Creating and developing strategic initiatives was a vital aspect of my project at Forus Health. This blog helps future fellows to learn how to approach strategic initiative development. Step by step, I am going to explain how to develop such strategies by explaining a real example.
What Are Strategic Initiatives?
Strategic initiatives are comprehensive plans that an organization adopts to bring its vision to life. These initiatives are made up of action-oriented and measurable goals. These goals should address the organization’s mission, benefits relevant stakeholders, and help the organization grow. Additionally, these initiatives can help the organization define the direction it’s going in for the next three to five years.
According to various sources, effective strategic initiatives that align with an organization’s priorities have around a 70% success rate. For strategic initiatives to be effective, they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
5 steps to creating strategic initiatives
Step 1: Set an achievable goal
When developing goals, one can ask themselves “What are we trying to achieve?” in a general sense. An organization should take into account the position it is currently in and the position it wants to be in. Goals are more general undertakings that help the organization work toward its mission and vision.
Forus Health’s mission is to eradicate avoidable blindness. To work towards this mission, they created a goal to offer affordable comprehensive eye exams to make eye care accessible.
Step 2: Create Detailed Objectives
While objectives seem similar to goals, they are much more specific. Objectives are discrete and measurable steps that describe how to achieve a goal. During this step, one should take into consideration their organization’s capabilities and priorities to ensure that objectives are realistic.
After examining Forus Health’s success in the first two years of offering comprehensive eye exams, we developed a strategy that is specific, measurable, and realistic. The objective is to perform 5 million eye exams over the next 5 years.
Step 3: Develop a Strategy
When developing strategies for a strategic initiative, one should think about how an organization can achieve its objectives. Strategies take an organization’s competencies, resources, and opportunities into consideration. They provide the foundation for creating actionable plans.
I developed several strategies to help Forus Health reach its screening goals. These strategies include leveraging partnerships with NGOs, targeting patients with diabetes in diagnostic centers, and improving the efficiency of eye screening camps.
Step 4: Set up the Plans
At this step, one translates goals, objectives, and strategies into a detailed sequence of actions with defined responsibilities. While these plans are created for the long term, one should be prepared to adapt them to respond to changes. Strategic plans are the primary source of information an organization will use to execute and monitor its objectives. Strategic plans should define the company’s priorities, budget for the next few years, and a project roadmap.
For example, at Forus Health I suggested multiple potential partners that would help the organization have access to enough people to reach its screening goals. Additionally, I calculated the resources, capital expenses, and operation expenses required over five years to reach 5 million screenings.
Step 5: Execute and Monitor the Plans
Due to the timeline of the fellowship, I did not have time to be involved in executing the strategic plans. Forus Health will start executing the plans within a few months. Executing strategies requires clear communication with the entire organization so everyone involved understands their responsibilities and how to measure the plan’s success. An organization must also fully commit to the plans to properly execute them. Finally, one must assess progress by defining key performance indicators and should adjust plans as needed.
References:
Alonso, T. (2023, January 27). What are strategic initiatives? how to develop & execute + examples. Strategy Software for Planning & Execution. https://www.cascade.app/blog/strategic-initiatives
Martins, J. (2022, October 6). Strategic planning: 5 planning steps, process guide [2023] • asana. Asana. https://asana.com/resources/strategic-planning
Ramer, C. (2023, June 9). Strategic planning basics. Balanced Scorecard Institute. https://balancedscorecard.org/strategic-planning-basics/
Strategic initiatives. AIHR. (2023, January 24). https://www.aihr.com/hr-glossary/strategic-initiatives/
Team, U. C. (2023, February 5). Example of strategic initiatives: How to develop and execute them?. Thoughts about Product Adoption, User Onboarding and Good UX | Userpilot Blog. https://userpilot.com/blog/example-of-strategic-initiatives/
Wiles, J. (2023, May 29). 9 steps to successful functional strategic planning. Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/9-steps-successful-functional-strategic-planning
