Today, more than ever, organizations must capitalize on a changing business environment, improve profitability and overall productivity, formulate and implement a planning process at all levels and make better overall decisions that will impact the organization. To remain competitive all managers need to understand the process of strategic thinking and strategic planning.

Outline the component parts of strategic thinking – what should you be thinking about daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi - annually and annually.

Recognize how one change can lead to a host of others and what to do to contain the ripple effect.

Analyze organization, industry and competitive data to formulate better questions.

Formulate the critical questions that will propel the process forward.

Discuss the component pieces of the planning process.

Review the current strategies being used by successful companies and formulate new strategies for your own organization.

Identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing existing lines of business.

Formulate goals and objectives that connect with strategies, mission and the vision of the organization.

Review the common reasons why plans fail and how to prevent this from happening to you.