Strategic planning is a crucial aspect of senior management in any company across all industries. Strategic planning includes projecting a company's response and behavior in a competitive market, creating a market strategy, and adapting the company's resources to support the strategy.
The ongoing strategic planning process defines the future of a company. A strategic plan is developed to record the company's goals and outline the necessary steps to be taken and the milestones required to achieve those goals. In this article, we hope to convey great appreciation for having a strategic plan to keep your company on track with all necessary tasks and activities, identify areas for improvement, make course corrections, avoid execution pitfalls, and lead all activities to get you in the right direction. certain. Allow us to contribute our knowledge and help you develop your own strategic plan for your construction company.
What should be the objectives of a construction company?
Most of the time, good strategic planning starts with defining the company's mission statement. A great mission statement is one that is absorbed as a living asset by the company and its members. By defining your company statement, you will begin to get an idea about your company's goals and ambitions. As you begin to craft and outline your strategic plan, some adjustments will have to be made to your mission statement. However, you must ensure that your strategic plan does not deviate from the company's objectives.
Your company's goals are often the fuel for your strategic plan. There are many different types of goals to set: they can be (1) organizational, (2) financial, (3) human resources, (4) leadership, (5) marketing, and (6) sales. For a construction company, here are some competitive objectives:
- Deliver high-quality projects
- Keep construction projects on time and on budget
- Be data-driven
- Effectively connect the workplace to the office
- Standardize construction systems and processes
- Invest in training employees and teams
- Customer satisfaction
Your goals define your strategic plan, your mission statement, and everything else you do on your project. The more specific you are with your goals, the better. Don’t stop with “let’s improve productivity”. Be more exact. “We will improve workplace productivity by 50% by improving communication through the implementation of construction collaboration software.”
What is strategic planning in construction?
Strategic planning in construction generally involves a six-step framework. This is not a one-size-fits-all model, but a recommended process that has brought equal benefits to many construction companies.
1. Studying the company's mission: The company's mission expresses the project owner's perspective regarding the scope of the company's activities and objectives. By defining your company's mission, you establish an internal baseline. You might start asking yourself these questions:
- What are the goals of your company and the project?
- What is your company good at? List all of your core competencies.
- What is your business objective?
2. Examining the company's business environment: Economic factors affecting business activities and related factors specific to the construction industry. Business environment research reveals specific project opportunities and draws attention to risks and possible threats to a company's activities. By studying the business or market environment and trends, you establish a healthy external baseline.
- What are the external factors that impact your construction business?
- What are the identifiable market dynamics?
- What are your customer demographics, behaviors, needs, etc. that can help you in your decision making?
- What competitive variables can you analyze?
3. Analyzing company resources : The main resources in construction include construction capacity, purchasing system, marketing system, organization, personnel, finance and knowledge. After identifying these main resources, their strengths and weaknesses are also defined.
- What makes it better than the competition in terms of features?
- How can you innovate?
4. Developing strategies : By mapping the various possible areas of activity, a strategy is developed that can follow one of several types of general strategy that must be adjusted according to specific market and company conditions, and the company's resources . When choosing the most optimal strategy, careful analysis of costs and benefits should be considered especially when implementing the strategy.
- What market and company conditions should be considered?
- In what logical order should activities be performed?
- Who will do what?
5. Aligning and executing strategies: Your strategic plan will balance all of your company's short- and long-term operations and goals to accomplish your overarching mission. The key is to communicate your strategic plans internally at every level and at every possible opportunity. External communication with subcontractors must also be aligned. Stakeholders and teams must understand the roles they must play and the decisions they must make in executing the plan.
- What measures are needed to support future actions?
- Do you have the right team to support the actions needed to reach a milestone?
- What activities are necessary to carry out before achieving a goal?
6. Review, measure, modify: Your strategic plan will result in strategic processes and systems that will need to be evaluated and measured. Those that work must be learned and standardized, while those that don't must be adjusted.
The importance of strategic planning in construction
Strategic planning is essential to determine the direction of your construction company. Having a well-crafted strategic plan focuses your efforts and ensures that all stakeholders and project team members are working toward a common goal.
- Strategic planning ensures that all your actions are logical and planned to contribute to the efficient delivery of the project and your overall standard construction process.
- Strategic planning aligns all resources to obtain optimal results.
- Strategic planning prioritized financial needs.
- Strategic planning creates a competitive advantage for your construction company.
- Strategic planning engages stakeholders and project teams and effectively communicates what needs to be done.
Another significant aspect of strategic planning is helping you manage and reduce risk. Strategic construction planning helps you:
- Analyze potential construction and business risks.
- Implement risk control measures at the business level and in the workplace.
- Eliminate uncertainty.
- Consider how to mitigate the impact of risks if they occur.
What are the objectives of construction planning?
Construction planning objectives revolve around basic management and balancing three aspects: scope, time and cost. Construction planning, ideally, is an ongoing process, which should be reviewed and modified as the execution of a construction project progresses in real time. Good construction planning must be within the limits of the defined scope, cost and schedule, without compromising the quality of your construction project.
Following the Project Management Triangle representation, the peripheral objectives that contribute to balancing these three aspects include these typical project planning objectives:
- Your construction plan should involve planning each activity throughout the construction project process.
- Your construction plan should define and detail all construction methods involved.
- Your construction plan should contain an outline of all construction machinery and equipment needed to carry out the project.
- Your construction plan should include procurement details for all necessary materials.
- Your construction plan should also detail human resources and employee skills.
- Your construction plan must also include all necessary documentation and drawings.
- Your construction plan should also have financial planning integrated into all construction activities.
Conclusion
Now that you have a clear idea of what strategic planning is and why it's important for improving your construction results and growing your construction business, it's time to sit down and start writing your own. It is not an easy task, but it will be a roadmap to enormous success.
