- What is Tactical Planning
- Examples of Tactical Planning
- Key elements of Tactical Planning
- Importance of Tactical Planning
What is Tactical Planning?
Tactical Planning refers to a strategy that helps in creating short-term and distinct plans that help fulfil the long-term plans of a business, organization, or individual. Strategic planning helps companies to determine and lay out a long-term plan according to the business objectives. Tactical planning helps break down this long-term plan further into smaller, short-term goals with clearly defined goals that enable companies to achieve them.
Also Read – Smart goals
These short-term tasks are feasible to achieve, which means that completing these will eventually fulfill the company’s strategic or long-term goal.
Tactical planning also helps to improve the current situation of a business as short-term activities are planned depending upon the current business model and growth. So it helps set the pace for long-term goals by setting realistic expectations based on the current scenario. Most businesses rely on tactical planning to accomplish the short-term goals of businesses and set into motion the progress of long-term goals.
Do you wish to be an entrepreneur but have trouble implementing ideas? Often people have a clear vision of the future or strategic plans in place, but they lack translating them into reality. Whether you are pursuing a business idea, searching for a job, or simply aspiring to personal goals, planning is the most important aspect of creating a successful career path. Without planning and curated steps, it will be arduous to realize your vision, let alone progress towards career goals.
There are instances where you have to make a quick decision for your career or business. For instance, if you have been hunting for a job for a while and couldn’t come across any relevant option, then it makes sense to step back and think of your aspirations. Think about the specific designations that match your skillset or look for qualities in an employer that aligns with your career goals/interests.
Planning and strategy work hand in hand to help an individual achieve personal and business goals. The first step is to set a clear objective and then outline the plan to follow up. One such strategy to plan your goals is with the help of Tactical Planning.
Examples of Tactical Planning
- Hiring more staff by Q2
A detailed tactical plan for hiring more marketing staff by the end of Q2 will involve three main steps. First, start by creating a hiring profile with a detailed job description. The next step is to start an outreach campaign on LinkedIn and other relevant sites to find candidates that meet the specific requirement and attract potential talents. Additionally, the hiring recruiters can further improve their hiring efforts by setting up career fairs at universities to hire fresh talent.
- Coca Cola’s Tactical Planning
The managers at beverage giant Coca-Cola developed a strategic plan to strengthen its position in the market and establish themselves as leaders. As part of this development plan, Coca-Cola bought various global independent bottlers to form a new alliance called Coca-Cola Enterprise. This new move was initiated as the company identified a critical threat – constant unrest between independent bottlers that packaged Coca-Cola products regarding prevalent environmental concerns over empty bottles.
By buying the bottles, a tactical plan was placed in motion by Coca-Cola’s top managers. This helped in countering the imminent threat by independent bottlers and at the same time gave strong brand recognition to Coca-Cola. Asa form of the tactical plan, the new enterprise by the company translated into more profits, stability in the market, and more control in the company’s hands. This tactical plan helped re-position the company in the market and increased revenue as an achievement of the company’s strategic plan.
- Close more deals for an Enterprise product in a month
The tactical planning involved in closing more and more deals each month will require some small yet actionable steps. The first step requires enrolling more representatives in mentoring and training sessions for that particular product. Once the reps understand the nitwits of the Enterprise products, the next step is to assign them with individual goals. Set demos for each agent along with realistic and achievable goals according to their skillset and caliber. At the end of the month, analyze their individual performance and create incentives for those who closed maximum deals in a month.
Key elements of Tactical Planning
Creating a tactical plan varies with the type of organization and its unique business goals. However, creating a successful tactical plan requires the following key elements outlined below –
- Goals -The first element of tactical planning is its goals. Goals should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. Setting SMART goals and establishing a time frame will increase focus and productivity, which will significantly improve the end goal.
Creating effective goals in a tactical plan means developing a specific and realistic plan whose success can be measured and has a timeline that increases the likelihood of task completion in time.
- Tactics – Tactics refer to strategies that can be used in tactical planning to improve the outcome of business goals. Tactics do not come with a set time frame for completion, but they assist in progressing towards the end result.
For instance, The company Walt Disney, in a push for its expansion and swift international growth to generate more revenue from foreign markets, developed a tactical plan to expand their TV channel Disney into more foreign markets. While this does not seem to be a huge undertaking, its tactical plan will help support the overall international growth.
- Actionable steps -The next crucial element in a tactical plan includes taking actionable steps to achieve the success of each short-term goal. These are specific steps that are outlined to progress towards the end goal.
For instance, let us take the Walt Disney scenario and understand the actionable steps taken to make tactics a success. So, to achieve international growth and continue the expansion process, actionable steps will include making a list of potential markets to expand the cable channel Disney and creating a step-by-step plan on setting the cost for subscription and doing it right as well in a timely manner.
- Timeline -Timeline is one of the most important elements of a tactical planning process. It refers to the time duration needed to accomplish each task or action. Actionable steps should be prioritized well so that the tasks are in order of execution. Otherwise, a lot of time and extra resources will get wasted in the process. Setting a timeline or a deadline is important to navigate towards the achievement of goals or a good outcome.
- Resources -Resources may include material, workforce, equipment, finance, outsourcing products, and more needed to achieve a tactical plan’s success. Managers usually require various resources for the successful completion of tasks. It is important to evaluate in advance what is required and when. For instance, if a goal requires putting together certain products in a PR package, then resources, in this case, will include the list of those products and time.
Importance of Tactical Planning
Creating a tactical plan is worth the time to support the execution of business goals in a swift and successful manner. Let us discuss its various benefits for any organization –
- A tactical plan is not lengthy like a strategic plan, so it is easier to achieve short-term goals or tasks in real-time. Such goals assist businesses to get closer to the fulfillment of long-term objectives.
- Tactical planning offers the flexibility to carry out tasks with fewer risks as compared to strategic planning.
- By turning strategies into actionable steps, tactical planning offers continuous support to meet business objectives and goals in a timely manner.
- Tactical plans can be altered as per the current situation or requirements of the business. The change in plan or actionable steps will help boost the success of the end goal.
- Tactical planning is crucial for improved performance of the business as it lays a clear and concise plan for colleagues and project members to follow.
- By setting a deadline and prioritizing tasks, the tactical plan ensures that tasks are delegated in order of their preference and the estimated time to completion is met effectively.
- Tactical planning encourages employees and boosts engagement as well as business-wide development.
- A tactical plan can be set in motion to be undertaken in 1 to 3 years and can help expand the business and its strategic goals.
- Determining key performance indicators at the tactical level helps businesses measure their current performances and improve their position in the market.
- When the tactical plan is developed in alignment with the company’s strategic plan, it improves the success of long-term goals.
- A tactical plan uncovers inefficiencies or faults which encourage businesses to take necessary actions to prevent them.
- By taking employee inputs into consideration, tactical planning helps provide first-hand insights into the working plan and improve it further.
In addition to learning more about Tactical planning, you can pursue professional courses designed and delivered by the best industry professionals.
