developing and implementing the business plan

Developing and Implementing the Business Plan

The course introduces a pragmatic and process-based approach to developing and implementing business plans. The course offers participants the tools to transform ideas into strategic goals and to outline the operational and financial strategies needed to achieve these goals. The course expands on how to use the business plan as a communication, negotiation and persuasion tool. This is critical when collaborating across different aspects of the business plan is required.

A well written business plan should provide decision makers with enough insights to assist them in deciding the viability and feasibility of new ideas, strategies and initiatives. This course is designed with this key objective in mind.

Course Methodology

This course is highly interactive. From the onset, participants find themselves engaged in identifying business initiatives or opportunities within their company or on their own. Subsequently, they embark on developing the required business plan. The course follows a workshop approach where teams are formed, roles are defined and every team member contributes to the development of the business plan. Participants get the opportunity to work with different types of business analysis tools to evaluate and decide the direction of their ideas or initiatives. In addition, teams will present their work to the other teams in the class and they will end up with a complete business plan which they may share with their colleagues and superiors at work if they choose to.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Explain the importance of a well thought-out business plan for the success of the organization
• Describe the structure of a business plan and how it caters to market and organizational needs
• Apply the business plan development process to create a well-structured, convincing business plan covering all vital elements
• Develop a business plan that includes a detailed, practical and effective implementation strategy
• Evaluate the progress of the implementation of the business plan and take necessary corrective steps

Target Audience

Department heads, senior managers, managers and supervisors, project managers, team leaders, sales managers, marketing managers, entrepreneurs and others who would like to develop their business planning skills.

Target Competencies

• Creative thinking and business planning
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Market and situation analysis
• Financial analysis, forecasting, and break-even analysis
• Resource scheduling and budgeting
• Communicating and presenting
• Definition of a business plan
• Types of business plans
• Benefits of a business plan
• Components of a business plan
• The process behind the business plan
• The importance of the business plan to a firm’s value chain
• Securing the buy-in from stakeholders
• Mapping vision, mission and values
• Conducting a situation analysis
• Setting goals, objectives, and business strategies
• Developing tactics, programs and action plans
• Forecasting, pricing and applying breakeven analysis
• Sourcing, allocating and scheduling
• The income statement
• The balance sheet
• Cash-flow analysis
• Program Budgets
• Writing the executive summary
• Creating appendices and references
• Job assignments
• Reporting structure
• Knowledge base
• Dealing with deviations
• Causes analysis
• Providing constructive feedback
• Corrective actions and adjustments
• Goal revisions and expectations
• Scheduling challenges
• Budget adjustments and additional financial support requests
• Resources demands and constraints
• Staying away from common business plan mistakes
• Concluding the business plan
• Types of reports
• The recipients 
• The information
• The quality
• The frequency

2024 Schedule & Fees

Per participant.

Fees + VAT as applicable

(including coffee breaks and a buffet lunch daily)

Location & Date

2025 schedule & fees.

Meirc reserves the right to alter dates, content, venue, trainer, and to offer courses in an integrated virtual learning (IVL) format whereby face to face classroom participants and virtual learners participate simultaneously in the same course in an interactive learning experience.

Tax Registration Number: 100239834300003

This course is also offered in Virtual Learning, click on the course below.

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Table of Contents

How to make a business plan

How to make a good business plan: step-by-step guide.

A business plan is a strategic roadmap used to navigate the challenging journey of entrepreneurship. It's the foundation upon which you build a successful business.

A well-crafted business plan can help you define your vision, clarify your goals, and identify potential problems before they arise.

But where do you start? How do you create a business plan that sets you up for success?

This article will explore the step-by-step process of creating a comprehensive business plan.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a formal document that outlines a business's objectives, strategies, and operational procedures. It typically includes the following information about a company:

Products or services

Target market

Competitors

Marketing and sales strategies

Financial plan

Management team

A business plan serves as a roadmap for a company's success and provides a blueprint for its growth and development. It helps entrepreneurs and business owners organize their ideas, evaluate the feasibility, and identify potential challenges and opportunities.

As well as serving as a guide for business owners, a business plan can attract investors and secure funding. It demonstrates the company's understanding of the market, its ability to generate revenue and profits, and its strategy for managing risks and achieving success.

Business plan vs. business model canvas

A business plan may seem similar to a business model canvas, but each document serves a different purpose.

A business model canvas is a high-level overview that helps entrepreneurs and business owners quickly test and iterate their ideas. It is often a one-page document that briefly outlines the following:

Key partnerships

Key activities

Key propositions

Customer relationships

Customer segments

Key resources

Cost structure

Revenue streams

On the other hand, a Business Plan Template provides a more in-depth analysis of a company's strategy and operations. It is typically a lengthy document and requires significant time and effort to develop.

A business model shouldn’t replace a business plan, and vice versa. Business owners should lay the foundations and visually capture the most important information with a Business Model Canvas Template . Because this is a fast and efficient way to communicate a business idea, a business model canvas is a good starting point before developing a more comprehensive business plan.

A business plan can aim to secure funding from investors or lenders, while a business model canvas communicates a business idea to potential customers or partners.

Why is a business plan important?

A business plan is crucial for any entrepreneur or business owner wanting to increase their chances of success.

Here are some of the many benefits of having a thorough business plan.

Helps to define the business goals and objectives

A business plan encourages you to think critically about your goals and objectives. Doing so lets you clearly understand what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there.

A well-defined set of goals, objectives, and key results also provides a sense of direction and purpose, which helps keep business owners focused and motivated.

Guides decision-making

A business plan requires you to consider different scenarios and potential problems that may arise in your business. This awareness allows you to devise strategies to deal with these issues and avoid pitfalls.

With a clear plan, entrepreneurs can make informed decisions aligning with their overall business goals and objectives. This helps reduce the risk of making costly mistakes and ensures they make decisions with long-term success in mind.

Attracts investors and secures funding

Investors and lenders often require a business plan before considering investing in your business. A document that outlines the company's goals, objectives, and financial forecasts can help instill confidence in potential investors and lenders.

A well-written business plan demonstrates that you have thoroughly thought through your business idea and have a solid plan for success.

Identifies potential challenges and risks

A business plan requires entrepreneurs to consider potential challenges and risks that could impact their business. For example:

Is there enough demand for my product or service?

Will I have enough capital to start my business?

Is the market oversaturated with too many competitors?

What will happen if my marketing strategy is ineffective?

By identifying these potential challenges, entrepreneurs can develop strategies to mitigate risks and overcome challenges. This can reduce the likelihood of costly mistakes and ensure the business is well-positioned to take on any challenges.

Provides a basis for measuring success

A business plan serves as a framework for measuring success by providing clear goals and financial projections . Entrepreneurs can regularly refer to the original business plan as a benchmark to measure progress. By comparing the current business position to initial forecasts, business owners can answer questions such as:

Are we where we want to be at this point?

Did we achieve our goals?

If not, why not, and what do we need to do?

After assessing whether the business is meeting its objectives or falling short, business owners can adjust their strategies as needed.

How to make a business plan step by step

The steps below will guide you through the process of creating a business plan and what key components you need to include.

1. Create an executive summary

Start with a brief overview of your entire plan. The executive summary should cover your business plan's main points and key takeaways.

Keep your executive summary concise and clear with the Executive Summary Template . The simple design helps readers understand the crux of your business plan without reading the entire document.

2. Write your company description

Provide a detailed explanation of your company. Include information on what your company does, the mission statement, and your vision for the future.

Provide additional background information on the history of your company, the founders, and any notable achievements or milestones.

3. Conduct a market analysis

Conduct an in-depth analysis of your industry, competitors, and target market. This is best done with a SWOT analysis to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Next, identify your target market's needs, demographics, and behaviors.

Use the Competitive Analysis Template to brainstorm answers to simple questions like:

What does the current market look like?

Who are your competitors?

What are they offering?

What will give you a competitive advantage?

Who is your target market?

What are they looking for and why?

How will your product or service satisfy a need?

These questions should give you valuable insights into the current market and where your business stands.

4. Describe your products and services

Provide detailed information about your products and services. This includes pricing information, product features, and any unique selling points.

Use the Product/Market Fit Template to explain how your products meet the needs of your target market. Describe what sets them apart from the competition.

5. Design a marketing and sales strategy

Outline how you plan to promote and sell your products. Your marketing strategy and sales strategy should include information about your:

Pricing strategy

Advertising and promotional tactics

Sales channels

The Go to Market Strategy Template is a great way to visually map how you plan to launch your product or service in a new or existing market.

6. Determine budget and financial projections

Document detailed information on your business’ finances. Describe the current financial position of the company and how you expect the finances to play out.

Some details to include in this section are:

Startup costs

Revenue projections

Profit and loss statement

Funding you have received or plan to receive

Strategy for raising funds

7. Set the organization and management structure

Define how your company is structured and who will be responsible for each aspect of the business. Use the Business Organizational Chart Template to visually map the company’s teams, roles, and hierarchy.

As well as the organization and management structure, discuss the legal structure of your business. Clarify whether your business is a corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, or LLC.

8. Make an action plan

At this point in your business plan, you’ve described what you’re aiming for. But how are you going to get there? The Action Plan Template describes the following steps to move your business plan forward. Outline the next steps you plan to take to bring your business plan to fruition.

Types of business plans

Several types of business plans cater to different purposes and stages of a company's lifecycle. Here are some of the most common types of business plans.

Startup business plan

A startup business plan is typically an entrepreneur's first business plan. This document helps entrepreneurs articulate their business idea when starting a new business.

Not sure how to make a business plan for a startup? It’s pretty similar to a regular business plan, except the primary purpose of a startup business plan is to convince investors to provide funding for the business. A startup business plan also outlines the potential target market, product/service offering, marketing plan, and financial projections.

Strategic business plan

A strategic business plan is a long-term plan that outlines a company's overall strategy, objectives, and tactics. This type of strategic plan focuses on the big picture and helps business owners set goals and priorities and measure progress.

The primary purpose of a strategic business plan is to provide direction and guidance to the company's management team and stakeholders. The plan typically covers a period of three to five years.

Operational business plan

An operational business plan is a detailed document that outlines the day-to-day operations of a business. It focuses on the specific activities and processes required to run the business, such as:

Organizational structure

Staffing plan

Production plan

Quality control

Inventory management

Supply chain

The primary purpose of an operational business plan is to ensure that the business runs efficiently and effectively. It helps business owners manage their resources, track their performance, and identify areas for improvement.

Growth-business plan

A growth-business plan is a strategic plan that outlines how a company plans to expand its business. It helps business owners identify new market opportunities and increase revenue and profitability. The primary purpose of a growth-business plan is to provide a roadmap for the company's expansion and growth.

The 3 Horizons of Growth Template is a great tool to identify new areas of growth. This framework categorizes growth opportunities into three categories: Horizon 1 (core business), Horizon 2 (emerging business), and Horizon 3 (potential business).

One-page business plan

A one-page business plan is a condensed version of a full business plan that focuses on the most critical aspects of a business. It’s a great tool for entrepreneurs who want to quickly communicate their business idea to potential investors, partners, or employees.

A one-page business plan typically includes sections such as business concept, value proposition, revenue streams, and cost structure.

Best practices for how to make a good business plan

Here are some additional tips for creating a business plan:

Use a template

A template can help you organize your thoughts and effectively communicate your business ideas and strategies. Starting with a template can also save you time and effort when formatting your plan.

Miro’s extensive library of customizable templates includes all the necessary sections for a comprehensive business plan. With our templates, you can confidently present your business plans to stakeholders and investors.

Be practical

Avoid overestimating revenue projections or underestimating expenses. Your business plan should be grounded in practical realities like your budget, resources, and capabilities.

Be specific

Provide as much detail as possible in your business plan. A specific plan is easier to execute because it provides clear guidance on what needs to be done and how. Without specific details, your plan may be too broad or vague, making it difficult to know where to start or how to measure success.

Be thorough with your research

Conduct thorough research to fully understand the market, your competitors, and your target audience . By conducting thorough research, you can identify potential risks and challenges your business may face and develop strategies to mitigate them.

Get input from others

It can be easy to become overly focused on your vision and ideas, leading to tunnel vision and a lack of objectivity. By seeking input from others, you can identify potential opportunities you may have overlooked.

Review and revise regularly

A business plan is a living document. You should update it regularly to reflect market, industry, and business changes. Set aside time for regular reviews and revisions to ensure your plan remains relevant and effective.

Create a winning business plan to chart your path to success

Starting or growing a business can be challenging, but it doesn't have to be. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting, a well-written business plan can make or break your business’ success.

The purpose of a business plan is more than just to secure funding and attract investors. It also serves as a roadmap for achieving your business goals and realizing your vision. With the right mindset, tools, and strategies, you can develop a visually appealing, persuasive business plan.

Ready to make an effective business plan that works for you? Check out our library of ready-made strategy and planning templates and chart your path to success.

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Plans and pricing.

The Business Planning Process: 6 Steps To Creating a New Plan

In this article, we will define and explain the basic business planning process to help your business move in the right direction.

What is Business Planning?

Business planning is the process whereby an organization’s leaders figure out the best roadmap for growth and document their plan for success.

The business planning process includes diagnosing the company’s internal strengths and weaknesses, improving its efficiency, working out how it will compete against rival firms in the future, and setting milestones for progress so they can be measured.

The process includes writing a new business plan. What is a business plan? It is a written document that provides an outline and resources needed to achieve success. Whether you are writing your plan from scratch, from a simple business plan template , or working with an experienced business plan consultant or writer, business planning for startups, small businesses, and existing companies is the same.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

The best business planning process is to use our business plan template to streamline the creation of your plan: Download Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template and finish your business plan & financial model in hours.

The Better Business Planning Process

The business plan process includes 6 steps as follows:

• Do Your Research
• Calculate Your Financial Forecast
• Draft Your Plan
• Revise & Proofread
• Nail the Business Plan Presentation

We’ve provided more detail for each of these key business plan steps below.

1. Do Your Research

Conduct detailed research into the industry, target market, existing customer base,  competitors, and costs of the business begins the process. Consider each new step a new project that requires project planning and execution. You may ask yourself the following questions:

• What are your business goals?
• What is the current state of your business?
• What are the current industry trends?
• What is your competition doing?

There are a variety of resources needed, ranging from databases and articles to direct interviews with other entrepreneurs, potential customers, or industry experts. The information gathered during this process should be documented and organized carefully, including the source as there is a need to cite sources within your business plan.

You may also want to complete a SWOT Analysis for your own business to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and potential risks as this will help you develop your strategies to highlight your competitive advantage.

2. Strategize

Now, you will use the research to determine the best strategy for your business. You may choose to develop new strategies or refine existing strategies that have demonstrated success in the industry. Pulling the best practices of the industry provides a foundation, but then you should expand on the different activities that focus on your competitive advantage.

This step of the planning process may include formulating a vision for the company’s future, which can be done by conducting intensive customer interviews and understanding their motivations for purchasing goods and services of interest. Dig deeper into decisions on an appropriate marketing plan, operational processes to execute your plan, and human resources required for the first five years of the company’s life.

3. Calculate Your Financial Forecast

All of the activities you choose for your strategy come at some cost and, hopefully, lead to some revenues. Sketch out the financial situation by looking at whether you can expect revenues to cover all costs and leave room for profit in the long run.

Begin to insert your financial assumptions and startup costs into a financial model which can produce a first-year cash flow statement for you, giving you the best sense of the cash you will need on hand to fund your early operations.

A full set of financial statements provides the details about the company’s operations and performance, including its expenses and profits by accounting period (quarterly or year-to-date). Financial statements also provide a snapshot of the company’s current financial position, including its assets and liabilities.

This is one of the most valued aspects of any business plan as it provides a straightforward summary of what a company does with its money, or how it grows from initial investment to become profitable.

4. Draft Your Plan

With financials more or less settled and a strategy decided, it is time to draft through the narrative of each component of your business plan . With the background work you have completed, the drafting itself should be a relatively painless process.

If you have trouble writing convincing prose, this is a time to seek the help of an experienced business plan writer who can put together the plan from this point.

5. Revise & Proofread

Revisit the entire plan to look for any ideas or wording that may be confusing, redundant, or irrelevant to the points you are making within the plan. You may want to work with other management team members in your business who are familiar with the company’s operations or marketing plan in order to fine-tune the plan.

Finally, proofread thoroughly for spelling, grammar, and formatting, enlisting the help of others to act as additional sets of eyes. You may begin to experience burnout from working on the plan for so long and have a need to set it aside for a bit to look at it again with fresh eyes.

6. Nail the Business Plan Presentation

The presentation of the business plan should succinctly highlight the key points outlined above and include additional material that would be helpful to potential investors such as financial information, resumes of key employees, or samples of marketing materials. It can also be beneficial to provide a report on past sales or financial performance and what the business has done to bring it back into positive territory.

Business Planning Process Conclusion

Every entrepreneur dreams of the day their business becomes wildly successful.

But what does that really mean? How do you know whether your idea is worth pursuing?

And how do you stay motivated when things are not going as planned? The answers to these questions can be found in your business plan. This document helps entrepreneurs make better decisions and avoid common pitfalls along the way. ​

Business plans are dynamic documents that can be revised and presented to different audiences throughout the course of a company’s life. For example, a business may have one plan for its initial investment proposal, another which focuses more on milestones and objectives for the first several years in existence, and yet one more which is used specifically when raising funds.

Business plans are a critical first step for any company looking to attract investors or receive grant money, as they allow a new organization to better convey its potential and business goals to those able to provide financial resources.

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Click here to see how Growthink business plan consultants can create your business plan for you.

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What Is a Business Plan?

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Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

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A business plan is a document that outlines a company's goals and the strategies to achieve them. It's valuable for both startups and established companies. For startups, a well-crafted business plan is crucial for attracting potential lenders and investors. Established businesses use business plans to stay on track and aligned with their growth objectives. This article will explain the key components of an effective business plan and guidance on how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document detailing a company's business activities and strategies for achieving its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to launch their venture and to attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan helps keep the executive team focused on short- and long-term objectives.
• There's no single required format for a business plan, but certain key elements are essential for most companies.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place before beginning operations. Banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before considering making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a company doesn't need additional funding, having a business plan helps it stay focused on its goals. Research from the University of Oregon shows that businesses with a plan are significantly more likely to secure funding than those without one. Moreover, companies with a business plan grow 30% faster than those that don't plan. According to a Harvard Business Review article, entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than those who don't.

A business plan should ideally be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect achieved goals or changes in direction. An established business moving in a new direction might even create an entirely new plan.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. It allows for careful consideration of ideas before significant investment, highlights potential obstacles to success, and provides a tool for seeking objective feedback from trusted outsiders. A business plan may also help ensure that a company’s executive team remains aligned on strategic action items and priorities.

While business plans vary widely, even among competitors in the same industry, they often share basic elements detailed below.

A well-crafted business plan is essential for attracting investors and guiding a company's strategic growth. It should address market needs and investor requirements and provide clear financial projections.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, gathering the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document is best. Any additional crucial elements, such as patent applications, can be referenced in the main document and included as appendices.

Common elements in many business plans include:

• Executive summary : This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services : Describe the products and services the company offers or plans to introduce. Include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique consumer benefits. Mention production and manufacturing processes, relevant patents , proprietary technology , and research and development (R&D) information.
• Market analysis : Explain the current state of the industry and the competition. Detail where the company fits in, the types of customers it plans to target, and how it plans to capture market share from competitors.
• Marketing strategy : Outline the company's plans to attract and retain customers, including anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. Describe the distribution channels that will be used to deliver products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections : Established businesses should include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses should provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. This section may also include any funding requests.

Investors want to see a clear exit strategy, expected returns, and a timeline for cashing out. It's likely a good idea to provide five-year profitability forecasts and realistic financial estimates.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can vary in format, often categorized into traditional and lean startup plans. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These are detailed and lengthy, requiring more effort to create but offering comprehensive information that can be persuasive to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These are concise, sometimes just one page, and focus on key elements. While they save time, companies should be ready to provide additional details if requested by investors or lenders.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan isn't a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections. Markets and the economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All this calls for building flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How Often Should a Business Plan Be Updated?

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on its nature. Updating your business plan is crucial due to changes in external factors (market trends, competition, and regulations) and internal developments (like employee growth and new products). While a well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary, a new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is ideal for quickly explaining a business, especially for new companies that don't have much information yet. Key sections may include a value proposition , major activities and advantages, resources (staff, intellectual property, and capital), partnerships, customer segments, and revenue sources.

A well-crafted business plan is crucial for any company, whether it's a startup looking for investment or an established business wanting to stay on course. It outlines goals and strategies, boosting a company's chances of securing funding and achieving growth.

As your business and the market change, update your business plan regularly. This keeps it relevant and aligned with your current goals and conditions. Think of your business plan as a living document that evolves with your company, not something carved in stone.

University of Oregon Department of Economics. " Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Business Planning Using Palo Alto's Business Plan Pro ." Eason Ding & Tim Hursey.

Bplans. " Do You Need a Business Plan? Scientific Research Says Yes ."

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

Harvard Business Review. " How to Write a Winning Business Plan ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

SCORE. " When and Why Should You Review Your Business Plan? "

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Strategic Implementation: More Than Just Implementing Strategy

By Kate Eby | November 27, 2017 (updated December 4, 2021)

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Strategic implementation is a key ingredient of modern business: Once an organization creates a strategy to meet its goals, implementation is the next step for successful execution. Essentially, the implementation phase outlines how a company plans to achieve its goals. Business theories and frameworks help guide strategic formulation, implementation, and execution. This article explains strategic implementation and how it differs from other strategy tactics. You’ll learn about key steps and pitfalls, review some examples, and get expert insights.

What Is Strategic Implementation?

There are numerous definitions of strategic implementation on the web, including the following:

Business Dictionary : The activity performed according to a plan in order to achieve an overall goal. For example, strategic implementation within a business context might involve developing and then executing a new marketing plan to help increase sales of the company's products to consumers.

The Houston Chronicle : The process that puts plans and strategies into action to reach goals. A strategic plan is a written document that lays out the plans of the business to reach goals, but will sit forgotten without strategic implementation. The implementation makes the company’s plans happen.

OnStrategy : The process that turns strategies and plans into actions in order to accomplish strategic objectives and goals.

What these and other definitions have in common is that they discuss turning a theoretical plan (about an organization’s direction) into manageable tasks that team members can perform to achieve the stated goals.

Once an organization creates a strategy, it needs to be implemented, and then executed. Here are the high-level steps in strategic implementation (which we will discuss in detail later):

• Communicate
• Align initiatives with strategy
• Engage staff and outside stakeholders
• Allocate resources
• Make structural adjustments
• Create strategic evaluations

Strategy Implementation vs. Strategic Implementation

Whether or not a difference exists between strategy implementation and strategic implementation depends on who you ask.

Ray Mckenzie, Founder and Managing Director of Red Beach Advisors , says, “Strategy implementation is a larger umbrella, or a holistic view of what’s going to happen, and looks at products and pricing and how we function as business. Strategic implementation is a plan for implementation of a specific objective: For example, if I have a piece of software that I want installed in three months.” One scenario might be if you want to integrate CRM software into your organization, you’ll need to identify the steps to take to execute the integration.

Lloyd Baird is the Jon M. Huntsman Visiting Professor at Utah State University . Of the difference between the two phrases, he says, “It depends on what organization or company you are talking to.”

In this article, we’ll treat strategy implementation and strategic implementation as synonymous.

Getting Strategic

As organizations evolve, they often change from a reactive to proactive operational style. It’s at this point that an organization begins strategic planning, which leads to strategic implementation.

Formulation, Implementation, and Execution

Strategy formulation (also known as planning), implementation, and execution are intertwined, but each are distinct. Formulation is the creation of a framework that guides decisions. Implementation is preparation and putting elements of the strategy into place. Execution is the decisions made and activities performed throughout the company, with the objective of meeting goals outlined in the strategy.

For example, imagine you're the coach of a football team in a critical 4th-and-1 situation. In this case, the terms would function as follows:

• Formulation: You select a play from your playbook, with the objective of getting a first down.
• Implementation: The players position themselves on the field as outlined in the chosen play, and you place the best offensive linemen up front, and the sturdiest running back in the backfield.
• Execution: The ball is snapped, the linemen push their defensive counterparts back, and if all goes well, they open up enough ground so that when the running back gets the handoff, he can move it across the line of scrimmage for a first down.

Smartsheet offers many templates to assist with strategic formulation.

Thinking About Strategic Implementation

In his paper Strategy Implementation as Substance and Selling , author Donald C. Hambrick and Albert A. Cannella, Jr., state  “… implementation must be considered during the formulation process, not later, when it may be too late.” They continue, “The strategist will not be able to nail down every action step when the strategy is first created, nor … should this even be attempted. However, he or she must have the ability to look ahead at the major implementation obstacles and ask, ‘Is this strategy workable?’”

Corporate Strategy and Business Unit Strategy

Executives create the corporate strategy, which determines the company’s lines of business. It also addresses how business units can work together to increase efficiency. Business unit strategy is created by the leader of each unit, and revolves around how the corporate strategy is put into action. In other words, corporate strategy determines what happens, and business unit strategy determines how it happens.

To align corporate and business unit strategies, executives must encourage the development of business unit strategies that both contribute to corporate strategy objectives and respond to their competitive situation, whether geographical or functional.

In a 1984 paper titled Business Unit Strategy, Managerial Characteristics, and Business Unit Effectiveness at Strategy Implementation , authors Anil K. Gupta and V. Govindarajan explain, “The absolute performance of a business entity depends not just on the effectiveness of its internal organization in implementing the chosen strategy, but also on industry characteristics and the choice of strategy itself.”

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Why Is Implementation Important?

Executives formulate the strategy that business units will execute. However, implementation requires the participation of the entire organization, so implementation is as important — if not more so — than the strategy itself. For example, you can buy seeds and plant them in your garden with the goal of serving a home-grown salad every night at dinner, but that doesn’t ensure that you’ll reach your goal. If you plant at the wrong time of year, if the seeds are not viable in your climate, or if the soil is depleted, you’ll still be buying vegetables from the store for a long time to.

Because strategic implementation is the most important, it’s also the most difficult to achieve. A 1989 Booz Allen study found that 73 percent of managers thought that strategic implementation is more difficult than formulation, 72 percent think that it takes more time, and 82 percent say it’s the part of the process over which they have the least control. But there’s been progress. In a 2015 survey of reports titled Strategy implementation: What is the failure rate? , authors Carlos J.F. Cândido and Sérgio P. Santos conclude that the implementation failure rate has fallen from the between 70-90 percent in the mid 1980s to about 44 percent in the early 2010s.

There are many reasons that strategies can fail. A bad plan (e.g. one that has unrealistic goals), or poor execution (e.g. not adapting to changing conditions) can cause failure, but since implementation is the key aspect, there are more possible pitfalls, including the following:

• Stakeholders Don’t Buy-In: Those who are responsible for executing a strategy won’t want to do it if they don’t believe in it. Ray McKenzie says, “Not having completed buy-in from the team is first and foremost. If people don’t buy-in, it won’t get completed.”
• Resources Aren’t Aligned with Strategy: For example, if you want to sell red balloons, but fill your warehouse with blue ones, you won’t meet your goals.
• Incentives Aren’t Aligned with the Strategy: This happens when you reward people for completing tasks that don’t contribute toward the key performance indicators (KPIs) .
• You Don’t Plan to Adjust: Lloyd Baird says, “There’s an old military saying: Your battle plan is great until you contact the enemy, then everything changes. Things are changing so fast in organizations that if you don’t have a method to adapt, evaluate, and change, you’re going to fail. The people that are really good are the ones who are adapting along the way.”
• Continuing To Do Things that Used To Work: Rather than relying on old mechanisms for success, stay current with trends and tools.
• Internal Politics: Turf battles or personal disputes can prevent an organization from properly implementing a strategy.
• Accountability Void: When implementing a strategy, everybody involved must be made aware of their responsibilities, and the consequences of not meeting them.
• No Milestones: As Ray McKenzie explains, “A strategy only works for a period of time — you have to have an outline of those dates.”
• Lack of Empowerment: This happens when people and teams aren’t given the authority, resources, and tools to execute the strategy.
• Communication Breakdown: If the organization is not sharing the strategy, or is sharing it in the wrong ways, the team won’t understand it.

Challenges and Criticisms of Strategic Implementation

Like any business process, strategic implementation has its share of challenges and criticisms. However, if an organization is aware of the limitations of strategic implementation and the obstacles that may arise, they can overcome potential challenges.

Key Leadership Theories for Implementation Strategy

Leadership theories guide how executives think about the world and their organization’s place in it. A couple important, related theories are discussed below.

Tipping Point Theory

• What It Is: The nce a critical mass of people gets behind something, it spreads quickly. Malcolm Gladwell’s 2000 book, The Tipping Point, provides many examples of this theory in action, from the changes in the Bill Bratton-led NYPD in the 1990s that resulted in a dramatic drop in crime, to the way Hush Puppies shoes became popular again once key people in the fashion world started wearing them. The makeup of a critical mass will vary by organization: It could be a majority, or it could be a small group of influential people.
• How It Can Help with Strategic Implementation: While implementing a strategy, executives can identify what constitutes a critical mass in each business unit, and work to get those people invested in the strategy. Once those team members are on board, they’ll bring the rest of the team along.

Blue Ocean Theory

• What It Is: It sprang out of a marketing theory with the same name, which posits that companies should create opportunities in market areas where there isn’t much competition to provide greater growth opportunities. For example, Southwest Airlines became a major player by combining customer-focused service, low prices (partly achieved by flying from secondary airports and partly by using only a single aircraft), and flying to underserved areas. As a leadership theory, Blue Ocean tasks leaders with undertaking the activities that increase team performance, listening to feedback from all parts of their organization, and developing leaders at all levels.
• How It Can Help with Strategic Implementation: Having leaders at many levels focus on activities that increase team performance and listen to every level, the strategies they develop will be easier to implement. This method helps the leaders generate some built-in buy-in. By walking the leadership walk, others are more likely to follow along.

What Do You Mean by Strategic Evaluation?

Strategic evaluation is a type of business performance measurement (BPM) system. In a 2007 paper Towards A Definition of a Business Performance Measurement System , Monica Franco-Santos et al. describes it as, “...a set of metrics used to quantify both the efficiency and effectiveness of actions; or as the reporting process that gives feedback to employees on the outcome of actions.” Strategic evaluation (often written as strategic evaluation and control, when it’s used as part of a strategic management model) is a cyclical process that helps managers and executives determine whether programs, projects, and activities are helping an organization meet their strategy’s goals and objectives. In short, it can help an organization stay on and get back on track.

Strategic evaluation is performed during the execution phase, but you create the process during implementation. There’s always a need to get and analyze feedback to find out what is and isn’t working, identify ways to fix what’s not working, and record the lessons learned for future strategies. There are four high-level steps in the strategic evaluation process:

• Set benchmarks
• Compare results against benchmarks
• Analyze the differences
• Take corrective actions

There are a few different facets of strategic evaluation. Each facet is important and shouldn't be ignored, as using all four ensure that you’ll discover any possible root causes of a problem.

• Premise: Were the strategic goals realistic and achievable?
• Implementation: Was the process of implementing organizational changes based on the strategy performed properly?
• Strategic Surveillance: Are processes and tasks being performed as expected, and if so, are they getting the desired results?
• Special Alerts: While strategic evaluation should take the long view, and not focus too much on short-term fluctuations, it needs to evaluate how changing market conditions and competitors’ actions, as well as unexpected events, affect the strategy. Taking this view will highlight those surprises and changes — then you can implement contingency plans and bring in crisis management teams if required to change the strategy’s execution.

Strategic evaluations are a great way to learn. Ray McKenzie says, “Have a follow-up with the team to see what worked, or if you should do things differently next time around."

How Strategic Implementation Works in Different Organizations

With the rise of mass production in the 19th century, companies began to centralize key functions like sales and finance, which led to economies of scale. Later, as some firms became diversified and began to increase their market, they created business units that focused on product lines or geographical regions. The firms may have lost some of the previously gained economies of scale, but they were able to better react to market conditions.

Centralized organizations could use strategic implementation to make shared services more efficient. Diversified organizations could coordinate processes and goals between various regional offices or product-focused groups.

Later, companies started using the matrix organization to try to take advantage of both the economies of scale created by centralization, and the adaptability of the geographical or product-focused organizations. Matrix organizations are difficult to coordinate. Implementing a strategy can help everyone focus on the same goals.

In the 1990s, the business process reengineering (a version of this is know as Total Quality Management, or TQM ) drove the creation of organizations that were organized around processes. Again, implementing a strategy can help everyone focus on the same goals.

Going forward, virtual, networked, and “Velcro” organizations (a concept where the organization can be pulled apart and put back together in response to changes in the business environment, or as Lloyd Baird says, “a network of relationships”) will have the same issues that strong strategic implementation can help.

What Is Involved in the Implementation Process

After formulating and finalizing a strategy, it’s time to share it with the organization. Next, you may need to make changes to the organization in preparation for the execution phase. The steps to take are as follows:

Communicate: Everyone in the organization, and some outside, must learn about the strategy, how it affects them, and what changes they’ll need to make to support it. As you cascade the strategy throughout the organization, different groups will need to be made aware of the parts that are important to them. Sales and marketing teams will want to hear more about the sales goals, while IT will be more concerned about changes to the network and new required software. A vendor will need to know what changes they’ll need make to the materials they provide.

Engage Stakeholders: After communicating the goals, managers and staff (as well as any contractors or vendor affected) need to understand the importance of the strategic goals, their role in strategy execution, their responsibilities, and the impact of meeting or not meeting the goals or fulfilling their responsibilities. Using stakeholders throughout the organization to be champions of the coming changes will make the job easier.

Align Initiatives with Strategy: You’ll likely need to update processes, swap out tools, and make other changes to ensure company activities are contributing to the KPIs laid out in the strategy.

Allocate Resources: What needs to be bought or moved to prepare for execution? What funding needs to be allocated to strategic, operational, and capital expense budgets?

Make Structural Adjustments: Do you need to hire new people? Will there be a round of layoffs? Will you need to change any reporting structures? Are new vendors or contractors required? This is the hardest part of the implementation to perform.

Create a Strategic Evaluation: Implement repeatable processes that will check progress toward the goals, and provide data to executives and managers to determine what changes need to be made to the strategy or it’s execution to keep the organization on track to meeting the goals.

The Three Cs of Strategic Implementation

In a 2012 Forbes article , Scott Edinger composed a concise checklist of considerations. When preparing to implement, keep these in mind:

• Clarify: Avoid high-level statements that only resonate with the C-suite. Write your strategy in a way that connects with front-line employees and managers.
• Communicate: Spread the message in as many ways as you can. Connect the strategy to each group's’ core purpose.
• Cascade: Translate the strategy into actions through the organization. Managers at every level will be the ones who handle this.

5 Changes That Support Successful Implementation

Another lens to look through is, “What changes need to be made to implement the strategy?” You can divide the answer into five groups:

• People: Train or hire the right (and the right number of) individuals to implement plans. Ray Mckenzie advises, “Build a team of people who are key and can help you move your strategy forward.”
• Resources: Get funding and sufficient time to implement required changes.
• Organization: Restructure the company to support the strategic goals.
• Systems: Acquire the tools needed to perform the required processes.
• Culture: Work to create an environment that prioritizes the actions needed to reach the stated goals.

McKinsey 7S Framework

The McKinsey 7S framework is an organizational tool developed at the McKinsey & Company consulting firm in the 1980s, by Robert H. Waterman and Tom Peters. The framework can be used in many ways, including to determine how well an organization is prepared to change in order to implement a strategy.

Here are the 7Ss:

• Strategy: What needs to to be implemented
• Structure: The chain of command
• Systems: The tools used to perform tasks and complete processes
• Skills: What employees can do
• Style: How the leaders lead
• Staff: The employees
• Shared Values: The core values, expressed through the corporate culture

These can be divided into the hard Ss (Strategy, Structure, Systems), which are tangible, and the soft Ss (Skills, Style, Staff, Shared Values), which are intangible. In order to ensure smooth implementation, align each of these categories.

Examples of Successful and Unsuccessful Implementation Strategies

As previously mentioned, because strategy formulation, implementation, and execution are intertwined, it may difficult to know which phase is the cause of strategic failure. Here are some quick examples of success and failure where implementation is key.

Wal-Mart: The corporation became the retail giant they are by having low prices. They made lower margins by having high volume. In order to do that, they implemented a supply chain strategy that reduced operating costs. As they grew, their strategy was to use their size as a bargaining chip with suppliers to get even lower prices.  

J.C. Penney: Penney’s was a major retailer in the U.S. for many years, but when the landscape changed, they kept doing the same things. When the company finally brought in new leadership in 2011, they implemented a strategy that eliminated coupons that customers used and lowered their regular prices. They also changed their retail mix. When sales began to fall, they maintained their implemented strategy without adjusting. If they had taken advantage of the data from strategic evaluations and had responded appropriately, they might have been able to salvage the parts of their strategy that were working.

Apple: In the late 1990s, Apple was close to going out of business. They had many products that didn’t sell. When Steve Jobs returned, he implemented a strategy that reduced the number of products, and worked to develop new ones. This approach eventually led to the invention of the iPod. The iPod was not the first MP3 player, but it was the first to catch on because of its ease of use and storage capacity. This, in essence, was an application of the Blue Ocean theory: Apple found a market segment that wasn’t very competitive, and created a product that was better than what was available. For a long time, Apple was the dominant player in that market segment.

Google: While Google is successful in most ventures (search, email, maps), they have had some notable stumbles. One is Google Glass, the company’s wearable computer. While the idea was good, the device was very expensive, was not easy to use, there were concerns about privacy, and was an unattractive pair of glasses. Mostly, there was no real compelling reason to use it. Google Glass was a failed application of the Blue Ocean theory, and also another failure to adapt to data from strategic evaluations.

Strategic Implementation without Disruption

Strategic implementation can involve the restructuring of reporting relationships: adding, deleting, or updating processes, or even layoffs. This process can be painful for employees, and can cause problems when it’s time to execute strategy.

Restructuring can be expensive, and the new structure can create issues as troublesome as those you are trying to solve. Employes have to adapt to the new structure and may be dissatisfied. As a result, a lot of tacit institutional knowledge can be lost as people get shuffled around or worse, leave the company. Restructuring may also result in maintaining legacy systems until they can be phased out, which causes unnecessary expense. Additionally, some people won't be able to fully focus on the new strategy while they keep legacy systems running.

It's far less disruptive to choose an organizational design that’s flexible and can be adapted without major conflicts, and then formulate strategies that can be easily implemented.

Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton recommend the balanced scorecard framework, which they co-created in the 1990s. They believe that this framework will minimize the need to go through disruptive restructuring when new strategies change due to the following reasons:

• It focuses on the strategic agenda of the organization.
• It recommends monitoring a small number of data points.
• It looks at both financial and non-financial data.

The implementation of this framework is beyond the scope of this article, but you can read an explanation of its benefits via the Harvard Business Review .

Sometimes disruptive restructuring is necessary. If it can’t be avoided, here are some steps to make it more manageable:

• Break the strategy into smaller chunks, so the disruption is spread over a longer time frame.
• Communicate directly to affected employees. Explain why the changes are needed, and retrain them to adapt to the new structure.
• Use a version of the strategic evaluation process that focuses on the affected employees, have them report their on satisfaction levels, and adjust the strategy based on that feedback to lessen the impacts.

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How To Implement Your Business Plan Objectives

Breaking down your business goals into actionable steps is key for success

What Is a Business Plan Objective?

Be specific and define clear objectives, break down objectives into tasks.

• Assign Responsibilities/Allocate Resources

Be Mindful of Risks and Create Contingencies

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A business plan is an important tool to help business owners map their path to success. In addition, business plans may be used when applying for loans or seeking outside investment. But a business plan isn’t worth it if you leave it gathering dust. To make a business plan effective, you have to implement your business plan objectives.

Whether you’re a new business owner or a veteran returning for a refresher, here’s a closer look at common strategies to implement on your business plan objectives.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan objective is a specific goal for your business.
• Making achievable and specific tasks is helpful for successful implementations.
• Track your results and stay prepared to update your business plan if necessary.

A business plan objective is a specific goal you hope to reach with your business. This may be a number of customers, revenue, or profit goal, among others. There are no right or wrong business objectives, in theory, but it’s important to take the time to pick the best goals for your unique business if you’re going through the work to create business plan objectives.

The SMART framework is a popular way to frame goals, and it can be helpful for creating objectives, too. To qualify, an objective must meet these criteria:

• Specific : A general goal like “add more customers” could leave you floundering. Pick a specific number of customers. Every objective should have a clear finish line.
• Measurable : Identify objectives you can measure. For example, you can’t necessarily measure something like “customer loyalty,” but you can measure repeat customers, sales and revenue per customer, and other data points related to loyalty.
• Attainable : You might dream of turning your startup into a $1-million-per-year business. However, that may not be attainable in your first few years. What’s attainable varies widely by the business but in general, you’ll want to find the middle ground between unrealistic and underachieving.
• Relevant : Perhaps part of your business growth strategy involves social media. While it may be fun to see your accounts grow, that may not necessarily be relevant to your revenue and profits. Keep goals focused on what’s most important to achieve, which may not include vanity numbers that are more about ego than results.
• Time-bound : Each objective should have a deadline. If you give yourself unlimited time to get something done, you may never get around to it. With a set due date, you’re giving yourself a little pressure and motivation to hit that goal as planned.

SMART goals are just one method of choosing business plan objectives. You can work to create any objectives you’d like that make the most sense for what you’re trying to achieve.

Even if you don’t follow the SMART goals framework, it’s still wise to be specific and clear when choosing your goals and objectives. Vague and loosely defined goals often set business owners up for failure. Specific and clear business objectives give you and your team, if you have one, a common mission to work toward.

Breaking each objective into smaller tasks can prevent teams from getting overwhelmed and even help you get a clearer picture of what you need to do to prevail. Smaller goals also help you see faster and more frequent successes, which is a good way to stay motivated. An added benefit is an opportunity to foresee any needed resources or roadblocks, such as a need for an outside consultant or a government-issued permit.

Assign Responsibilities and Allocate Resources

Entrepreneurs with “superhero syndrome” think they can do everything themselves and often get burned out in pursuing business goals. Rather than do it all yourself, even if you have the capability, it’s often wise to delegate to others . Employees, freelancers, contractors, and business partners are part of the team. When you can count on others and best utilize their time and skills, you take a wise step to reach your objectives.

Create Milestones and Monitor Progress

Just as it’s a good idea to set smaller goals along the way, it’s also wise to create key milestone moments and monitor progress. You may learn along the way that a certain process can be improved. When a process works well, try to capture and double down on that success. When you stumble or discover inefficiencies, you could have an opportunity.

Monitoring progress helps you know what’s working and what isn’t, so you can adjust goals or methods if necessary.

Not all things go according to plan. If you miss the mark, you could join one of the millions of failed business owners. Stay mindful of risks and if it may be time to pull the plug rather than sink in more money.

Also, you may find successes outside of what you expected. Even the biggest companies pivot to a related product or service when their first idea fizzles. Remember that there’s a lot you can’t control in the business world, so not all business failures should be considered personal failures. Instead, look at them as learning opportunities to draw on in the future.

The Bottom Line

A business plan without clear objectives is at risk of being ineffective. Identify what your objectives are, break them down into small steps, delegate responsibilities, and be comfortable with pivoting when needed and dealing with risk. Taking the proper steps to create realistic objectives isn’t a guarantee that you’ll meet your goals, but it provides the framework to set you up for success.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What goes in the objectives section of a business plan.

There is no set template you must follow for a business plan. Business plans can range from a one-page summary to a lengthy, detailed document. If a business plan includes an objectives section, it should include clear and specific goals that help define success for the business.

What is the difference between a goal and an objective in a business plan?

The terms “goal'' and “objective” can be used interchangeably in a business plan. Some businesses may consider objectives as smaller tasks that help reach goals. Regardless of the terminology, goals and objectives are both good for your business’s long-term success.

Want to read more content like this? Sign up for The Balance’s newsletter for daily insights, analysis, and financial tips, all delivered straight to your inbox every morning!

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “ Setting Goals and Developing Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound Objectives ,” Pages 1-2.

Chris Drucker. “ Virtual Freedom Companion Workbook ,” Page 3.

Chamber of Commerce. “ 10 Hugely Successful Companies That Reinvented Their Business .”

Small Business Administration. “ Write Your Business Plan .”

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The 6 Steps for Creating the Perfect Implementation Plan

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Whether you’re starting a new business, creating a new team, or trying out a new marketing strategy, you can’t dive right in and throw money at the first solution you stumble upon.

Strategic project planning is the cornerstone of a successful venture, just like every other business decision you make. You need an implementation plan to help you navigate the treacherous waters of undertaking a new strategic decision.

Overview: What is an implementation plan?

An implementation plan supports a strategic action plan process for all kinds of business operations and practices, whether you’re executing a new marketing plan or introducing a new software platform to your organization.

The implementation plan dictates the actions and methods you’ll use to turn your strategy into reality.

How to create an implementation plan

Building your strategic implementation plan may seem daunting the first time but don’t worry, I’ve laid out the six implementation plan steps.

Step 1: Brainstorm your desired outcomes

The first step is envisioning and determining what the final outcomes will be. Whether it’s the adoption of a new software tool or a change in your team management strategy. Start with the endgame in mind.

Here are a few questions you need to answer about these outcomes:

• Who stands to benefit from this change or addition?
• How will they benefit?
• What metrics will measure success?

Keep in mind the answers to these questions may shift as your implementation progresses. Just think of your answers as a springboard for the process.

Tips for brainstorming your desired outcomes

To help the process along, I’ve come up with a couple of tips to help you structure your outcomes.

• Set goals: Base the goals of your implementation on the best possible scenarios, including launch dates, secured clients, improved productivity numbers, etc.
• List contingencies: Implementing anything into your business strategy is a long process, prone to change. That’s why it’s important to brainstorm contingent scenarios. The risk assessment you conduct later in this process will help clarify these scenarios and contingencies.

Step 2: Assign implementation responsibility to an owner

While it’s too early to start delegating individual responsibilities, it’s important to establish an overall owner for this implementation process. This owner will take charge of tracking team productivity, assign individual tasks, and steer the implementation when the team veers off course.

Tips for assigning the implementation to an owner

One of the hardest decisions you’ll make during this entire process is choosing someone to lead the planning and execution of your implementation strategy. Here are a few tips to help you make that choice.

• Look for a great communicator: Everything about an implementation strategy or project is dependent on great communication, especially from those responsible for its success. Make sure the owner you choose has a long history of quality and timely communication with their teammates and superiors.
• Look for an innovative thinker: The best leaders operate well under pressure and find innovative ways to solve unique problems. Your implementation will hit a few bumps along the way, so it’s best to have someone competent behind the wheel.

Step 3: Conduct a risk assessment

It’s time to ensure you understand all of the pitfalls before you proceed with your implementation plan. You don’t want to work halfway through the process before you realize you didn’t plan out buffer days to handle scope creep or additional panic funding in the budget.

This is why it’s crucial to conduct a risk assessment before committing to this implementation.

Tips for conducting a risk assessment

Developing your risk assessment is your best defense against issues that might derail your entire implementation strategy. Here are a couple of tips for identifying and mitigating those risks.

• Make your risk assessment a group effort: It’s not possible for your implementation owner to know every issue the team might face. It’s crucial to bring the team together for brainstorming sessions to gather all types of perspectives for risk and solution identification.
• Evaluate case studies similar to your own implementation strategy: Nothing beats learning about the risks facing your project than studying those who’ve executed similar strategies to yours. Find out what worked and what didn’t from the primary sources rather than only relying on hypothetical speculation.

Step 4: Establish a budget

Budgeting. Everybody’s favorite project pastime (except mine). The key to a helpful implementation plan budget is to make all items and expenditures easy to measure and track.

Keep everything organized using spreadsheets or interactive budget tools offered by many project management platforms, such as Mavenlink or monday.com .

The two most pressing questions of this phase are:

• What will it take to make this implementation plan a success?
• How much are you willing to spend to make it a success?

Tips for creating a budget

Creating a budget is intimidating, but with the help of a few tips, you’ll be filling out your line items with ease.

• Take your risks into account: Risks pose a threat to any budget, whether those risks lead to longer execution windows, additional teammates, or the need for supplementary resources. Make sure you build buffers into your budget to make room for these issues.
• Use similar implementation examples as a baseline: Like creating a risk register, it’s always best to use similar scenarios to inform the decisions you make with your current implementation plan.

Step 5: Create and delegate your implementation plan tasks

Your implementation has an owner, and so should every task in the process. These owners are responsible for executing said tasks in your plan and reporting back progress to the overall manager. These owners are also responsible for handling the respective risks associated with these tasks.

Tips for delegating your tasks

Your tasks are specific to the type of implementation plan you put together, so I will leave that to you. Instead, I want to focus on giving you a couple of pointers for delegating your tasks.

• Communicate your reasons to each team member: It’s one thing to hand out roles, and it’s another to explain the reason for each choice. Explaining the rationale behind each choice will provide purpose and motivation for each team member to succeed in their tasks.
• Set clear expectations: While the line “impress me” has its place in movies and TV shows, it isn’t a very effective mindset to use on your employees. Instead of leaving the end product up to your team, make sure you set clear expectations of what you want to see in your project deliverables. Clear expectations produce clear results.

Step 6: Develop your implementation plan schedule

You’ve gathered foundational information and now it’s time to take that and construct your plan. Like any well-crafted narrative, your implementation project schedule will include a beginning, middle, and end.

The beginning includes all of your initiation actions (setup, delegation, etc.), the middle consists of all your execution actions and progress tracking, and the finale includes all of your assessments and last-minute quality control.

You’ll want to make sure the scheduling decisions you make lead to the quickest and most cost-effective implementation without sacrificing quality. Use tools and strategies such as the work breakdown structure and critical path method to plan out the most efficient handling of tasks.

Tips for developing your schedule

This may be your first time putting together an implementation plan. If so, these tips will help you map out your process.

• Break tasks into milestones: Milestones provide your team with motivation and an ability to measure progress through grouped task signoffs.
• Create schedule buffers: Your implementation schedule is where you take the possibility of scope creep into account. Make sure you plan out scheduling buffers to account for inflated process times.

The best project management tools for creating an implementation plan

You don’t have to create your implementation plan all by yourself in spreadsheets and Word documents. You’ll find lots of project management software options out there well-suited to help you plan, manage, execute, and evaluate your implementation strategy.

To make it easy for you, I’ve listed three options that’ll cover all of your needs.

1. Mavenlink

Mavenlink is the perfect “do everything” project management software for enterprise-level users. It’s a simple, powerful tool that’ll provide you with every function you need to plan and carry out strategy implementation and project steps, from task dependencies to budget reports.

Mavenlink is a powerful and “by the book” project management tool that’ll handle anything you throw at it. Image source: Author

Mavenlink is far better suited to enterprise-level users due to its pricing but if you can afford this platform, it is well worth the money. I’d especially recommend this software option to users looking for an experience that’ll show them the ropes of project management software.

Scoro is fantastic for many reasons. It’s easy to navigate (although learning some functions involves a learning curve), it offers nearly every project management feature you could ask for, and the report selection is extensive.

I want to focus on that last benefit because Scoro gives you some of the best reporting options I’ve ever seen.

Scoro offers detailed and actionable dashboards. Image source: Author

While the execution actions of your implementation strategy are important, tracking your progress is the key to ensuring and showing that success. Scoro gives you all kinds of report options that’ll help you measure activity, budgets, and even the “success rates” of tasks.

I’d recommend Scoro to users who are dealing with complicated implementation plans with many moving parts that require consistent attention.

3. monday.com

When it comes to a combination of ease of use and versatility, monday.com is second to none. It is one of the easiest project management tools I’ve ever used and I would recommend this platform for nearly any user of any experience level.

Unlike the other two options, monday.com relies on its customizability to provide you with all kinds of features you’d use to plan out your implementation strategy.

monday.com’s user interface is very simple to learn and pleasant to use. Image source: Author

Using what it calls a “board” system, you are able to track your implementation plan tasks, delegate responsibilities, create dependencies, measure success through reports, and even create budgets.

This is the perfect tool for anyone looking to step away from the traditional project software experience and try something new.

The Ascent has your back beyond the implementation plan

Project management and business strategy are about more than planning. Growing your business requires solid execution and thorough after-the-fact evaluation.

That’s why we at The Ascent want to help you every step of the way with countless guides, from project management basics and best practices to detailed software reviews and alternatives pieces.

We regularly post and update our content to reflect the constant changes you’ll face while completing projects (even when dealing with the current COVID-19 pandemic ), so be sure to stay up to date on everything we have to offer.

We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent, a Motley Fool service, does not cover all offers on the market. The Ascent has a dedicated team of editors and analysts focused on personal finance, and they follow the same set of publishing standards and editorial integrity while maintaining professional separation from the analysts and editors on other Motley Fool brands.

The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters.

Copyright © 2018 - 2024 The Ascent. All rights reserved.

Defining Strategy, Implementation, and Execution

by Ken Favaro

It is striking how much confusion there is between strategy, implementation, and execution . Is “strategy” a matter of making choices about where we want to go, where we play and how we win, of setting goals and actions, about how we create and capture economic value over time? Does it include creating solutions to unforeseen problems and running with unexpected opportunities? Is “getting things done” what we mean by implementation or execution? Do you “execute” or “implement” a strategy?  And can you separate these from strategy formation ?

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• What is strategic planning? A 5-step gu ...

What is strategic planning? A 5-step guide

Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization’s growth and how they’re going to get there. In this article, we'll guide you through the strategic planning process, including why it's important, the benefits and best practices, and five steps to get you from beginning to end.

Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization’s growth and how they’re going to get there. The strategic planning process informs your organization’s decisions, growth, and goals.

Strategic planning helps you clearly define your company’s long-term objectives—and maps how your short-term goals and work will help you achieve them. This, in turn, gives you a clear sense of where your organization is going and allows you to ensure your teams are working on projects that make the most impact. Think of it this way—if your goals and objectives are your destination on a map, your strategic plan is your navigation system.

In this article, we walk you through the 5-step strategic planning process and show you how to get started developing your own strategic plan.

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What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is a business process that helps you define and share the direction your company will take in the next three to five years. During the strategic planning process, stakeholders review and define the organization’s mission and goals, conduct competitive assessments, and identify company goals and objectives. The product of the planning cycle is a strategic plan, which is shared throughout the company.

What is a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is the end result of the strategic planning process. At its most basic, it’s a tool used to define your organization’s goals and what actions you’ll take to achieve them.

Typically, your strategic plan should include: 

Your company’s mission statement

Your organizational goals, including your long-term goals and short-term, yearly objectives

Any plan of action, tactics, or approaches you plan to take to meet those goals

What are the benefits of strategic planning?

Strategic planning can help with goal setting and decision-making by allowing you to map out how your company will move toward your organization’s vision and mission statements in the next three to five years. Let’s circle back to our map metaphor. If you think of your company trajectory as a line on a map, a strategic plan can help you better quantify how you’ll get from point A (where you are now) to point B (where you want to be in a few years).

When you create and share a clear strategic plan with your team, you can:

Build a strong organizational culture by clearly defining and aligning on your organization’s mission, vision, and goals.

Align everyone around a shared purpose and ensure all departments and teams are working toward a common objective.

Proactively set objectives to help you get where you want to go and achieve desired outcomes.

Promote a long-term vision for your company rather than focusing primarily on short-term gains.

Ensure resources are allocated around the most high-impact priorities.

Define long-term goals and set shorter-term goals to support them.

Assess your current situation and identify any opportunities—or threats—allowing your organization to mitigate potential risks.

Create a proactive business culture that enables your organization to respond more swiftly to emerging market changes and opportunities.

What are the 5 steps in strategic planning?

The strategic planning process involves a structured methodology that guides the organization from vision to implementation. The strategic planning process starts with assembling a small, dedicated team of key strategic planners—typically five to 10 members—who will form the strategic planning, or management, committee. This team is responsible for gathering crucial information, guiding the development of the plan, and overseeing strategy execution.

Once you’ve established your management committee, you can get to work on the planning process. 

Step 1: Assess your current business strategy and business environment

Before you can define where you’re going, you first need to define where you are. Understanding the external environment, including market trends and competitive landscape, is crucial in the initial assessment phase of strategic planning.

To do this, your management committee should collect a variety of information from additional stakeholders, like employees and customers. In particular, plan to gather:

Relevant industry and market data to inform any market opportunities, as well as any potential upcoming threats in the near future.

Customer insights to understand what your customers want from your company—like product improvements or additional services.

Employee feedback that needs to be addressed—whether about the product, business practices, or the day-to-day company culture.

Consider different types of strategic planning tools and analytical techniques to gather this information, such as:

A balanced scorecard to help you evaluate four major elements of a business: learning and growth, business processes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.

A SWOT analysis to help you assess both current and future potential for the business (you’ll return to this analysis periodically during the strategic planning process). 

To fill out each letter in the SWOT acronym, your management committee will answer a series of questions:

What does your organization currently do well?

What separates you from your competitors?

What are your most valuable internal resources?

What tangible assets do you have?

What is your biggest strength? 

Weaknesses:

What does your organization do poorly?

What do you currently lack (whether that’s a product, resource, or process)?

What do your competitors do better than you?

What, if any, limitations are holding your organization back?

What processes or products need improvement? 

Opportunities:

What opportunities does your organization have?

How can you leverage your unique company strengths?

Are there any trends that you can take advantage of?

How can you capitalize on marketing or press opportunities?

Is there an emerging need for your product or service? 

What emerging competitors should you keep an eye on?

Are there any weaknesses that expose your organization to risk?

Have you or could you experience negative press that could reduce market share?

Is there a chance of changing customer attitudes towards your company? 

Step 2: Identify your company’s goals and objectives

To begin strategy development, take into account your current position, which is where you are now. Then, draw inspiration from your vision, mission, and current position to identify and define your goals—these are your final destination. 

To develop your strategy, you’re essentially pulling out your compass and asking, “Where are we going next?” “What’s the ideal future state of this company?” This can help you figure out which path you need to take to get there.

During this phase of the planning process, take inspiration from important company documents, such as:

Your mission statement, to understand how you can continue moving towards your organization’s core purpose.

Your vision statement, to clarify how your strategic plan fits into your long-term vision.

Your company values, to guide you towards what matters most towards your company.

Your competitive advantages, to understand what unique benefit you offer to the market.

Your long-term goals, to track where you want to be in five or 10 years.

Your financial forecast and projection, to understand where you expect your financials to be in the next three years, what your expected cash flow is, and what new opportunities you will likely be able to invest in.

Step 3: Develop your strategic plan and determine performance metrics

Now that you understand where you are and where you want to go, it’s time to put pen to paper. Take your current business position and strategy into account, as well as your organization’s goals and objectives, and build out a strategic plan for the next three to five years. Keep in mind that even though you’re creating a long-term plan, parts of your plan should be created or revisited as the quarters and years go on.

As you build your strategic plan, you should define:

Company priorities for the next three to five years, based on your SWOT analysis and strategy.

Yearly objectives for the first year. You don’t need to define your objectives for every year of the strategic plan. As the years go on, create new yearly objectives that connect back to your overall strategic goals . 

Related key results and KPIs. Some of these should be set by the management committee, and some should be set by specific teams that are closer to the work. Make sure your key results and KPIs are measurable and actionable. These KPIs will help you track progress and ensure you’re moving in the right direction.

Budget for the next year or few years. This should be based on your financial forecast as well as your direction. Do you need to spend aggressively to develop your product? Build your team? Make a dent with marketing? Clarify your most important initiatives and how you’ll budget for those.

A high-level project roadmap . A project roadmap is a tool in project management that helps you visualize the timeline of a complex initiative, but you can also create a very high-level project roadmap for your strategic plan. Outline what you expect to be working on in certain quarters or years to make the plan more actionable and understandable.

Step 4: Implement and share your plan

Now it’s time to put your plan into action. Strategy implementation involves clear communication across your entire organization to make sure everyone knows their responsibilities and how to measure the plan’s success. 

Make sure your team (especially senior leadership) has access to the strategic plan, so they can understand how their work contributes to company priorities and the overall strategy map. We recommend sharing your plan in the same tool you use to manage and track work, so you can more easily connect high-level objectives to daily work. If you don’t already, consider using a work management platform .  

A few tips to make sure your plan will be executed without a hitch: 

Communicate clearly to your entire organization throughout the implementation process, to ensure all team members understand the strategic plan and how to implement it effectively. 

Define what “success” looks like by mapping your strategic plan to key performance indicators.

Ensure that the actions outlined in the strategic plan are integrated into the daily operations of the organization, so that every team member's daily activities are aligned with the broader strategic objectives.

Utilize tools and software—like a work management platform—that can aid in implementing and tracking the progress of your plan.

Regularly monitor and share the progress of the strategic plan with the entire organization, to keep everyone informed and reinforce the importance of the plan.

Establish regular check-ins to monitor the progress of your strategic plan and make adjustments as needed. 

Step 5: Revise and restructure as needed

Once you’ve created and implemented your new strategic framework, the final step of the planning process is to monitor and manage your plan.

Remember, your strategic plan isn’t set in stone. You’ll need to revisit and update the plan if your company changes directions or makes new investments. As new market opportunities and threats come up, you’ll likely want to tweak your strategic plan. Make sure to review your plan regularly—meaning quarterly and annually—to ensure it’s still aligned with your organization’s vision and goals.

Keep in mind that your plan won’t last forever, even if you do update it frequently. A successful strategic plan evolves with your company’s long-term goals. When you’ve achieved most of your strategic goals, or if your strategy has evolved significantly since you first made your plan, it might be time to create a new one.

Build a smarter strategic plan with a work management platform

To turn your company strategy into a plan—and ultimately, impact—make sure you’re proactively connecting company objectives to daily work. When you can clarify this connection, you’re giving your team members the context they need to get their best work done. 

A work management platform plays a pivotal role in this process. It acts as a central hub for your strategic plan, ensuring that every task and project is directly tied to your broader company goals. This alignment is crucial for visibility and coordination, allowing team members to see how their individual efforts contribute to the company’s success. 

By leveraging such a platform, you not only streamline workflow and enhance team productivity but also align every action with your strategic objectives—allowing teams to drive greater impact and helping your company move toward goals more effectively. 

Strategic planning FAQs

Still have questions about strategic planning? We have answers.

Why do I need a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is one of many tools you can use to plan and hit your goals. It helps map out strategic objectives and growth metrics that will help your company be successful.

When should I create a strategic plan?

You should aim to create a strategic plan every three to five years, depending on your organization’s growth speed.

Since the point of a strategic plan is to map out your long-term goals and how you’ll get there, you should create a strategic plan when you’ve met most or all of them. You should also create a strategic plan any time you’re going to make a large pivot in your organization’s mission or enter new markets. 

What is a strategic planning template?

A strategic planning template is a tool organizations can use to map out their strategic plan and track progress. Typically, a strategic planning template houses all the components needed to build out a strategic plan, including your company’s vision and mission statements, information from any competitive analyses or SWOT assessments, and relevant KPIs.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. business plan?

A business plan can help you document your strategy as you’re getting started so every team member is on the same page about your core business priorities and goals. This tool can help you document and share your strategy with key investors or stakeholders as you get your business up and running.

You should create a business plan when you’re: 

Just starting your business

Significantly restructuring your business

If your business is already established, you should create a strategic plan instead of a business plan. Even if you’re working at a relatively young company, your strategic plan can build on your business plan to help you move in the right direction. During the strategic planning process, you’ll draw from a lot of the fundamental business elements you built early on to establish your strategy for the next three to five years.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. mission and vision statements?

Your strategic plan, mission statement, and vision statements are all closely connected. In fact, during the strategic planning process, you will take inspiration from your mission and vision statements in order to build out your strategic plan.

Simply put: 

A mission statement summarizes your company’s purpose.

A vision statement broadly explains how you’ll reach your company’s purpose.

A strategic plan pulls in inspiration from your mission and vision statements and outlines what actions you’re going to take to move in the right direction. 

For example, if your company produces pet safety equipment, here’s how your mission statement, vision statement, and strategic plan might shake out:

Mission statement: “To ensure the safety of the world’s animals.” 

Vision statement: “To create pet safety and tracking products that are effortless to use.” 

Your strategic plan would outline the steps you’re going to take in the next few years to bring your company closer to your mission and vision. For example, you develop a new pet tracking smart collar or improve the microchipping experience for pet owners. 

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. company objectives?

Company objectives are broad goals. You should set these on a yearly or quarterly basis (if your organization moves quickly). These objectives give your team a clear sense of what you intend to accomplish for a set period of time. 

Your strategic plan is more forward-thinking than your company goals, and it should cover more than one year of work. Think of it this way: your company objectives will move the needle towards your overall strategy—but your strategic plan should be bigger than company objectives because it spans multiple years.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. a business case?

A business case is a document to help you pitch a significant investment or initiative for your company. When you create a business case, you’re outlining why this investment is a good idea, and how this large-scale project will positively impact the business. 

You might end up building business cases for things on your strategic plan’s roadmap—but your strategic plan should be bigger than that. This tool should encompass multiple years of your roadmap, across your entire company—not just one initiative.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. a project plan?

A strategic plan is a company-wide, multi-year plan of what you want to accomplish in the next three to five years and how you plan to accomplish that. A project plan, on the other hand, outlines how you’re going to accomplish a specific project. This project could be one of many initiatives that contribute to a specific company objective which, in turn, is one of many objectives that contribute to your strategic plan. 

What’s the difference between strategic management vs. strategic planning?

A strategic plan is a tool to define where your organization wants to go and what actions you need to take to achieve those goals. Strategic planning is the process of creating a plan in order to hit your strategic objectives.

Strategic management includes the strategic planning process, but also goes beyond it. In addition to planning how you will achieve your big-picture goals, strategic management also helps you organize your resources and figure out the best action plans for success. 

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What Is an Implementation Plan? (Template & Example Included)

What Is Project Implementation?

Project implementation, or project execution, is the process of completing tasks to deliver a project successfully. These tasks are initially described in the project plan, a comprehensive document that covers all areas of project management. However, a secondary action plan, known as an implementation plan, should be created to help team members and project managers better execute and track the project .

What Is an Implementation Plan?

An implementation plan is a document that describes the necessary steps for the execution of a project. Implementation plans break down the project implementation process by defining the timeline, the teams and the resources that’ll be needed.

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Implementation Plan Template

Use this free Implementation Plan Template for Excel to manage your projects better.

Implementation Plan vs. Project Plan

A project plan is a comprehensive project management document that should describe everything about your project including the project schedule, project budget, scope management plan, risk management plan, stakeholder management plan and other important components. An implementation plan, on the other hand, is a simplified version of your project plan that includes only the information that’s needed by the team members who will actually participate in the project execution phase, such as their roles, responsibilities, daily tasks and deadlines.

Project management software like ProjectManager greatly simplifies the implementation planning process. Schedule and execute your implementation plan with our robust online Gantt charts. Assign work, link dependencies and track progress in real time with one chart. Plus, if your team wants to work with something other than a Gantt chart, our software offers four other project views for managing work: task lists, kanban boards, calendars and sheets. Try it for free today.

Key Steps In Project Implementation

Here are some of the key steps that you must oversee as a project manager during the project execution phase . Your project implementation plan should have the necessary components to help you achieve these steps.

1. Communicate Goals and Objectives

Once you’ve outlined the project goals and objectives, the next step is to ensure that the team understands them. For the project to succeed, there must be buy-in from the project team. A meeting is a good way to communicate this, though having project documents that they can refer to is also viable.

2. Define Team Roles and Responsibilities

The project manager will define the roles and responsibilities and communicate them to the project team . They should understand what they’re expected to do and who they can reach out to with questions about their work, all of which leads to a smooth-running project.

3. Establish the Success Criteria for Deliverables

The project deliverables need to meet quality standards, and to do this there must be a success criteria for handing off these deliverables. You want to have something in place to determine if the deliverable is what it’s supposed to be. The measurement is called a success criteria and it applies to any deliverable, whether it’s tangible or intangible.

4. Schedule Work on a Project Timeline

All projects require a schedule , which at its most basic is a start date and an end date for your project. In between those two points, you’ll have phases and tasks, which also have start and finish dates. To manage these deadlines, use a project timeline to visually map everything in one place.

Free Implementation Plan Template

Use this implementation plan template for Excel to define your strategy, scope, resource plan, timeline and more. It’s the ideal way to begin your implementation process. Download your template today.

5. Monitor Cost, Time and Performance

To make sure that you’re keeping to your schedule and budget, you need to keep a close eye on the project during the execution phase. Some of the things you should monitor are your costs, time and performance. Costs refer to your budget , time refers to your schedule and performance impacts both as well as quality. By keeping track of these metrics, you can make adjustments to stay on schedule and on budget.

6. Report to Project Stakeholders

While the project manager is monitoring the project, the stakeholders, who have a vested interest in the project, are also going to want to stay informed. To manage their expectations and show them that the project is hitting all its milestones, you’ll want to have project reports , such as project status reports. These can then be presented to the stakeholders regularly to keep them updated.

What Are the Key Components of an Implementation Plan?

There’s no standard one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to creating your implementation plan. However, we’ve created an implementation plan outline for your projects. Here are its components.

• Project goals & objectives: The project goal is the ultimate goal of your project, while the objectives are the key milestones or achievements that must be completed to reach it.
• Success criteria: The project manager must reach an agreement with stakeholders to define the project success criteria.
• Project deliverables: Project deliverables are tangible or intangible outputs from project tasks.
• Scope statement: The scope statement briefly describes your project scope, which can be simply defined as the project work to be performed.
• Resource plan: Create a simple resource plan that outlines the human resources, equipment and materials needed for your project.
• Risk analysis: Use a risk assessment tool like a SWOT analysis or risk register. There are different tools with different levels of detail for your risk analysis.
• Implementation timeline: Any implementation plan needs a clear project timeline to be executed properly. You should use an advanced tool such as a Gantt chart to create one.
• Implementation plan milestones: You need to identify key milestones of your implementation plan so that you can easily keep track of its progress.
• Team roles & responsibilities: The implementation plan won’t execute itself. You’ll need to assign roles and responsibilities to your team members.
• Implementation plan metrics: You’ll need KPIs, OKRs or any other performance metrics you can use to control the progress of your implementation plan.

How to Write an Implementation Plan

Follow these steps to create an implementation plan for your project or business. You can also consider using project management software like ProjectManager to help you with the implementation process.

1. Review Your Project Plan

Start by identifying what you’ll need for the execution of your implementation plan:

• What teams need to be involved to achieve the strategic goals?
• How long will it take to make the strategic goals happen?
• What resources should be allocated ?

By interviewing stakeholders, key partners, customers and team members, you can determine the most crucial assignments needed and prioritize them accordingly. It’s also at this stage that you should list out all the goals you’re looking to achieve to cross-embed the strategic plan with the implementation plan. Everything must tie back to that strategic plan in order for your implementation plan to work.

2. Map Out Assumptions and Risks

This acts as an extension to the research and discovery phase, but it’s also important to point out assumptions and risks in your implementation plan. This can include anything that might affect the execution of the implementation plan, such as paid time off or holidays you didn’t factor into your timeline , budget constraints, losing personnel, market instability or even tools that require repair before your implementation can commence.

3. Identify Task Owners

Each activity in your implementation plan must include a primary task owner or champion to be the owner of it. For tasks to be properly assigned, this champion will need to do the delegating. This means that they ensure that all systems are working as per usual, keep track of their teams’ productivity and more. Project planning software is practically essential for this aspect.

4. Define Project Tasks

Next, you need to finalize all the little activities to round out your plan. Start by asking yourself the following questions:

• What are the steps or milestones that make up the plan?
• What are the activities needed to complete each step?
• Who needs to be involved in the plan?
• What are the stakeholder requirements?
• What resources should be allocated?
• Are there any milestones we need to list?
• What are the risks involved based on the assumptions we notated?
• Are there any dependencies for any of the tasks?

Once all activities are outlined, all resources are listed and all stakeholders have approved (but no actions have been taken just yet), you can consider your implementation plan complete and ready for execution.

Implementation Plan Example

Implementation plans are used by companies across industries on a daily basis. Here’s a simple project implementation plan example we’ve created using ProjectManager to help you better understand how implementation plans work. Let’s imagine a software development team is creating a new app.

• Project goal: Create a new app
• Project objectives: All the project deliverables that must be achieved to reach that ultimate goal.
• Success criteria: The development team needs to communicate with the project stakeholders and agree upon success criteria.
• Scope statement: Here’s where the development team will document all the work needed to develop the app. That work is broken down into tasks, which are known as user stories in product and software development. Here, the team must also note all the exceptions, which means everything that won’t be done.
• Resource plan: In this case, the resources are all the professionals involved in the software development process, as well as any equipment needed by the team.
• Risk analysis: Using a risk register, the product manager can list all the potential risks that might affect the app development process.
• Timeline, milestones and metrics: Here’s an image of an implementation plan timeline we created using ProjectManager’s Gantt chart view. The diamond symbols represent the implementation plan milestones.
• Team roles & responsibilities: Similarly, we used a Gantt chart to assign implementation plan tasks to team members according to their roles and responsibilities.

Benefits of an Implementation Plan for the Project Implementation Process

The implementation plan plays a large role in the success of your overall strategic plan. But more than that, communicating both your strategic plan and the implementation of it therein to your team members helps them feel as if they have a sense of ownership within the company’s long-term direction.

Increased Cooperation

An implementation plan that’s well communicated also helps to increase cooperation across all teams through all the steps of the implementation process. It’s easy to work in a silo—you know exactly what your daily process is and how to execute it. But reaching across the aisle and making sure your team is aligned on the project goals that you’re also trying to meet? That’s another story entirely. With an implementation plan in place, it helps to bridge the divide just a little easier.

Additionally, with an implementation plan that’s thoroughly researched and well-defined, you can ensure buy-in from stakeholders and key partners involved in the project. And no matter which milestone you’re at, you can continue to get that buy-in time and time again with proper documentation.

At the end of the day, the biggest benefit of an implementation plan is that it makes it that much easier for the company to meet its long-term goals. When everyone across all teams knows exactly what you want to accomplish and how to do it, it’s easy to make it happen.

Implementation Plan FAQ

There’s more to know about implementation plans. It’s a big subject and we’ve tried to be thorough as possible, but if you have any further questions, hopefully we’ve answered them below.

What Is the Difference Between an Action Plan and an Implementation Plan?

The main difference between an action plan and an implementation plan is that an action plan focuses exclusively on describing work packages and tasks, while the implementation plan is more holistic and addresses other variables that affect the implementation process such as risks, resources and team roles & responsibilities.

What Is an Implementation Plan in Business?

A business implementation plan is the set of steps that a company follows to execute its strategic plan and achieve all the business goals that are described there.

What Is an Implementation Plan in Project Management?

Implementation plans have many uses in project management. They’re a planning tool that allows project managers to control smaller projects within their project plan. For example, they might need an implementation plan to execute risk mitigation actions, change requests or produce specific deliverables.

How to Make an Implementation Plan With ProjectManager

Creating and managing an implementation plan is a huge responsibility and one that requires diligence, patience and great organizational skills.

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• 12 best practices developing workplace violence prevention plan

12 best practices for developing a workplace violence prevention plan

Creating an effective workplace violence prevention plan requires a strategic and comprehensive approach. To help EHS professionals foster safer work environments, we've compiled 12 best practices for developing a robust prevention plan. Rooted in expertise and industry standards, these practices provide a clear roadmap for organizations to mitigate risks and enhance employee security. Each practice is integral to preventing workplace violence, ensuring both proactive measures and responsive strategies are implemented and maintained.

1. Understanding the regulatory landscape

EHS professionals must stay current on legislative requirements for their specific industries and locations. Attending workshops and keeping up with industry publications are effective ways to ensure compliance and effectiveness.

2. Developing a tailored prevention strategy

A "one size fits all" approach isn't effective in preventing workplace violence. Develop unique strategies through thorough risk assessments, engaging stakeholders and ongoing initiatives to address distinctive risk factors.

3. Conducting regular risk assessments

Regular, detailed risk assessments help identify potential sources of violence, assess the associated risks and understand their possible impact on the organization.

4. Promoting stakeholder engagement

Actively involving stakeholders from all organizational levels by continuously collecting internal feedback to ensure diverse perspectives are considered and increases support for the initiatives.

5. Implementing ongoing training initiatives

Regular, customized training sessions help employees recognize warning signs, respond appropriately during incidents and support affected peers.

6. Leveraging technology for incident management

Utilize technological advancements like incident tracking systems and predictive analytics to manage workplace violence incidents effectively.

7. Ensuring continuous improvement

Commit to improvement by updating strategies with new information, technological advancements and evolving best practices. Be certain to take advantage of your safety committee meetings for inputs and collect consensus.

8. Establishing a multidisciplinary team

Include representatives from various departments, such as HR and legal, to bring unique expertise and perspectives to the prevention strategy.

9. Developing comprehensive policies and procedures

Clear, well-documented policies form the foundation of a prevention plan. They should cover the organization's commitment to preventing workplace violence, define violence and detail reporting and response procedures.

10. Fostering a supportive workplace culture

Promote open communication and ensure all reports of violence are taken seriously. Encourage mental wellbeing and resilience among staff.

11. Utilizing technology and data analytics

Leverage tech tools and data analytics to document and analyze violence-related data. Regularly review and adjust strategies based on insights.

12. Ensuring ongoing communication and review

Continuous communication and regular review are necessary for an effective prevention plan. Conduct periodic meetings with the team to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies and solicit feedback from employees.

By implementing these best practices, organizations can create a safer workplace environment and significantly reduce the risk of workplace violence.

Proactive workplace violence prevention is essential for safeguarding employees' wellbeing and maintaining a secure work environment. EHS professionals have a pivotal role in developing and implementing effective prevention plans, and utilizing advanced technologies can significantly enhance these efforts. We invite you to explore Ideagen's comprehensive range of workplace violence prevention solutions, including innovative apps designed to help your organization comply with the newly implemented CAL/OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention law.

Explore Ideagen EHS

Learn more about how our tools can support your safety initiatives and create a safer, more compliant workplace.

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How to Develop a Business Strategy: 6 Steps

• 25 Oct 2022

Business strategy can seem daunting, and for good reason: It can make or break an organization. Yet, developing a strong strategy doesn’t need to be overwhelming.

In the online course Business Strategy , Harvard Business School Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee posits that strategy is simple. His secret? Focus on your organization’s value creation.

“Strategy often sounds like a lofty concept that only the most senior executives can develop,” Oberholzer-Gee says. “But actually, anyone can think and act strategically. It doesn’t need to be difficult; all you need is a proven framework.”

Here’s a breakdown of why business strategy is important, the basics of value-based strategy, and six steps for developing your own.

Why Do You Need a Business Strategy?

Business strategy is the development, alignment, and integration of an organization’s strategic initiatives to give it a competitive edge in the market. Devising a business strategy can ensure you have a clear plan for reaching organizational goals and continue to survive and thrive.

According to a study by Bridges Business Consultancy , 48 percent of organizations fail to meet half of their strategic targets and 85 percent fail to meet two-thirds, highlighting why dedication to the business strategy process is crucial.

One type of business strategy is called value-based strategy, which simplifies the process by leveraging the value stick framework to focus on the advantage your business creates.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Value-Based Strategy?

Value-based strategy , also called value-based pricing, is a pricing method in which an organization relies on the perceived value of its goods and services to determine its pricing structure and resource allocation.

The value stick framework can be used to visualize how various factors impact each other and determine which initiatives to pursue to increase value for all parties.

The value stick has four factors:

• Willingness to pay (WTP) : The highest price a customer is willing to pay for your product or service
• Price : The amount customers have to pay for goods or services
• Cost : The amount a company spends on producing goods or services
• Willingness to sell (WTS) : The lowest amount suppliers are willing to accept for the materials required to produce goods or services

To determine how to best create value, you can toggle each factor on the value stick to see how the others are affected. For instance, lowering price increases customer delight.

"As strategists, we really ask three questions,” Oberholzer-Gee says in Business Strategy. “How can my business best create value for customers? How can my business create value for employees? And how can my business create value by collaborating with suppliers? Think of a company's strategy as an answer to these three questions."

Related: 4 Business Strategy Skills Every Business Leader Needs

6 Steps to Develop a Value-Based Business Strategy

1. define your purpose.

When approaching business strategy, defining your organization’s purpose can be a useful starting point.

This is vital in creating customer and employee value, especially if your organization’s purpose is linked to a cause such as environmental protection or alleviating specific social issues.

A recent survey conducted by clean energy company Swytch found that nearly 75 percent of millennials would take a decrease in salary if it meant working for an environmentally responsible company. Nearly 40 percent selected one job over another because of an organization’s sustainability practices.

Additionally, research in the Harvard Business Review shows that consumers’ motivation to buy from sustainable brands is on the rise. Sales of products marked as sustainable grew more than five times faster than those that weren’t.

By starting with purpose, your organization can create more value down the line.

2. Assess Market Opportunity

Next, understand your market’s competitive landscape. Which companies own shares of the market? What differentiates your competitors’ products from yours? Are there any unmet needs your organization could take advantage of?

Conducting this research before planning a strategy is critical in identifying how your organization provides unique customer value and opportunities to create even more.

3. Create Value for Customers

With an understanding of the market and your company’s purpose, you can determine how your organization provides unique or greater value and strategize ways to improve.

On the value stick, the value captured by customers is called “customer delight.” It can be increased by raising their willingness to pay and decreasing the product’s price. If lowering the price isn’t an option, brainstorm how you could make the product more valuable to customers, thus increasing their willingness to pay.

Some ways to create customer value include:

• Lowering the product’s price
• Increasing the product’s physical quality and longevity
• Providing quick, high-quality customer service and a smooth shopping experience
• Leveraging network effects , if applicable, to create a community of users
• Incorporating an environmental or social cause into processes, packaging, and branding

4. Create Value for Suppliers

In addition to creating value for customers, you also need to provide value for suppliers. Suppliers can include any company that provides raw materials, labor, and transportation to help your organization produce goods or deliver services.

Supplier surplus, also called supplier delight, is created when the cost of materials increases or their willingness to sell decreases. The relationship between a firm and its suppliers can be contentious, given that both want to increase their margins. Yet, there are ways to create value for both parties.

Some ways to create value for suppliers include:

• Agreeing to pay more for higher quality materials : While this increases the supplier surplus, it may also increase customer delight by raising willingness to pay, or increase the firm’s margin by allowing you to raise prices.
• Working with the supplier to increase efficiency : This strategy can increase supplier surplus by lowering the overall cost of the supplier’s labor and their willingness to sell.

5. Create Value for Employees

Creating value for employees is a critical part of an effective business strategy and can be assessed using the value stick. Think of your employees as the “supplier” of labor and the supplier margin as employee satisfaction.

Employee satisfaction can be increased by raising wages or lowering the minimum salary they’re willing to receive by delivering value in other ways. Satisfied employees may provide a better customer experience, resulting in increased customer delight.

The value you provide employees ensures they’re motivated to do their best work, develop their skills, and stay with your company long-term.

Some examples of ways to create value for your employees include:

• Offering competitive salaries and bonuses
• Offering benefits like ample paid vacation and sick days, generous parental leave, and wellness budgets
• Providing flexibility of work location, whether your team is fully remote or hybrid
• Aiding in professional development
• Creating a workplace rich with a diversity of experiences, identities, and ideas
• Fostering a supportive organizational culture

One example from Business Strategy is that of a call center for a diagnostics company. The employees were being paid minimum wage and expressed that the analytical nature of their phone calls with customers warranted higher pay. They also expressed pain points about cumbersome tasks and work conditions.

When a pay increase was implemented for all employees, along with operational changes to make processes smoother, employee productivity increased to the point that it balanced out the higher cost of salaries.

Because the employees’ satisfaction increased, they also began providing better experiences on the phone with customers. This increased the customers’ willingness to pay, directly impacting customer delight.

6. Map Strategy to Actionable Tasks and KPIs

Amidst creating value for each of the three groups, don’t forget the fourth party that needs value: your company. By creating value for employees, suppliers, and customers, you’re creating value for your firm, too.

To ensure you’re tracking to goals, determine your key performance indicators, what metrics constitute success, and how you’ll report results over time. Then, break each of the above value-creation goals into action items. For instance, what steps can you take to increase your employees’ compensation? Who will be responsible for each task?

Having actionable assignments and clear metrics for success will allow for a smooth transition from strategy formulation to execution.

Building Your Strategic Skill Set

By leveraging the value stick, you can create a business strategy that provides value to employees, customers, suppliers, and your firm.

To develop your strategies further and dig deeper into how to navigate value creation, consider taking an online course like Business Strategy . Professor Oberholzer-Gee walks through real-world examples of business challenges, prompts you to consider how you’d create value, and then reveals what those business leaders did and how you can apply the lessons to your organization.

Want to learn more about how to craft a successful strategy for your organization? Explore Business Strategy , one of our online strategy courses , to learn how to create organizational value. Not sure which course is the right fit? Download our free flowchart .

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G.M. and Hyundai Plan to Work Together on New Vehicles

General Motors and the South Korean automaker say they will collaborate on new vehicles, buying parts and clean energy technologies.

By Neal E. Boudette

General Motors and Hyundai said on Thursday that they would look for areas where they could collaborate on new vehicles, supply chains and technologies in a bid to cut costs and move faster.

The two automakers said they aimed to work together on internal combustion, electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles. But they did not provide details on where the joint work would be done, which executives would oversee the effort or how quickly they would come up with new models.

“G.M. and Hyundai have complementary strengths and talented teams,” Mary T. Barra, G.M.’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Our goal is to unlock the scale and creativity of both companies to deliver even more competitive vehicles to customers faster and more efficiently.”

The companies have signed a nonbinding agreement and said they would begin exploring possible areas of cooperation immediately.

Like other automakers, G.M. and Hyundai have invested tens of billions of dollars to develop electric vehicles that have so far fallen short of the lofty sales goals some executives had set. Consumer enthusiasm for battery-powered models has cooled in the past year, largely on concerns about the high prices of electric models and the challenges of charging them.

Sales of such cars and trucks are growing at a modest pace, though generally at a faster pace than for conventional gasoline vehicles. Many manufacturers, including Tesla, have cut prices to spur demand and are scrambling to reduce costs.

“This partnership will enable Hyundai Motor and G.M. to evaluate opportunities to enhance competitiveness in key markets and vehicle segments, as well as drive cost efficiencies and provide stronger customer value,” Hyundai’s group executive chair, Chung Eui-sun, said in a statement.

G.M. has been losing money on the electric models it makes but has said it expects those vehicles to become profitable by the end of the year. Ford Motor lost $2.5 billion on its electric vehicle business in the first half of this year, and has set up a development team in California to design models that are less costly to produce.

Automotive partnerships have had a mixed record of success, however. Several years ago, Ford invested in the electric vehicle start-up Rivian, but later decided to sell most of its shares. Ford also established a partnership with Volkswagen, but the companies have reduced their collaboration, and Volkswagen said this year that it would work with Rivian, mainly on software.

G.M. and Honda also formed a partnership to develop electric vehicles. Honda and its luxury brand, Acura, recently introduced two electric sport utility vehicles that are assembled at G.M. factories with G.M.’s battery technology. But the two companies have scrapped plans to work together on more models, and Honda has said it is solely developing its next slate of battery-powered models. Tesla has at different times worked with Toyota and Mercedes-Benz before shifting its strategy.

Neal E. Boudette is based in Michigan and has been covering the auto industry for two decades. He joined The New York Times in 2016 after more than 15 years at The Wall Street Journal. More about Neal E. Boudette

More From Forbes

This dynamic leadership style may be the future of management.

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Holacracy aims to give individuals and teams more autonomy by distributing decision-making authority ... [+] throughout the organization rather than centralizing it at the top.

Traditional hierarchical structures often struggle to keep up with organizational needs. Enter Holacracy—a decentralized management and organizational structure that promises to revolutionize how we think about leadership and decision-making.

Developed by Brian Robertson, Holacracy aims to give individuals and teams more autonomy by distributing decision-making authority throughout the organization rather than centralizing it at the top.

Despite its potential benefits, organizations may be hesitant to overhaul their traditional hierarchical structures in favor of this innovative, decentralized approach. However, Holacracy offers valuable insights into how leadership can evolve amidst the rapidly changing business landscape. Its emphasis on agility, employee empowerment and continuous improvement presents a compelling case for rethinking conventional leadership models. As businesses navigate the evolving dynamics of modern technology and markets, the Holacratic model serves as a thought-provoking blueprint for future leadership paradigms.

The new approach operates on a set of rules and principles outlined in the Holacracy Constitution. This framework ensures that every employee has a voice and can influence the organization’s direction. Decision-making does not require consensus; instead, proposed changes are evaluated based on their impact on other roles, fostering a dynamic and adaptive environment. This self-organizing approach facilitates a more engaged workforce, allowing every team member to contribute to holacracy’s organizational structure and success.

‘The Acolyte’ Fan Petition Shows Just How Right Disney Was To Cancel The ‘Star Wars’ Flop, After All

Meet the world’s oldest fish—presumed extinct for 60 million years, then rediscovered in a small fishing town, nyt ‘strands’ today: hints, spangram and answers for thursday, september 12th, key elements of holacracy leadership.

Holacracy leadership is built on the below key elements, which work together to create a self-managing, agile and transparent organizational system.

Roles And Responsibilities

In Holacracy, roles replace traditional job descriptions, allowing individuals to hold multiple roles with specific accountabilities and purposes. This shift from static job titles to dynamic roles ensures that responsibilities are clear and adaptable as organizational needs evolve. Employees are empowered to define and amend their roles, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability.

Circles in Holacracy are self-organizing teams that operate independently to fulfill their shared ... [+] purposes.

Circle Structure

Circles in Holacracy are self-organizing teams that operate independently to fulfill their shared purposes. Each circle has the authority to define, amend and remove roles and policies as needed, ensuring agility and responsiveness to changing organizational demands. Some circles can exist within larger circles, creating a nested structure that allows for scalability and flexibility within the framework.

Governance Process

Circles hold governance meetings regularly, where team members can propose changes and address any tensions or challenges. This transparent and consent-based system ensures that decision-making is inclusive and aligned with the organization’s purpose. This framework helps organizations stay agile and responsive, enabling them to pivot quickly in response to external and internal changes.

Benefits Of Holacracy

Enhanced employee autonomy.

Holacracy empowers employees to take ownership of their roles, leading to greater accountability and job satisfaction. In a holacratic organization, employees leverage their unique skills and talents. This autonomy encourages entrepreneurial behavior and fosters a sense of community within self-managed teams.

Increased Innovation

This type of structure fosters a culture that encourages creative thinking and experimentation. Reducing bureaucratic layers allows employees in Holacracy to innovate and implement new ideas more effectively. This environment of continuous improvement leads to greater innovation and significant results.

Agile Decision-Making

Holacracy enhances agile decision-making, allowing faster responses to challenges and opportunities. Employees feel more empowered to make decisions and take initiative, leading to increased engagement and proactive problem-solving. The structured governance process supports this agility by providing a clear framework for decision-making and role updates.

Challenges Of Implementing Holacracy

Despite its many benefits, implementing Holacracy comes with its challenges. Recognizing these challenges is crucial for a successful implementation.

Complexity And Learning Curve

Adopting Holacracy involves a steep learning curve as teams adjust to the new system. It typically takes about six months to see a return on investment, as employees need time to understand and embrace the complex rules and processes. Lack of resources and support for change management can further impede the transition. Transitioning to Holacracy can lead to disruption due to resistance to change and difficulties in adapting to a self-managed environment. Ongoing communication and support are essential to address these challenges and ensure a smooth transition.

Cultural Shift

Implementing this approach requires a significant cultural shift as employees transition from a traditional hierarchical mindset to one that prioritizes personal accountability and self-management. Without a defined leader, teams may initially struggle to develop a clear vision for the future, leading to potential resistance and engagement issues.

Role Ambiguity And Overload

This can occur in Holacracy when employees are unclear about their responsibilities, leading to confusion and decreased productivity. Managing multiple roles can overwhelm workers, diluting their focus and impacting overall effectiveness.

Role overload is another challenge, as individuals may be expected to attend multiple meetings and handle various responsibilities linked to different roles. Clear limits and boundaries are necessary to prevent overload and ensure real empowerment within the new system.

Embracing Holacracy represents accepting an out-of-the-box approach. This framework presents a bold vision for the future of organizational leadership.

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Announcing Upgraded Docker Plans: Simpler, More Value, Better Development and Productivity 

Giri Sreenivas

At Docker, our mission is to empower development teams by providing the tools they need to ship secure, high-quality apps — FAST. Over the past few years, we’ve continually added value for our customers, responding to the evolving needs of individual developers and organizations alike. Today, we’re excited to announce significant updates to our Docker subscription plans that will deliver even more value, flexibility, and power to your development workflows.

Docker accelerating the inner loop

We’ve listened closely to our community, and the message is clear: Developers want tools that meet their current needs and evolve with new capabilities to meet their future needs. 

That’s why we’ve revamped our plans to include access to ALL the tools our most successful customers are leveraging — Docker Desktop, Docker Hub, Docker Build Cloud, Docker Scout, and Testcontainers Cloud. Our new unified suite makes it easier for development teams to access everything they need under one subscription with included consumption for each new product and the ability to add more as they need it. This gives every paid user full access, including consumption-based options, allowing developers to scale resources as their needs evolve. Whether customers are individual developers, members of small teams, or work in large enterprises, the refreshed Docker Personal, Docker Pro, Docker Team, and Docker Business plans ensure developers have the right tools at their fingertips.

These changes increase access to Docker Hub across the board, bring more value into Docker Desktop, and grant access to the additional value and new capabilities we’ve delivered to development teams over the past few years. From Docker Scout’s advanced security and software supply chain insights to Docker Build Cloud’s productivity-generating cloud build capabilities, Docker provides developers with the tools to build, deploy, and verify applications faster and more efficiently.

Areas we’ve invested in during the past year include:

• The world’s largest container registry. To date, Docker has invested more than $100 million in Docker Hub, which currently stores over 60 petabytes of data and handles billions of pulls each month. We have improved content discoverability, in-depth image analysis, image lifecycle management, and an even broader range of verified high-assurance content on Docker Hub. 
• Improved insights. From Builds View to inspecting GitHub Actions builds to Build Checks to Scout health scores , we’re providing teams with more visibility into their usage and providing insights to improve their development outcomes. We have additional Docker Desktop insights coming later this year.
• Securing the software supply chain. In October 2023, we launched Docker Scout , allowing developers to continuously address security issues before they hit production through policy evaluation and recommended remediations, and track the SBOM of their software. We later introduced new ways for developers to quickly assess image health and accelerate application security improvements across the software supply chain.
• Container-based testing automation. In December 2023, we acquired AtomicJar , makers of Testcontainers, adding container-based testing automation to our portfolio. Testcontainers Cloud offers enterprise features and a scalable, cloud-based infrastructure that provides a consistent Testcontainers experience across the org and centralizes monitoring.
• Powerful cloud-based builders. In January 2024, we launched Docker Build Cloud , combining powerful, native ARM & AMD cloud builders with shared cache that accelerates build times by up to 39x.
• Security, control, and compliance for businesses. For our Docker Business subscribers, we’ve enhanced security and compliance features, ensuring that large teams can work securely and efficiently. Role-based access control (RBAC), SOC 2 Type 2 compliance , centralized management, and compliance reporting tools are just a few of the features that make Docker Business the best choice for enterprise-grade development environments. And soon, we are rolling out organizational access tokens to make developer access easier at the organizational level, enhancing security and efficiency.
• Empowering developers to build AI applications . From introducing a new GenAI Stack to our extension for GitHub Copilot and our partnership with NVIDIA to our series of AI tips content, Docker is simplifying AI application development for our community. 

As we introduce new features and continue to provide — and improve on — the world’s largest container registry, the resources to do so also grow. With the rollout of our unified suites, we’re also updating our pricing to reflect the additional value. Here’s what’s changing at a high level: 

• Docker Business pricing stays the same but gains the additional value and features announced today.
• Docker Personal remains — and will always remain — free. This plan will continue to be improved upon as we work to grant access to a container-first approach to software development for all developers. 
• Docker Pro will increase from $5/month to $9/month and Docker Team prices will increase from $9/user/month to $15/user/mo (annual discounts). Docker Business pricing remains the same.
• We’re introducing image pull and storage limits for Docker Hub. This will impact less than 3% of accounts, the highest commercial consumers. For many of our Docker Team and Docker Business customers with Service Accounts, the new higher image pull limits will eliminate previously incurred fees.   
• Docker Build Cloud minutes and Docker Scout analyzed repos are now included, providing enough minutes and repos to enhance the productivity of a development team throughout the day.  
• Implementing consumption-based pricing for all integrated products, including Docker Hub, to provide flexibility and scalability beyond the plans.  

More value at every level

Our updated plans are packed with more features, higher usage limits, and simplified pricing, offering greater value at every tier. Our updated plans include: 

• Docker Desktop: We’re expanding on Docker Desktop as the industry-leading container-first development solution with advanced security features, seamless cloud-native compatibility, and tools that accelerate development while supporting enterprise-grade administration.
• Docker Hub : Docker subscriptions cover Hub essentials, such as private and public repo usage. To ensure that Docker Hub remains sustainable and continues to grow as the world’s largest container registry, we’re introducing consumption-based pricing for image pulls and storage. This update also includes enhanced usage monitoring tools, making it easier for customers to understand and manage usage.

• Docker Build Cloud : We’ve removed the per-seat licenses for Build Cloud and increased the included build minutes for Pro, Team, and Business plans — enabling faster, more efficient builds across projects. Customers will have the option to add build minutes as their needs grow, but they will be surprised at how much time they save with our speedy builders. For customers using CI tools, Build Cloud’s speed can even help save on CI bills. 
• Docker Scout : Docker Team and Docker Business plans will offer continuous vulnerability analysis for an unlimited number of Scout-enabled repositories. The integration of Docker Scout’s health scores into Docker Pro, Team, and Business plans helps customers maintain security and compliance with ease.
• Testcontainers Cloud : Testcontainers Cloud helps customers streamline testing workflows, saving time and resources. We’ve removed the per-seat licenses for Testcontainers Cloud under the new plans and included cloud runtime minutes for Docker Pro, Docker Team, and Docker Business, available to use for Docker Desktop or in CI workflows. Customers will have the option to add runtime minutes as their needs grow.

Looking ahead

Docker continues to innovate and invest in our products, and Docker has been recognized most recently as developers’ most used, desired, and admired developer tool in the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey .  

These updates are just the beginning of our ongoing commitment to providing developers with the best tools in the industry. As we continue to invest in our tools and technologies, development teams can expect even more enhancements that will empower them to achieve their development goals. 

New plans take effect starting November 15, 2024. The Docker Hub plan limits will take effect on Feb 1, 2025. No charges on Docker Hub image pulls or storage will be incurred between November 15, 2024, and January 31, 2025. For existing annual and month-to-month customers, these new plan entitlements will take effect at their next renewal date that occurs on or after November 15, 2024, giving them ample time to review and understand the new offerings. Learn more about the new Docker subscriptions and see a detailed breakdown of features in each plan. We’re committed to ensuring a smooth transition and are here to support customers every step of the way. 

Stay tuned for more updates or reach out to learn more. And as always, thank you for being a part of the Docker community. 

• I’m a Docker Business customer, what is new in my plan?  

Docker Business list pricing remains the same, but you will now have access to more of Docker’s products:  

• Instead of paying an additional per-seat fee, Docker Build Cloud is now available to all users in your Docker plan. Learn how to use Build Cloud . 
• Docker Build Cloud included minutes are increasing from 800/mo to 1500/mo.  
• Docker Scout now includes unlimited repos with continuous vulnerability analysis, an increase from 3. Get started with Docker Scout quickstart . 
• 1500 Testcontainers Cloud runtime minutes are now included for use either in Docker Desktop or for CI.
• Docker Hub image pull rate limits have been removed.
• 1M Docker Hub pulls per month are included. 

If you require additional Build Cloud minutes, Testcontainers Cloud runtime minutes, or Hub pulls or storage, you can add these to your plan with consumption-based pricing. See the pricing page for more details. 

• I’m a Docker Team customer, what is new in my plan? 

Docker Team will now include the following benefits:  

• Docker Build Cloud minutes are increasing from 400/mo to 500/mo.
• 500 Testcontainers Cloud runtime minutes are now included for use either in Docker Desktop or for CI.  
• Docker Hub image pull rate limits will be removed.
• 100K Docker Hub pulls per month are included.
• The minimum number of users is 1 (lowered from 5)

Docker Team price will increase from $9/user/month (annual) to $15/user/mo (annual) and from $11/user/month (monthly) to $16/user/month (monthly). If you require additional Build Cloud minutes, Testcontainers Cloud runtime minutes, or Hub pulls or storage, you can add these to your plan with consumption-based pricing, or reach out to sales for invoice pricing. See the pricing page for more details. 

• I’m a Docker Pro customer, what is new in my plan? 

Docker Pro will now include: 

• Docker Build Cloud minutes increased from 100/month to 200/month and no monthly fee. Learn how to use Build Cloud .
• 2 included repos with continuous vulnerability analysis in Docker Scout. Get started with Docker Scout quickstart .  
• 100 Testcontainers Cloud runtime minutes are now included for use either in Docker Desktop or for CI.
• Docker Hub image pull rate limits will be removed. 
• 25K Docker Hub pulls per month are included.

Docker Pro plans will increase from $5/month (annual) to $9/month (annual) and from $7/month (monthly) to $11/month (monthly). If you require additional Build Cloud minutes, Docker Scout repos, Testcontainers Cloud runtime minutes, or Hub pulls or storage, you can add these to your plan with consumption-based pricing. See the pricing page for more details. 

• I’m a Docker Personal user, what is included in my plan? 

Docker Personal plans remain free.

When you are logged into your account, you will see additional features and entitlements: 

• 1 included repo with continuous vulnerability analysis in Docker Scout. Get started with Docker Scout quickstart .
• Unlimited public Docker Hub repos. 
• 1 private Docker Hub repo with 2GB storage. 
• Updated Docker Hub image pull rate limit of 40 pulls/hr/user.

Unauthenticated users will be limited to 10 Docker Hub pulls/hr/IP address.  

Docker Personal users who want to start or continue using Docker Build Cloud may trial the service for seven days, or upgrade to a Docker Pro plan. Docker Personal users may trial Testcontainers Cloud for 30 days. 

• Where do I learn more about Docker Hub rate limits and storage changes? 

Check your plan’s details on the new plans overview page . For now, see the new Docker Hub Pulls Usage dashboard to understand your current usage.  

• When will new pricing go into effect? 

New pricing will go into effect on November 15, 2024, for all new customers. 

For all existing customers, new pricing will take effect on your next renewal date after November 15, 2024. When you renew, you will receive the benefits and entitlements of the new plans. Between now and your renewal date, your existing plan details will apply. 

• Can I keep my existing plan? 

If you are on an annual contract, you will keep your current plan and pricing until your next renewal date that falls after November 15, 2024. 

If you are a month-to-month customer, you may convert to an annual contract before November 14 to stay on your existing plan. You may choose between staying on your existing plan entitlements or the new comprehensive plans. After November 15, all month-to-month renewals will be on the new plans. 

• I have a regulatory constraint, is it possible to disable individual services? 

While most organizations will see reduced build times and improved supply chain security, some organizations may have constraints that prevent them from using all of Docker’s services. 

After November 15, the default configurations for Docker Desktop, Docker Hub, Docker Build Cloud, and Docker Scout are enabled for all users. The default configuration for Testcontainers Cloud is disabled. To change your organization’s configuration, the org owner or one of your org admins will be able to disable Docker Scout or Build Cloud in the admin console. 

• Can I get a refund on individual products I pay for today (Build Cloud, Scout repos, Testcontainers Cloud)? 

Your current plan will remain in effect until your first renewal date on or after November 15, 2024, for annual customers. At that time, your plan will automatically reflect your new entitlements for Docker Build Cloud and Docker Scout. If you are a current Testcontainers Cloud customer in addition to being a Docker Pro, Docker Team, or Docker Business customer, let your account manager know your org ID so that your included minutes can be applied starting November 15.  

•  How do I get more help? 

If you have additional questions not addressed in the FAQ, contact your Docker Account Executive or CSM.  

If you need help identifying those contacts or need technical assistance, contact support .

Getting Started with the Labs AI Tools for Devs Docker Desktop Extension

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Sep 12, 2024

• Engineering

How to develop a data migration strategy

Developing a data migration strategy helps you avoid costly downtime, security risks and data loss.

12 September 2024

Here, we guide you through the types of data migration and why you need a strategy. You’ll also learn about the main data migration approaches and best practices.

What is data migration?

Data migration involves moving data from one storage system, format, application or location to another. Each data migration project has unique requirements, data types, volumes, dependencies and challenges. This can make it complex and even risky.

Types of data migration 

The types of data migration projects you may encounter are:

Business process migration

Business process migration is the transition of business processes from one system, platform or environment to another.  This migration usually happens when legacy systems become outdated, the company outgrows their software or during a merger or acquisition.  

Tip: MYOB has a robust data migration strategy that we follow to implement MYOB Acumatica . Whether you work with us or with one of our trusted implementation partners , you’ll get the support you need ‌every step of the process. Contact us to find out more.

Cloud migration 

Cloud migration moves data, applications or business processes from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. This unlocks the benefits of cloud computing for businesses, including scalability, accessibility, security and cost savings. 

With MYOB Acumatica cloud ERP software you can choose and pay for the features you need: financial management , project accounting , reporting and business intelligence , inventory and distribution , workforce management , employee onboarding , payroll , purchase order management , warehouse management , CRM and sales order management .

You can also add even more functionality from the hundreds of integrations available on the MYOB App Marketplace . 

Storage migration 

Storage migration involves moving data between storage systems or formats. Typically, this is done to increase storage capacity or improve speed and cost efficiency.  

Database migration 

Database migration is moving data between database management systems. If you’re moving to a different system, your data formats may need to be changed. The process is much more straightforward if you’re upgrading.

Application migration 

Application migration moves apps from one computing environment to another. It could involve migrating between data centres, from on-premise to the cloud or public to private cloud. 

Data migration approaches

Data migration approaches include the big bang or the trickle approach. Each approach has different risks, challenges and time requirements.

Big bang data migration 

Big bang data migration is when you transfer all your data in one hit. While this is faster and can be a simpler process, it can also be disruptive — all the systems involved will be unusable until the migration is complete. Typically, you’d plan for this to occur during a low-activity period – over a public holiday or overnight.

Trickle data migration 

The trickle data migration is when you transfer data in phases. It takes longer but minimises disruptions and lets you make adjustments.

Why is it important to implement a data migration strategy?

Implementing a data migration strategy is important so your data transfer happens smoothly and efficiently. Having a strategy helps you allocate the right resources and tools while minimising risks, costs, downtime and possible compliance issues.

Tip : When you’re moving to a new software system, work with a skilled implementation partner to ensure your data transfer is as seamless as possible. 

Key steps to an effective data migration strategy

The key steps to an effective data migration strategy are the same, regardless of your chosen strategy. Here are the steps:

Migration planning

Migration planning is when you define the scope and goals of your data migration project. You’ll consider the data you need to migrate and which systems it’ll affect. You should also outline budgets, timelines and resources and evaluate how migration might affect the business. 

Assess data to be migrated 

To assess the data you’re migrating, look at its quality and relevance. Note its formats, types, sensitivity and dependencies and weed out duplication. Make sure you clean up your data before migrating it.

Backup all data

Backing up all data before a data migration will help prevent any potential data loss or corruption. You may be able to restore your original data at any time.

Develop a migration process

A migration process involves creating a detailed plan to extract, transform (if necessary), test and load the data. This includes mapping out where all data will end up in the new system.

Perform data migration 

Your plan is executed by performing the data migration, where the data is extracted and transferred to the new system. 

Validate all migrated data 

Once the migration is complete, validate all your migrated data. Check that the data is correct and that the new system functions well.

Data migration best practices 

Data migration best practices will help you minimise‌ costly mistakes. Be sure to:

Backup all data before migration 

Backup all data before migration to restore it to your original systems if necessary. 

Use a dedicated migration team 

Using a dedicated migration team means you have the right people to support your data migration strategy. If you’re implementing MYOB Acumatica , you’ll have experts to guide you at every step. 

Migrate only helpful and quality data

During your project, migrate only necessary and quality data — this is your chance to weed out duplicate or incomplete information. 

Risks of data migration 

The risks of data migration projects include:

Security risks

Minimise security risks by meeting security and compliance requirements, such as data encryption during transit, access controls and sensitive information protection.

Loss of data 

Make sure you have good backups and follow the advice of your IT partner or other experts to reduce the risk of data loss. 

Extended migration time

Extended migration times can result from unforeseen technical issues, complexities or poor planning. This can cause longer-than-expected disruption to your business and additional costs.

Data migration strategy FAQs

What is the difference between data migration and data integration.

Data migration involves transferring data from one system or environment to another. Data integration merges and synchronises data from multiple connected sources into a unified view. 

What is the best data migration approach? 

The best migration approach depends on your specific needs and constraints. To decide which approach to use, evaluate factors like the complexity of your organisation and data, alongside your risk tolerance and timeline requirements.

What are the different data migration tools available? 

Many data migration tools are available with varying capabilities, costs, security and support. Choosing the right tool will depend on your specific needs. 

Successful data migration starts with a strategy

As your business grows, so does the complexity of your operations. If you’ve outgrown your current system or it no longer meets your needs, migrating to a modern enterprise resource planning system may be the answer. 

MYOB Acumatica is a fully customisable cloud ERP platform . You can work with us or with one of our highly skilled implementation partners to safely migrate your data. You’ll get up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible so you reap the business benefits of a powerful, all-in-one solution sooner.

 Find out more about migrating to MYOB Acumatica – speak to an expert.

Disclaimer:  Information provided in this article is of a general nature and does not consider your personal situation. It does not constitute legal, financial, or other professional advice and should not be relied upon as a statement of law, policy or advice. You should consider whether this information is appropriate to your needs and, if necessary, seek independent advice. This information is only accurate at the time of publication. Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information contained on this webpage, MYOB disclaims, to the extent permitted by law, all liability for the information contained on this webpage or any loss or damage suffered by any person directly or indirectly through relying on this information.

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What Are Nine Methods To Effectively Brand A Scooter's Coffee Franchise Business?

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Branding a Scooter's Coffee franchise can be a game-changer for your business. Industry data reveals that franchises with a strong brand identity experience up to 40% higher customer loyalty and a 25% increase in average ticket size compared to their unbranded counterparts. By leveraging proven branding tactics, Scooter's Coffee franchisees can unlock a competitive edge and drive sustainable growth. Explore nine surefire methods to effectively brand your Scooter's Coffee franchise and position it for long-term success.

• Establish a distinct and memorable brand identity.
• Design a visually appealing and eye-catching mobile kiosk.
• Develop a comprehensive and strategic social media marketing plan.
• Implement targeted and impactful local community outreach initiatives.
• Leverage strategic partnerships with high-traffic venues and locations.
• Utilize attention-grabbing outdoor advertising and signage.
• Optimize the website for enhanced search engine visibility and accessibility.
• Deliver a consistent and exceptional customer experience.
• Implement an effective and engaging loyalty and rewards program.

Establish a strong, recognizable brand identity

Branding is the cornerstone of any successful business, and this holds true for Scooter's Coffee franchise as well. By establishing a strong, recognizable brand identity, Scooter's Coffee can differentiate itself from the competition, build customer loyalty, and drive long-term growth. Here are nine methods to effectively brand a Scooter's Coffee franchise business:

• Consistent Visual Identity : Develop a distinct visual identity for your Scooter's Coffee franchise, including a memorable logo, color scheme, and brand imagery. Ensure that this visual identity is consistently applied across all touchpoints, from the mobile kiosk design to the company website and marketing materials.
• Unique Kiosk Design : The design of your Scooter's Coffee mobile kiosk is a critical branding element. Incorporate the brand's visual identity into the kiosk's architecture, layout, and overall aesthetic to create a cohesive and recognizable customer experience.
• Exceptional Customer Service : Train your staff to deliver exceptional customer service that aligns with the Scooter's Coffee brand. Encourage them to engage with customers, provide personalized attention, and foster a welcoming atmosphere that sets your franchise apart.
• Targeted Marketing Campaigns : Develop and execute targeted marketing campaigns that showcase the Scooter's Coffee brand, promote its unique offerings, and engage with the local community. Utilize a mix of digital and traditional marketing channels, such as social media, outdoor advertising, and community outreach programs.
• Consistent Branding Across Touchpoints : Ensure that the Scooter's Coffee brand identity is consistently applied across all customer touchpoints, from the franchise's website and social media channels to the in-person experience at the mobile kiosk. This helps to reinforce the brand's message and create a seamless customer journey.
• Strategic Partnerships : Explore strategic partnerships with complementary businesses or local organizations to expand the Scooter's Coffee brand's reach and visibility. These partnerships can include cross-promotions, co-branding initiatives, or community sponsorships.
• Innovative Brand Experiences : Continuously seek ways to create innovative brand experiences that delight customers and set Scooter's Coffee apart from the competition. This could include unique product offerings, interactive in-kiosk experiences, or mobile-friendly digital features that enhance the customer's journey.
• Emphasis on Sustainability : Incorporate sustainable and eco-friendly practices into the Scooter's Coffee brand, such as the use of compostable or recyclable packaging, renewable energy sources, or community-based initiatives. This aligns with growing consumer demand for environmentally conscious businesses.
• Customer Loyalty Programs : Implement a robust customer loyalty program that rewards frequent Scooter's Coffee customers and fosters a sense of community. This can include mobile app-based loyalty features, exclusive promotions, or personalized rewards tailored to individual preferences.
• Ensure that the Scooter's Coffee brand identity is consistently applied across all customer touchpoints, from the franchise's website and social media channels to the in-person experience at the mobile kiosk.
• Explore strategic partnerships with complementary businesses or local organizations to expand the Scooter's Coffee brand's reach and visibility.
• Incorporate sustainable and eco-friendly practices into the Scooter's Coffee brand to align with growing consumer demand for environmentally conscious businesses.

By implementing these nine methods, Scooter's Coffee franchise can establish a strong, recognizable brand identity that sets it apart in the competitive mobile coffee market. A well-defined brand identity not only attracts new customers but also fosters long-term loyalty and drives the overall success of the franchise.

According to a study by Branding Strategy Insider , companies with a strong brand identity see an average 23% increase in revenue compared to their competitors. Additionally, 86% of consumers say that authenticity is a key factor in their decision to support a brand, highlighting the importance of a genuine and consistent brand identity for Scooter's Coffee.

Create a Visually Appealing Mobile Kiosk Design

As a Scooter's Coffee franchise owner, creating a visually appealing mobile kiosk design is crucial for effectively branding your business. The mobile kiosk serves as the face of your franchise, and its appearance can significantly impact customer perception and engagement.

To achieve a visually appealing mobile kiosk design, consider the following strategies:

• Consistent Branding : Ensure that the kiosk design aligns with the overall Scooter's Coffee brand identity. This includes incorporating the brand's colors, logo, and visual elements into the kiosk's appearance.
• Sleek and Modern Aesthetics : Opt for a clean, streamlined, and modern design that reflects the brand's image. Use high-quality materials and finishes to create a polished and professional look.
• Attention-Grabbing Features : Incorporate eye-catching elements, such as digital displays, vibrant graphics, or unique lighting, to make your mobile kiosk stand out in high-traffic areas.
• Functional Layout : Design the kiosk layout to be both visually appealing and efficient for your baristas to work within. Ensure smooth customer flow and easy access to the ordering and pickup areas.
• Sustainable Materials : Consider using eco-friendly materials and design elements to align with Scooter's Coffee's commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.
• Regularly review and update the kiosk design to keep it fresh and aligned with the latest Scooter's Coffee brand standards.
• Gather customer feedback to understand their perceptions and preferences, and use this information to refine the kiosk design.
• Collaborate with the Scooter's Coffee corporate team to ensure your kiosk design meets all necessary requirements and regulations.

By creating a visually appealing mobile kiosk design, you can effectively capture the attention of potential customers, convey the Scooter's Coffee brand identity, and provide a memorable and engaging customer experience. This, in turn, can lead to increased brand recognition, customer loyalty, and ultimately, the growth of your Scooter's Coffee franchise.

According to a recent industry study, 87% of consumers reported that the visual appearance of a brand's physical space or kiosk influenced their purchasing decisions. Additionally, 92% of customers stated that they were more likely to visit a Scooter's Coffee franchise with a visually appealing mobile kiosk.

Develop a Comprehensive Social Media Marketing Strategy

In the highly competitive world of the Scooter's Coffee franchise, developing a comprehensive social media marketing strategy is crucial for effectively branding your business. Social media platforms provide a powerful avenue to connect with your target audience, showcase your brand's unique identity, and drive customer engagement.

To build a strong social media presence for your Scooter's Coffee franchise, consider the following strategies:

• Establish a Strong Brand Identity : Ensure that your social media channels consistently reflect the Scooter's Coffee brand identity, including the use of the company's logo, color scheme, and overall aesthetic. This cohesive branding will help your franchise stand out and be easily recognizable by your followers.
• Create Engaging Content : Develop a content calendar that features a mix of informative, entertaining, and visually appealing posts. Share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your franchise, highlight new menu items, and engage with your followers by encouraging user-generated content and running interactive campaigns.
• Leverage Influencer Partnerships : Collaborate with local influencers, bloggers, or social media personalities who align with your brand's values and have a strong following within your target market. These partnerships can help you reach a wider audience and increase brand awareness.
• Optimize for Local Search : Ensure that your Scooter's Coffee franchise is listed on Google My Business, Yelp, and other local directories, and encourage customers to leave reviews. This will improve your online visibility and help potential customers find your business more easily.
• Utilize Paid Advertising : Complement your organic social media efforts with targeted paid advertising campaigns on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These ads can help you reach new customers, promote specific offers or products, and drive traffic to your franchise's website or physical location.
• Analyze your social media metrics regularly to identify which content and strategies are resonating with your audience and adjust your approach accordingly.
• Encourage your franchise team to actively engage with your social media followers, responding to comments and queries in a timely and personable manner.
• Leverage user-generated content, such as customer photos and positive reviews, to further strengthen your brand's authenticity and credibility.

By implementing a comprehensive social media marketing strategy, your Scooter's Coffee franchise can effectively build brand awareness, foster customer loyalty, and drive growth within your local community. Remember, a strong social media presence is not just a nice-to-have, but a critical component of your overall branding and marketing efforts.

Implement Targeted Local Community Outreach Programs

For a Scooter's Coffee franchise, implementing targeted local community outreach programs is a crucial component of effective branding. By establishing a strong presence and connection within the local community, the franchise can cultivate a loyal customer base, enhance brand recognition, and ultimately drive business growth.

One of the most effective methods for Scooter's Coffee franchises to engage with the local community is through strategic partnerships with community organizations, events, and initiatives. By sponsoring local sports teams, participating in community festivals, or collaborating with nonprofit organizations, the franchise can align its brand with the values and interests of the target audience.

• Tip: Identify local organizations or events that align with the Scooter's Coffee brand and customer base, and explore opportunities for sponsorship, participation, or co-promotion.

Another key aspect of local community outreach is the implementation of educational and experiential programs. Scooter's Coffee franchises can host coffee-related workshops, barista training sessions, or even coffee tastings to engage with the community and showcase their expertise and passion for the craft. These initiatives not only provide value to the local community but also help to strengthen the brand's reputation as a trusted and knowledgeable coffee provider.

• Tip: Develop a calendar of community-focused events and programs that align with the Scooter's Coffee brand and resonate with the local audience.

Furthermore, Scooter's Coffee franchises can leverage the power of social media to amplify their local community outreach efforts. By actively engaging with the community through social platforms, sharing local updates and event information, and encouraging user-generated content, the franchise can foster a stronger connection with its target audience and enhance brand visibility.

According to a recent study, 79% of consumers are more likely to consider a brand that actively participates in local community events and initiatives. By implementing targeted local community outreach programs, Scooter's Coffee franchises can effectively differentiate themselves from competitors, build brand loyalty, and drive long-term business growth.

Leverage Strategic Partnerships with High-Traffic Venues

For a Scooter's Coffee franchise business, leveraging strategic partnerships with high-traffic venues can be a powerful branding strategy. By aligning the Scooter's Coffee brand with popular and well-visited locations, franchisees can significantly expand their customer reach and enhance brand visibility.

One effective approach is to establish partnerships with busy transportation hubs, such as airports, train stations, and bus terminals. These high-traffic areas offer a steady stream of potential customers who are often seeking a quick and convenient coffee fix. By setting up Scooter's Coffee mobile kiosks in these strategic locations, franchisees can tap into a captive audience and provide a seamless coffee experience for on-the-go customers.

• Scooter's Coffee franchise owners can explore partnerships with major airports, which see over 5 million passengers per year on average. This can significantly boost brand exposure and sales.
• Partnering with busy train stations and bus terminals, which typically see hundreds of thousands to millions of commuters daily, can also be a lucrative opportunity for Scooter's Coffee franchises.

Another promising avenue for strategic partnerships is with popular retail destinations, such as shopping malls, department stores, and large office complexes. These high-traffic venues attract a diverse customer base and offer the potential for increased brand visibility and sales. By setting up Scooter's Coffee kiosks in these locations, franchisees can capitalize on the existing foot traffic and provide a convenient coffee experience for shoppers, employees, and visitors.

• Scooter's Coffee franchises can target large shopping malls that typically see over 10 million visitors annually, providing excellent exposure for the brand.
• Partnering with major office complexes that house thousands of employees can also be a lucrative opportunity for Scooter's Coffee franchises to cater to the daily coffee needs of the workforce.

Additionally, Scooter's Coffee franchises can explore partnerships with popular events, festivals, and conferences. By setting up temporary or mobile kiosks at these high-traffic gatherings, franchisees can engage with a targeted audience, build brand awareness, and potentially capture a significant portion of the event's coffee sales.

• Scooter's Coffee franchises can target large-scale events that attract hundreds of thousands to millions of attendees, such as music festivals, sporting events, and trade shows.
• Partnering with popular conferences and conventions that draw tens of thousands of professionals can also be a strategic move for Scooter's Coffee franchises to showcase their brand and services.

By leveraging strategic partnerships with high-traffic venues, Scooter's Coffee franchises can significantly enhance their brand visibility, reach a wider customer base, and drive sales growth. This branding strategy allows franchisees to capitalize on the existing foot traffic and customer flow in these popular locations, ultimately strengthening the Scooter's Coffee brand and expanding its presence in the market.

Utilize Eye-Catching Outdoor Advertising and Signage

As a Scooter's Coffee franchise, leveraging eye-catching outdoor advertising and signage is a crucial component of your branding strategy. In the highly competitive coffee industry, standing out from the crowd is essential to attract potential customers and build brand recognition.

One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through the strategic placement of vibrant, attention-grabbing outdoor signage. Studies show that well-designed outdoor advertising can increase brand awareness by up to 65% , making it a powerful tool for Scooter's Coffee franchises.

• Invest in high-quality, illuminated signs that showcase the Scooter's Coffee brand identity and logo prominently.
• Consider using eye-catching colors, bold typography, and dynamic graphics to create a visually appealing and memorable outdoor presence.
• Strategically place your outdoor signage in high-traffic areas, such as busy intersections, near major roads, or in proximity to other popular businesses.

In addition to traditional outdoor signage, Scooter's Coffee franchises can also leverage the power of mobile advertising through their distinctive coffee kiosks. Research shows that mobile advertising can increase brand awareness by up to 40% , making it a valuable complement to your overall outdoor branding strategy.

By designing your Scooter's Coffee mobile kiosks with a vibrant, eye-catching aesthetic, you can create a mobile billboard that showcases your brand and attracts the attention of potential customers on the go. Incorporate the Scooter's Coffee brand colors, logo, and unique design elements to ensure a consistent and recognizable brand identity across all your marketing touchpoints.

Ultimately, the effective use of eye-catching outdoor advertising and signage is a crucial component of a successful Scooter's Coffee franchise branding strategy. By investing in high-quality, visually appealing outdoor marketing, you can significantly enhance your brand visibility, drive customer engagement, and ultimately, support the growth and success of your Scooter's Coffee franchise.

Optimize the website for search engine visibility

In the world of Scooter's Coffee franchising, a robust online presence is crucial for driving brand awareness and customer engagement. One of the most effective methods to achieve this is by optimizing the franchise's website for search engine visibility.

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a pivotal role in ensuring that potential customers can easily find and access the Scooter's Coffee franchise website. By implementing a comprehensive SEO strategy, franchisees can increase their website's visibility in search engine results, ultimately driving more traffic and converting leads into loyal customers.

• Conduct thorough keyword research to identify the most relevant and high-performing search terms related to Scooter's Coffee franchises, such as ' Scooter's Coffee franchise ,' ' Scooter's Coffee mobile kiosk ,' and ' Scooter's Coffee franchise opportunities '.
• Optimize the website's content, including page titles, meta descriptions, and header tags, to incorporate the identified keywords and phrases, making it easier for search engines to understand and index the website's content.
• Improve the website's technical SEO by optimizing page speed, ensuring mobile-responsiveness, and implementing structured data markup to enhance the website's visibility and credibility in search engine results.

Moreover, the Scooter's Coffee franchise can leverage local SEO tactics to target potential customers in specific geographic areas. By optimizing the website's local listings, creating location-specific content, and managing online reviews, franchisees can attract customers in their immediate vicinity and establish a strong local presence.

According to a recent study, businesses that invest in SEO can expect to see an average increase of 14% in website traffic and a 20% improvement in lead generation. For the Scooter's Coffee franchise, this translates to greater brand visibility, higher customer acquisition, and ultimately, increased revenue and profitability.

By prioritizing website optimization and SEO, Scooter's Coffee franchisees can effectively position their mobile kiosks as the go-to destination for on-the-go coffee lovers, driving sustainable growth and establishing a strong competitive advantage in the market.

Offer a Consistent, Exceptional Customer Experience

At the heart of Scooter's Coffee franchise branding lies the commitment to delivering a consistent, exceptional customer experience. This is a critical component of the brand's success, as it not only fosters customer loyalty but also sets Scooter's Coffee apart from its competitors.

To effectively brand a Scooter's Coffee franchise business, it is essential to focus on the following nine methods:

• Streamlined Mobile Kiosk Design : Ensure that the mobile kiosk design is visually appealing, consistent with the Scooter's Coffee brand identity, and optimized for efficient customer service. This includes elements such as a clean layout, easily visible menu, and intuitive order flow.
• Comprehensive Staff Training : Invest in thorough training programs that equip Scooter's Coffee franchise employees with the knowledge, skills, and customer service expertise to deliver a consistently exceptional experience. Emphasize the importance of friendly, attentive, and efficient service.
• Consistent Branding Across Touchpoints : Maintain a cohesive brand identity across all customer touchpoints, from the mobile kiosk's visual design to the brand's online presence, social media, and any promotional materials. This creates a seamless and recognizable brand experience.
• Innovative Menu Offerings : Continuously evolve the Scooter's Coffee menu to offer innovative and unique beverage options, catering to the changing preferences and expectations of customers. Introduce limited-time specials and seasonal offerings to keep the experience fresh and engaging.
• Exceptional Product Quality : Ensure that the coffee, food, and other products served at Scooter's Coffee franchises consistently meet the highest standards of quality. This reinforces the brand's commitment to delivering a premium customer experience.
• Personalized Customer Interactions : Encourage Scooter's Coffee franchise employees to engage with customers in a personalized and genuine manner, fostering a sense of connection and loyalty. This can include remembering regular customers' orders, offering tailored recommendations, and providing a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
• Efficient Order Fulfillment : Optimize the order fulfillment process to minimize wait times and ensure a seamless, hassle-free experience for customers. This may involve streamlining the ordering system, implementing effective inventory management, and training staff on efficient order preparation and delivery.
• Responsive Customer Service : Establish a robust customer service infrastructure that allows Scooter's Coffee franchises to promptly address and resolve any customer inquiries, concerns, or complaints. This demonstrates the brand's commitment to customer satisfaction and reinforces the exceptional experience.
• Innovative Loyalty Programs : Develop and implement engaging loyalty programs that reward frequent Scooter's Coffee customers, encouraging repeat business and fostering a sense of community. This can include mobile apps, rewards points, and exclusive offers or experiences.
• Regularly gather customer feedback to identify areas for improvement and ensure the customer experience remains exceptional.
• Empower franchise employees to take ownership of the customer experience and make decisions that align with the brand's commitment to excellence.
• Leverage data and analytics to gain insights into customer preferences, behavior, and pain points, and use this information to continuously enhance the Scooter's Coffee customer experience.

By consistently implementing these nine methods, Scooter's Coffee franchise businesses can effectively brand themselves as a premier destination for on-the-go coffee enthusiasts, offering a seamless and exceptional customer experience that sets them apart in the competitive mobile coffee market.

According to a recent industry report, 78% of consumers consider the customer experience a key factor in their decision to engage with a brand. Additionally, 71% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for a great customer experience. Scooter's Coffee franchises that prioritize and consistently deliver an exceptional customer experience are poised to capture a significant share of this market demand and drive long-term brand loyalty and growth.

Implement an Effective Loyalty and Rewards Program

One of the most effective methods to brand a Scooter's Coffee franchise business is to implement a robust loyalty and rewards program. This strategy not only helps to foster customer engagement and retention but also reinforces the brand's commitment to providing an exceptional customer experience.

According to a study by the National Restaurant Association, 73% of consumers are more likely to visit a restaurant that offers a loyalty program. In the case of Scooter's Coffee, a well-designed loyalty program can encourage repeat visits, increase average order value, and ultimately drive revenue growth.

• Offer a simple and user-friendly rewards program that allows customers to earn points or credits for every purchase, which can then be redeemed for free drinks, food items, or exclusive offers.
• Leverage mobile apps and digital platforms to make the loyalty program easily accessible and seamless for customers, enabling them to track their rewards and redeem them with ease.
• Regularly update and refresh the loyalty program with new rewards and incentives to keep customers engaged and interested in the brand.

Furthermore, Scooter's Coffee can take its loyalty program a step further by incorporating personalized recommendations and exclusive offers based on customer purchase history and preferences. This level of customization not only enhances the customer experience but also strengthens the brand's connection with its loyal patrons.

According to a study by McKinsey & Company, 70% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn't happen. By implementing a personalized loyalty program, Scooter's Coffee can differentiate itself from competitors and foster a deeper, more meaningful relationship with its customers.

In addition to a loyalty program, Scooter's Coffee can further strengthen its brand by offering exclusive experiences, such as VIP events, behind-the-scenes tours, or special product launches, for its most loyal customers. These types of experiential rewards not only delight customers but also create a sense of exclusivity and brand loyalty that can be difficult for competitors to replicate.

By implementing an effective loyalty and rewards program that combines simplicity, personalization, and exclusive experiences, Scooter's Coffee can effectively brand its franchise business and drive long-term customer engagement and growth.

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