The completion of Steps 1 through 4 marks the end of the first half of the strategic planning process. The gathering and analysis of information and identifying critical issues have set the stage for the principal work of the Commission and the community — developing the goals, objectives, and strategies that will address those issues and become the action plans for each critical issue. It will be useful to define these three words before beginning to work on them, because an incomplete understanding of these words often causes confusion.
Goals are general statements of what the community would like to be or attain; they derive from the strategic vision and provide a frame of reference in making decisions on objectives and strategies. The goals in each critical issue action plan should fit well within and strive to achieve the global objective for that critical issue (Step 3 — part of the strategic vision). Objectives are the specific projects or programs that will achieve the goals. They will quantify the goals and may include deadlines. Strategies are the specific tasks that must be completed to achieve the objectives and must identify who is responsible and target dates for completion.
The example from the Mariánské Lázně Strategic Plan, presented in Annex 3, will put these definitions into perspective. Note that usually, there is more than one objective for each goal and more than one strategy to reach each objective.
Task Forces
The Commission will be organized into critical issue Task Forces, one for each critical issue, so that the process is focused on finding solutions. Each Commission member should volunteer to serve on one task force. Members who have special expertise and interest in specific critical issues should be asked to serve as chairmen.
In addition, the Commission should identify persons or institutions not previously involved in the project but who have professional competence in specific issues, e.g., housing, economic development, worker training, or the environment, to serve on relevant Task Forces. Examples would be mortgage bankers, oblast officers, economic development staff, real estate developers, job training specialists, and environmental officials.
Enlarging the group of participants will have several advantages:
- It will expand the group’s knowledge base.
- It will bring new resources into the process who may contribute to implementing the plan.
- It will add to the credibility of the strategic planning process.
Before to the first meeting of each task force, the community profile, business attitude survey report, SWOT analyses, and other background material should be distributed to all members. These will provide useful references for the task forces throughout their work.
Goals
Goals must be based on more than wishful thinking and must incorporate a strong sense of reality.
For example, a jobs and economic development task force must take the following into consideration:
- The economic resource base.
- The community’s competitive advantages and disadvantages.
- The external environment that limits or expands the community’s opportunities.
- A clear understanding of location requirements of industrial and service sector firms to reach consensus on realistic goals.
The statement of goals must be clear and concise and provide direction. Therefore, a goal to “diversify the local economy” would not be very helpful. However, a goal of “establishing the community as an attractive location for automotive component suppliers” or “increasing office employment opportunities” would be specific and would guide efforts to identify relevant objectives to meet these goals.
Objectives
Goals are aspirations; objectives are targets. In many ways, the objectives are the core of the action plans, because goals must be capable of being translated into specific objectives or projects. If this cannot be done, it will be difficult to measure progress in achieving the goals, and it will be almost impossible to determine what strategies or actions are most likely to produce the desired results. There will probably be two to five objectives for each goal.
Objectives should identify:
- The key result to be achieved.
- A numerical or other measurable indication of progress, if practicable.
Some may be short-term, others, long-term, but they should all fall within the one to three-year time frame common to economic development strategic planning.
Objectives must be realistic and attainable. The human, financial, and institutional resources necessary to achieve them must be in hand, accessible, or at the very least, identifiable. Some may be found within the community. Others may be available from oblast and state agencies, the private sector, or more likely, a combination of all the above. Finally, objectives must be capable of being explained to the community as a whole.
Referring to the goal of attracting automotive suppliers discussed previously, one objective to accomplish might be: "The Economic Development Department, in cooperation with Chamber of Commerce, will implement a target marketing program to reach the country’s 100 largest component manufacturers.” Another objective might be “The Technical High School will design and finance an comprehensive, auto-component-related job-training program.” It is likely that more objectives will be suggested than the community could possibly implement. Therefore, the following factors should be considered for each proposed objective:
- Cost.
- Personnel requirements.
- Agencies or organizations responsible for implementation.
- Time frame.
- Impact.
- Legal implications.
By applying the above to each proposed project, a sense of reality will be identified and some objectives may be eliminated, thus helping the task force develop its issue-specific action plan in a realistic and credible manner.
Each task force will deliver its action plan to the Strategic Development Commission, which will evaluate all the proposed objectives and strategies presented by all the task forces, select those that are to be included in the strategic plan, and rank them in order of priority.
Strategies
Once the goals and objectives have been agreed upon, the task force will begin to develop strategies (tasks), which are the specific actions that determine how each objective is to be achieved. For each objective, there will be as many strategies as required to measure progress and accomplish it. One characteristic of a strategy is that it can be assigned to a person or institution to carry out. It is at this point that practicalities take on major importance.
Returning to our previous example, one strategy for implementing the target auto parts marketing program might be “The Chamber of Commerce will establish a direct mail program, including preparation of an industry-specific marketing brochure, by March 2000.” This strategy may well include other components such as creating a mailing list. There will also be additional strategies aimed at reaching this objective.
Identifying the specific tasks often requires technical knowledge and administrative experience in how City Hall is organized and how its duties are performed. Therefore, it may be useful to divide the task force into sub-groups of three or four “specialists” and ask each sub-group to develop the strategies for one or two goals. Involving task force members in clearly focused small groups will increase the likelihood of finding innovative ideas for the detailed actions required to implement the objectives.
Upon reaching agreement on the goals, objectives, and strategies, the task forces’ work is completed, and the action plans are ready to be delivered to the Commission for review and inclusion in the strategic plan.
