In this Newsletter
Are you Thinking Strategically?
Here's a check list for Successful Strategic Planning

The great Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretsky was certainly a strategic thinker, and he described his objective this way: "I skate to where the puck is going to be...not to where it has been."

Keeping our eye on the future—and actually preparing for it with a long range visioning process -- is the very essence of strategic planning for DMOs.

Here then, are a few tips to keep you solidly in the game.

If you've been reading these marketing newsletters for awhile, you'll recall that we first covered Strategic Planning back in the spring of 2005: "Strategic Planning: What's it all about?"

In that article, we covered all the basic models and gave examples for creating your own.

If you haven't kept a copy, you can still find it by going to www.mmtourismmarketing.com and accessing "archived newsletters" to pull it up.

Since we provided that information, we've received a number of other questions about the Strategic Planning process that are answered here. 

Which model should I use?

Regardless of which planning model you may decide to emulate, remember that it's your Strategic Plan--so plan to design it to meet your own very special needs and requirements.

You may wish to include just your DMO in this planning process. Or you may decide to proactively invite other participating agencies to collectively address a body of broader issues that impact tourism and other economic development and life style concerns in your community.

Getting started

Strategic Planning provides an excellent opportunity to review your mission statement. You should also develop a strategic vision: describing what you want the organization to be like in the future—what you want to achieve in a broad-based way, and how you want to do it through key values—with performance based marketing execution, service excellence, inspiration, high ethical integrity, strong community coalitions and partnerships, and best business practices including the optimum goal setting process.    

What time frame should my Strategic Plan cover?

First, let's remember that Strategic Planning means long range planning. So anything that could be an impediment to that process should be reviewed, including governance problems, human relations/personnel issues, ethics, etc.

The planning process you employ should tell you where your organization is going over the next few years (usually three to five, or maybe a scan of ten or more), how it's going to get there—and then how to actually know if you did arrive when you get there.

But to know where you're going as an organization, you'll first need to agree on where your organization is at this moment.  

What's the best methodology for determining that?

Your current assessment is usually best developed with a SWOT Analysis—referred to as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I recommend that you replace "threats" with the less ominous sounding "challenges" for producing a SWOC Assessment. And I suggest a reordering of the analysis components, beginning with strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and then followed by opportunities, which concludes the exercise on a very positive note.

Actually, I also recommend that you conduct two individual SWOCs; the first exercise solely with the staff, who are usually more knowledgeable, have a good long term perspective and will be familiar with available research for framing issues.

Then the second SWOC exercise should be provided for your principal stakeholders, members of the board or other constituents as desired.

Your assessment should take at least two hours and include inputs for both the organization as well as for the destination.

SWOC Parameters

Ground rules are as follows: Inputs should be offered by participants with minimal discussion, be described in short phrases, and be both specific and factual—although perceptions should be included as well, because they can also be observed as reality.

To get things started, your facilitator may offer these  questions:

Strengths

Weaknesses

Challenges

 Opportunities

(Continued click here.)

Your completed SWOC has now become
Step I: The Situation Analysis for your Strategic Plan.

Next, the list of major challenges and opportunities from the SWOC Analysis should then be discussed in a second major planning session. This session should be defined as
Step II: The Initial Planning Session.

It should be conducted by the strategic planning committee to determine:

Step III: Individual task forces

Next, the individual task forces that have been assigned each major opportunity should determine:

This process involves taking the goals we developed earlier, and explaining them in light of current and future issues. Then you should apply Objectives and Strategies for each individual Goal.

Objectives-- are the specific, quantifiable statements of what will be done to achieve each goal.

Strategies-- are the major approaches for attaining the goals and used to resolve challenges.

Any unanswered questions regarding impediments or additional needs can then be taken up at future meetings of the full strategic planning committee.

The Written Planning Document

All of the aforementioned information should now be incorporated in your strategic planning document.

At future planning intervals, say every six months, the full committee should meet to assess its work and modify its plan. After all, Strategic Planning is never-ending and should always be considered a work in progress.

Another Model to Consider

Recently, I've worked with clients on a new model that allows them to get started quickly and ease into the plan at such time when additional financial resources become available.

This new model starts with a one week, intensive development of a "Strategic Blueprint" that provides a framework for the long term Strategic Plan.

Components of this Blueprint include:

This completed Blueprint Document then serves as the outline for your new Strategic Plan that should be completed in the year ahead.

The next step in this process is to address in depth each of the principal Opportunities listed in the Blueprint document—first with diagnostic requirements, such as a visitor profile study or customer assessment profile. Guided by new analyses, new program implementation should be offered for carrying out each objective.

At this development stage, the Blueprint actually begins to grow, mature and take shape as your new Strategic Plan that should chart a clear course for the next three to five years.     
  
When you're finished, it's time to begin again

When you have finally undergone the full three or five year plan cycle for your plan, it will then be time for developing your next Strategic Plan. 

But this time, around-- thanks to your new founded expertise, you and the CVB will have an even better handle on how to get there with greater efficiencies.

You can now access previous newsletters on a variety of marketing topics by visiting:
WWW.MMTOURISMMARKETING.COM