer certification.  It utilizes case studies and sample plans to highlight best practices in economic development strategic planning.   Group exercises and class discussion are designed to provide a better understanding of the planning process.

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Course Highlights:

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• Why do a strategic plan?
  The purpose and value of planning for the community’s economic development is reviewed, as well as the key components of the strategic planning process.

• Organizing the process for effective community involvement
  No plan is worth much unless careful consideration is given at the beginning to the desired outcomes of the planning process, and who should be involved in that process and to what extent.

• Understanding the community’s competitive position
  A strategic plan needs to begin with a clear understanding of the assets, liabilities, opportunities, and economic trends impacting the community.  Each community competes with all other communities for investment.

• Visioning the future

A plan must have a vision if it is to take the community to a desirable place.  This vision needs to be one that is shared among the leadership if it is to be effective.

• Setting priorities
  A broadly stated vision with ambiguous ideas isn’t likely to chart a clear path for the community’s leadership.  It is important to clarify what is “most” important to pursue to meet the desired outcomes.  These priorities should come from a process that involves local leadership and is endorsed by the community

• Determining goals and measurable outcomes
  The vision is more easily translated into action if it incorporates the priorities of the community, which in turn can be developed as goals to achieve.  Goals are more specific than the vision, but are not measurable.  The measurable outcomes, or objectives, provide a basis for being able to demonstrate achievement.

• Developing a “strategic” action plan

• One of the biggest challenges in strategic planning is to formulate “strategic” actions that are likely to lead to a satisfactory achievement of the goals.  It is important to learn to think strategically and innovatively, and to address goals and priority issues as problems to be solved.

• Setting benchmarks and performance measures
  This session continues the discussion concerning the strategy formulation process. However, the focus is on being able to set benchmarks or milestones and performance measures so that the strategic plan is implementable and has a basis for accountability.

• Implementing and evaluating the plan effectively

A plan is worth much if it isn’t successfully implemented, which should seem obvious but effective implementation is often overlooked once the plan is completed.  Furthermore, the plan must be periodically evaluated so that it can be adapted to changing conditions or responsive to needed modifications.

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