Strategic & Tactical Planning
Turn Your Vision Into a Roadmap for Growth
At Paradigm Associates LLC, we know that entrepreneurs and small business owners are driven by more than just plans—they’re fueled by vision and action. Our approach to strategic and tactical planning goes beyond creating a static document; it’s about helping you build a roadmap that’s practical, adaptable, and aligns with your unique goals as a business owner.
We work alongside you to create a dynamic plan that empowers your team, supports your growth aspirations, and helps you navigate today’s rapidly changing business landscape with confidence. From startups looking for clarity to established businesses seeking to scale, our process meets you where you are and accelerates where you’re going.
What Sets Our Approach Apart?
Our strategic planning process is built around the unique needs of entrepreneurs and small business owners. Here’s how we tailor our approach to fuel growth and innovation:
- Collaborative Process: We work hands-on with you and your team at every stage, ensuring that every plan is actionable, realistic, and fully aligned with your vision.
- Flexibility for Entrepreneurs: We know that small businesses need to stay agile. Our approach integrates seamlessly with your daily operations, allowing you to focus on strategic growth without interrupting the core of your business.
- Entrepreneurial Focus: We infuse entrepreneurial thinking into every aspect of our planning process, helping you build a strategy that’s forward-thinking, adaptive, and opportunity-focused.
- Holistic Perspective: Our method takes a complete look at your business—considering everything from market trends to internal structure—so you’re equipped to handle challenges, seize opportunities, and thrive in a competitive landscape.
With a holistic and personalized approach, we build plans that are as flexible as they are robust, providing you with a clear path forward that’s adaptable to both industry changes and your evolving business needs.
Planning for Success with an Entrepreneurial Mindset
Our strategic and tactical planning process doesn’t just prepare you for today; it helps you envision and build for tomorrow. With Paradigm’s guidance, you’ll:
- Define and Execute Key Goals: Set clear, actionable goals that drive results, focusing on the highest impact actions to grow your business.
- Build a Vision That Inspires: Develop a strategic vision that resonates with your team, guides your decision-making, and supports sustainable growth.
- Track Progress with Meaningful Metrics: Identify success markers that matter, so you can measure your growth and adjust strategies for ongoing success.
Flexible Timing That Fits Your Business
We understand that time is a critical factor for every entrepreneur. Some clients complete their initial planning process in just a few weeks, while others take a more extended, integrated approach. Whatever your timeline, we’ll work at a pace that aligns with your business’s demands and ensures your goals are met effectively.
Strategic and Business Planning Map
Overview
Building a Successful Business
- Your Roles
- How to Get the Most from this Process
- What is Strategic Thinking and Planning?
- Building a Sustainable Business
- Benefits of Planning
- Your Dreams, Your Vision
- Creating a Vision Statement
A Passion for Succeeding
- Values
- Ensuring Your Success
- The Success Formula
- Developing Success Attitudes
- Affirmations
- Becoming an Entrepreneurial Leader
Developing a Competitive Edge
- The External Assessment
- Market Segments
- Competitive Analysis
- Trend Analysis
- Internal Appraisal
- Structure
- Resources
- Developing a Base Strategy
- Selecting a Base Strategy
- Strengths, Limitations, Opportunitues, & Threats
- Strengths (Internal)
- Limitations (Internal)
- Opportunities (External)
- Threats (External)
Business Planning and Execution
- Business Planning
- Mission Statement
- Doing the Right Things
- Critical Goal Categories (CGCs)
- Shortening Your Personal Learning Curve
- Personal Goals
Generating Customers and Profitability
- The Market Plan
- Market Communications
- The Sales Plan: Why People Buy?
- The Sales Process
- Determining Customer Needs
- What is a Customer-Driven Organization?
- Speed and Flexibility
- Exceed Customer Expections
- Your Organization
- Financial Budgeting
- Financial Planning
- The Review Process
- Summary
Outline of the Strategic Thinking Workbook
The workbook contains a series of thought provoking questions that ask you to conduct a detailed analysis surrounding both external and internal aspects of your business.
Strategic and Business Planning Process
Basic Foundation and Desired Business Objectives
- Why Are We In Business?
- What Are Your Short And Long Term Objectives?
- What Are Your Key Assumptions?
- >Responses by competition
- >Economic trends
- >Ability of others to develop products to replace yours
- Visioning Tools
- >Where do you want to be in five, ten, twenty years, etc?
- >What is the scope of the business?
- >How will you be different from competition?
- >How will various aspects of your business need to change over time?
Determining Your Vision and Values
- Creating a Timeless Vision
- Creating Values & Principles
- >Determining stakeholders
- >Defining corporate values
- >Challenging your commitment to living those values
Creating Your Mission Statement
- How to realize the vision
- What is being done?
- For whom it is being done?
- Desired end results
Conducting the External Assessment
- Market Segments And Opportunities
- >Customer needs satisfaction
- >Who and why someone buys from your company
- >Market share issues
- >Share of wallet issues
- >Perception issues
- >Reputation issues
- Competitive Analysis - Offerings
- >How your products and services compare to your current and future competition
- Competitive Analysis - Company
- >How your organization compares to your current and future competitions' capabilities
- Trend Analysis
- >The impact of various trends upon your future business and vision
Conducting the Internal Assessment
- Analyze Structure vs. Functions
- >Conduct a detailed analysis surrounding your operation
- Examining Available Resources
- Determining Strengths, Limitations, Opportunities and Threats (S.L.O.T) Analysis
Refining Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
Evaluating Processes & CSFs
Determining Intermediate Milestones
Identifying Potential Obstacles
Establishing Goals & Key Results (GKRs)
Refocusing Marketing & Sales Plans
Linking Marketing & Sales functions with Intermediate Milestones
- Examining Segmentation Decisions
- Examining Marketing Communications
- Determining Sales Strategies to Employ
- Examining Customer/Client Service Structure and Function
Determining Financial Projections & Review Procedures
- Forecasting Sales and Revenue Levels
- Forecasting Expenses
- Reviewing Capital Requirements Needed to Execute the Mission
- Creating Review Procedures
Executing Your Plan
- Creating Team & individual GKRs
- Establishing Quarterly Themes & GKRs
Components Available to Achieve Results
- Written Materials - to ensure everyone starts with the same level of knowledge.
- Audio Materials - to help knowledge become internalized through reinforcement and spaced repetition.
- Strategic Thinking Workbook - to help distill thought processes and challenges.
- Participant Interaction - to develop a high level of consensus and commitment.
- Professional Facilitator - to maximize the beneficial outcome.
Testimonials
What our Clients Had to Say:
Doug took me through a strategic planning process for my company that really helped me grab a vision for where I could take it, and what it might look like when I get there. I'd recommend Doug to anyone who wants to take their business to the next level. Plus he's a blast to work with!
Paradigm Associates LLC, headed by Doug Brown, is a group of talented, experienced, and inspiring people. This is the "go to" place if you need a fresh perspective on a non-trivial issue.
Doug challenges me to leave the daily grind of business operations behind for an hour or two in favor of thinking creatively and strategically. He has helped me clear hurdles that were in the way of my success and is enabling a more focused intent on our company's strategic goals. If you are having trouble realizing your aspirations - Doug is the guy to assist.
Doug Brown from Paradigm Associates has been a great partner as we move through our Leadership Training Series and the Strategic Planning process. Highly recommend!
Recently I had the pleasure to work with Doug as a part of our Strategic Planning Process. Our organization has always used strategic planning to lead our efforts for obvious reasons. This is to say that I have worked with a number of people to facilitate our strategic planning. Our process is unique in that it engages all segments of our community that is Public, Private and of course our customer. Doug was no less that excellent in being about to adjust to the various groups, getting to the meat of where we were as an organization and assisting us in flushing out a new and freshly competitive direction. I have worked as CEO of non-profits and as a part of the public sector for more than 20 years and during this time I have met few people with Dougs depth of knowledge in his area of expertise. Without hesitation I recommend Doug and would be more than willing to work with him and his team again.
Doug and I worked together on an extremely fast course project that required five different individuals to come together from different geographic locations. His expertise as the leader in this team was very evident. He proactively listened and demonstrated the ability to be flexible when ideas came forth that were not his, but ultimately made the final result even better. Since that time,I have come to know him as a friend and a professional colleague. I believe he brings a lot to the table for any organization or individual seeking to improve their results.
I have had the pleasure of working with Doug over the past 8-months on a Leadership Development/Strategic Planning program for my executive staff. Throughout this process I have found Doug to be an amazing resource for both myself and team. His vast knowledge and practical experience provided real world examples my staff could relate to and begin practicing immediately. If you are looking for a down-to-earth, practical subject matter expert for your leadership team or business I highly recommend you reach out to Doug.
As Chairman of the Board, I recently had the opportunity to work with Doug on a strategic planning effort for the New York Society of Association Executives. Doug was terrific in working with Association leaders. His high touch, vast knowledge of planning skills, and focus on critical success factors was invaluable. NYSAE now has a new framework for success and I would highly recommend Doug for similar assignments. By the way, he is not a bad singer either! Thanks Doug!
ARC of Rockland spent several months interviewing consulting firms to assist our nonprofit in undergoing a strategic planning assessment and visioning process. After an extended search and interview process, Doug Brown of Paradigm Associates was our unanimous selection. Doug has conducted stakeholder interviews/surveys and has led multiple strategic retreats. Doug has worked hard to understand our organization’s culture in a very short period of time and has helped to tease out our challenges and opportunities. We have identified five strategic elements that we will focus on over the next 2-3 years and we are in the process of developing action plans to accomplish these goals.
Doug’s calm approach, inquisitive nature and extensive planning expertise is exactly what we needed to develop a plan for our future. Doug will continue to work with us in advancing our strategic plan and will be assisting our board of directors in further improving organizational governance.
I would recommend Doug Brown without hesitation – he is a true professional!
Take the next step toward lasting success. Contact us to transform your vision into a sustainable roadmap for new growth and long-term success.
We’re dedicated to helping you achieve your goals. If you have any questions or feedback, contact us directly by phone or email. Your insights are invaluable in refining the solutions we provide and delivering the results you expect.