- 360-Degree Leadership Assessment
- Adaptive Communication
- Adaptive Leadership
- Authentic Leadership Style
- Boundary Spanning Leadership
- Business Change Strategies
- Business-Strategy Principles
- Capacity Building
- Cascading Strategy
- Change Management
- Coaching Framework
- Coaching in the Workplace
- Coaching Leadership Style
- Collaborative Coaching
- Competency Assessment
- Conflict Resolution in the Workplace
- Core Competence
- Corporate Strategic Planning
- Crisis Leadership
- Critical Success Factors
- DEI in the Workplace
- Directive Leader
- E-Learning
- Empathetic Leadership Definition
- Horizontal Leadership
- Inclusive Leadership
- Innovation Strategy
- Leadership Competency Framework
- Leadership Model
- Management Succession Planning
- Operational Excellence
- Organizational Alignment
- Participative Leadership Style
- Performance Deficiency Coaching
- Persuasive Leadership Style
- Problem Solving in Business
- Servant Leadership Style
- Strategic Agility
- Strategic Alignment
- Strategic Audit
- Strategic Framework
- Strategic Management
- Strategic Mindset Competency
- Strategic Thinking
- Strategy Committee
- Strategy Issues
- Strategy Maps
- Supportive Leadership Style: Definition and Qualities
- Team Building Interventions
- Team Environment
- Team Norms
- Team Performance Assessment
- Teamwork Atmosphere
- Total Employee Involvement
- Training Needs Analysis (TNA) Definition
- Transformational Leadership
- Visionary Leadership Style
- What Are Strategic Initiatives: Examples and Development
What are strategic issues in strategic planning?
Strategic issues facing companies are the important questions, topics, and challenges that firms must manage to stay competitive and relevant in the ever-changing business environment. Strategic issues come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Understanding and managing your strategic issues is key to achieving long-term, sustained growth. Some leaders only think of issues as adverse or harmful events or problems that must be addressed. However, issues can also include opportunities that the enterprise should consider in order to achieve its strategic goals and objectives.
How do you critically analyze a strategic plan’s issues?
When identifying, examining, and analyzing important issues, leaders should look both internally and externally. Here are a few examples of areas to consider:
Internal Issues
- Supply-chain disruptions
- Product lifecycle
- Workforce and talent
- Product or service offerings
- Target customers
- Internal operating systems
- New innovations in products and processes
External Issues
- Globalization trends
- Political and regulatory changes
- Economic conditions
- Industry consolidations
- Technology disruptions
- Competitor behaviors and rivalry
- Social trends
- Environmental patterns
- Population health and welfare
Periodically, executives need to refresh their perspective and assumptions about all of the variables that could impact their business. When examining relevant issues, we advise our clients to consider three timeframes:
- Near-term issues that could affect the organization this year or next.
- Mid-term issues that could affect the success of the enterprise over the next three to five years.
- Long-term issues that could affect the fortune of the business five years from now or beyond.
How do you develop a strategic plan?
Strategy is all about conversations, and conversations among leaders are the key to the strategic-issues methodology. When leaders come together and engage in open and constructive dialogue about the issues they are facing, they can compare each other’s thinking, logic, and insights about the future. Then, leaders can prioritize the issues, challenges, and opportunities they see, allowing them to formulate solutions and create a plan of action to contain risks and explore the opportunities they might like to pursue.
Regardless of your function in the business, the department you work within, or your level in the organizational hierarchy, you should periodically identify and review the issues that you are likely to encounter in the future. Every person, team, or enterprise will have to navigate turbulence and recognize opportunity. People and firms who can see and anticipate the future better and faster than the competition will have an edge as they strive to create value for customers, associates, owners, and their community.
