Assessment 5: strategic action plan

 Develop a strategic action plan for yourself.

Introduction

The final step in developing your strategic plan is to translate your strategy into action. A robust action plan contains four elements:

• Identification of specific actions to be undertaken in the next year or less.
• Establishment of a clear time frame for the completion of each action.
• Creation of accountability by identifying who is responsible for each action.
• Determination of one or more specific, immediate objectives that the action should achieve.

Functional tactics and monetary ramifications are the underlying details of your strategic action plan. Functional tactics are short-term, narrow-scoped plans that detail the activities you will use to achieve your short-term objectives. The monetary ramifications of your strategic plan will likely be expressed in both income and expenses, for example, the amount of increased income anticipated by climbing the corporate ladder and the amount of money you may need to spend on education or professional development.

Note: Developing a strategic plan requires specific steps that need to be executed in a sequence. The assessments in this course are presented in order and should be completed in sequence.

In the previous assessments, you have developed your mission statement, conducted a personal SWOT analysis and environmental scan, and laid out your long-term and short-term objectives. Now, you will create a strategic plan to achieve your objectives.

Your completed Strategic Action Plan will be based on the information from your mission statement, your SWOT analysis, environmental scan, and your long-term and short-term plans; however, you do not need to include these items in this assessment.

Develop a strategic action plan in which you address the following:

• Specific steps you will need to take in the next year to achieve your 5-year objectives.
• A time frame for completing each action.
• The scorecard you will use to measure the success of each action.
• The functional tactics you will use to achieve your short-term objectives.
• The resources (financial, human, and other) you will use to complete each action.
• An analysis of the monetary ramifications of each action.
• A plan for monitoring the progress of the action plan.
• A plan for handling obstacles or roadblocks.
• An explanation of how your overall strategic plan reflects your mission statement.

To successfully complete this assessment, you may need to do some research on strategic action plans. Format this assessment as a research paper following current APA guidelines for both style and citing sources, making sure that you also use correct grammar and mechanics. There is no required minimum or maximum page length; however, you should strive to be as detailed as possible in addressing each bullet point, while also being as clear and concise as possible.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies:

• Competency 1: Create organizational value.
  • Explain how a strategic plan reflects a mission statement.
• Competency 2: Participate collaboratively and respectfully.
  • Describe the resources needed to complete the steps of a strategic plan.
• Competency 3: Communicate effectively.
  • Explain how to measure the success of the steps needed to achieve long-term objectives.
  • Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.
• Competency 4: Plan strategically.
  • Describe functional tactics used to achieve short-term objectives.
  • Describe a plan for monitoring the progress of a strategic plan.
  • Explain strategies for addressing roadblocks and obstacles to a strategic plan.
• Competency 5: Employ high-performance business management techniques.
  • Describe the steps and associated time frames needed to achieve long-term objectives.
• Competency 7: Use appropriate financial models and principles.
  • Explain the financial ramifications associated with a strategic plan.