Every business should have some form of business plan. Given the rapidly evolving and pressured business environment, it helps to provide some focus. According to Gemini AI, planning priorities include AI, sustainability and ESG goals, hyper-personalisation, flexible/hybrid working and data-driven analytics. So, why are so many organisations struggling with it? Is it down to uncertainty or the uncertainty of benefits from completing it? So, today we discuss the key steps to succeed in strategic business planning for 2026.
Strategic business planning
Strategic business planning involves the identification of opportunities and goals, the understanding of capabilities and allocation of resources, the plan to reach the destination and clear responsibilities for making it happen. In short, it is the process of setting business goals and the plan to achieve them. Ideally, such goals should be aligned to the vision, mission and values of the organisation. The strategic business plan sets the long-term direction of the organisation and also guides future decision-making towards a desired future state and outcomes.
Capabilities and resources must be matched to ambitious goals and delivered to achieve the desired outcomes. Of course, this may require the building out of such capabilities and various ways of allocating or securing resources, including labour and investment. In larger organisations, the board sets the tone and direction of the organisation, providing a framework to operate within. The leadership or management team are responsible for navigating their way towards desirable future outcomes. Once the ‘strat plan’ is drafted and those accountable for programmes, projects and deliverables are clear, it must be cascaded down to be meaningful to the organisation. Managers, teams and individuals need to know how they contribute to the overall plan.
Strategic business planning for 2026
It goes without saying that organisations go through this process with varying degrees of commitment and success. Some are hesitant to devote the time and resources to the process. Others plan until they are blue in the face and everyone has forgotten why they started the journey. There is also the spectre of constant change and flux, particularly external changes and macroeconomics. What most leaders fundamentally miss is that strategic business planning isn’t set in stone, nor is it out of their control. However, that is not to say that it cannot be done quickly or effectively.
Creating your strategic business plan
As a process, we recommend the following 10 steps to create your strategic business plan (though there are different approaches out there):
- Define your organisation’s purpose – combine your values and vision into a durable reason for existing;
- Evaluate your internal situation – realistically and candidly assess where you are and what we can/cannot do;
- Research your external situation – thoroughly and analytically review your external environment and how it may respond;
- Analyse your competitive competencies – write down what advantages, intellectual property and unique selling points that set you apart;
- Understand your target markets/accounts/personas – define to whom you wish to sell what products or services into;
- Define your mission and your goals – set the direction of travel and what you want to achieve in future;
- Design and create your plan – explaining the how you will get there and what you will to do make it happen in future;
- Assign clear accountability – ensure that key people have the support and resources to deliver on the goals and enact the changes required;
- Communicate and filter down the plan – cascade messaging and align roles and objectives to help deliver the plan’s goals at every level;
- Report on progress regularly – hold leadership and management accountable for targets, milestones and contributary performance from all corners.
The challenges of strategic business planning
The following challenges are, in our experience, recurring themes that hold back the process (in no particular order):
- Leadership team misalignment;
- Lack of resources (including time);
- Internally-focused;
- Fixated on sale/exit;
- Disconnected from purpose;
- Resistance to change;
- Overly-optimistic on capabilities;
- Short-term, tactical obsession (action-oriented);
- Owners can view it as a challenge to authority;
- Investors fail to demand exacting research and stringent scenario modelling.
What it takes to make it happen for 2026
We suggest that businesses require 3 things in order to plan successfully for 2026:
- Intellectual curiosity – to know what you might not know;
- Consensus of leadership – to agree that we want everyone to contribute;
- External broad view – to assess push/pull influences and opportunities.
Whether it be a strategy day for a leadership team, a facilitated series of strategy workshops or a research project to identify potential strategic choices, making a start is mission critical. Nokia didn’t see the iPhone coming. Microsoft didn’t see smartphones coming. Intel didn’t see an AI revolution coming. Kodak didn’t foresee the death of photo processing. Yahoo didn’t foresee a boom in internet search. IBM didn’t foresee the boom in personal computing. In summary, none of these scenarios may have come to pass with successful strategic business planning.
Seeing things clearly with your strat plan
Think Beyond is a management consultancy focused on supporting leadership teams. We help to solve business challenges, identify growth opportunities and increase performance. In terms of strategy, we offer support with research, ideation/innovation, creation, roll-out and evaluation/assurance over existing plans. So, if you need some blue sky thinking, to get your ducks in a row or to deep-dive into peeling back the onion, we can help.
If you would like to get in touch about strategic business planning for 2026, please check out our website. We also have a page dedicated to our range of planning services as one of our 4 pillars.
Alternatively, check out what we can do and where we tend to work the most.
Finally, why not also read our thoughts on collective planning or the perils of neglecting planning.