Strategic planning is important to any organization regardless of size or sector of operation as it realizes effective corporate governance and enhanced ability to compete favorably in the market. However, having a strategic plan is not a guarantee that an organization will achieve success; rather, success lies in the successful implementation of the strategic plan (Kabeyi, 2019). Therefore, it is critical to evaluate a strategic plan to ensure it stays on track. Evaluating a strategic plan must be based on selected methodologies and metrics which measure the effectiveness of its implementation. This section of the paper considers metrics for evaluating Washington University School of Medicine’s five-year strategic plan. The selected methodologies and strategies include milestones and quantifiable performance measures or key performance indicators (KPIs). Milestones are metrics that organize the completion of tasks at particular dates whereas KPIs place numerical values for goals such as targets for revenue and profit growth.
Specific milestones and KPIs for use in evaluating the strategic plan for Washington University School of Medicine are based on goals in financial performance, customer service, internal business process as well as learning and growth. Controls for the metrics will include the use of “SMART” milestones and KPIs meaning they will be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Moreover, there will be controls to ensure that metrics (milestones and KPIs) are tied to strategic objectives, simple and straightforward, as well as based on up-to-date data. Table 1 below shows attributes for the milestones and KPIs are shown in the table below:
Table 1. Evaluation of the Strategic Plan based on Milestones and KPIs.
Effective oral communication is essential for success in business operations; especially in the case of change management and the complexities that attend it. As opined by Abdullah et al. (2020), verbal communication behaviors determine the communication competence within organizational settings and consequently the kind of results that will be realized. Accordingly, a written version of my verbal communication to my manager, director, or essential stakeholder concerning my strategic plan will be as follows: “I propose a strategic plan to guide the operations of the organization over the next five years. The strategic plan is necessary because it creates a clear roadmap towards achieving goals including improving financial performance, customer service, internal business process as well as learning and growth over five years. Accordingly, the plan is a great avenue for increasing our operational efficiency and ultimately our competitiveness in the market. Each strategic goal will be evaluated against metrics including milestones and key performance indicators to ensure that there is sustained progress in its implementation.”
“Moreover, there will be controls to ensure that the evaluation process is effective as well as the overall implementation of the strategic plan. Therefore, the evaluation process is based on controls such as the use of clear objectives and the establishment of measurable and quantifiable objectives. In this regard, all metrics (milestones and KPIs) are elaborate as well as measurable and quantifiable.” Please check out Table 1 that details the strategic goals or objectives against the metrics of milestones and KPIs. I believe you can see now how the strategic plan implementation is going to be integral in the sustained growth of the organization in the five years. It is noteworthy that the strategic plan and the evaluation process are flexible and can be tweaked to ensure it reflects unforeseen or emerging issues in the organization’s operations.”
References
Kabeyi, M. J. (2019). Organizational strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation with analysis of challenges and benefits for profit and nonprofit organizations. International Journal of Applied Research, 5(6), 27-32.
Abdullah, Z., Ling, T. Y., Sulaiman, N. S., Radzi, R. A. M., & Putri, K. Y. (2020). The effects of verbal communication behaviors on communication competence in the pharmaceutical industry. (2020). Journal of critical reviews, 7(12) ), 697-703.