Strategic planning document for a manufacturer. Sensitive client information has been removed from this document.

1. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan 2011 – 2015
Facilitated by Richard Wolf, CPA
August 8, 2011

2. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
Introduction
ABC Manufacturing Company (“ABC” or the “Company”) was interested in preparing a strategic plan to
explore and analyze the opportunities and threats facing ABC, both internal and external, that
contribute to or impede the development of a vision and strategy for the future.
This strategic plan is intended to serve as a guiding framework to grow and enhance the Company and
provide a five year roadmap that focuses the management team’s time and energy for achieving the
Company’s goals.
The strategic plan was developed with broad involvement and guidance from various members of the
management team. The strategic planning session consisted of approximately 15 participants who met
for one eight-hour planning session. The goal of this session was to develop the “Top 6 Strategies” and
to begin prioritization. The action planning was to be done by the Company’s management team in the
weeks following the strategic planning session.
The strategic planning process was tailored upon discussion with the senior management team and was
designed to build on the accomplishments of the past seventy years and on the continuing strength of
the Company. Richard Wolf facilitated the strategic planning process using the Insights to Action (i2a)
Strategic Thinking System. The i2a system is based on the five qualities of extraordinary leaders: Sight,
Insight, Create, Communicate and Inspire. Steps in the i2a process included:
 Developing a shared history of ABC Manufacturing Company
 Exploring the Company’s future direction based on our strength, challenge, opportunity, threat
(SCOT) analysis
 Identifying key strategic initiatives and drafting a vision statement that reflects these strategies
 Creating priorities for the management team as they develop the strategic action plan
This report summarizes the strategic planning process and organizational priorities for ABC
Manufacturing Company. This report is a living document that will help guide the future work of the
Company. This report will be referred to and adjusted as strategies are undertaken, as well as when
changes occur that impact those strategies.
Executive Summary
The Company’s management team identified the following strategic focus areas as part of the strategic
planning process:
 Co-Pack Growth
 Corporate Branding
 Enhanced Communication
 Chain Account Growth
 Standardized Business Processes
 Professional Development

3. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
Each strategic initiative will be discussed in greater detail within this strategic planning report, as well as
the process utilized to reach these initiatives.
i2a Strategic Planning Process
For the strategic planning process, we utilized selected modules from the i2a process. The modules
included: Our History, SCOT Analysis, 360° World View, Bold Future and Creating Priorities.
Our History
The purpose of the “Our History” module is to create a base starting point for the strategic planning
discussion. Since some of the members of ABC’s management team are relatively new to the company,
it was important to discuss what could be learned from past mistakes and past successes. This shared
history was also critical for ensuring that we preserved what is most important about where the
Company came from.
Shared History
[REMOVED FROM DOCUMENT]
Our History – Takeaways
Some important takeaways from this exercise were:
 The Company has a long history dating back to 1940
 Proud to be a third generation company
 Retail expansion in the 1940s as the Company went National
 In the 1950s the Company moved to food service
 West Coast site was added in 1997
 In 2008 moved into a state of the art facility which expands ability to co-pack

4. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
SAMPLE
Our History chart
SCOT Analysis
The next module in the i2a process was the SCOT Analysis. A SCOT Analysis (also referred to as a SWOT
analysis) examines an organization’s Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, and Threats and is a mainstay
of business analysis. It focuses on the issues of today from both an internal (as in “we the organization”)
and an external (as in “the larger environment”) perspective.
The identified strengths included:
 Quality  State of the art  Strong financials
 Brand recognition facility  Dedicated
 Bi-Coastal  Customer service employees
 Distribution channels
The identified challenges included:
 Need to change image  Pricing and Margins  High turnover
 Lack of mature processes  Retail distribution  Produce expertise
The identified opportunities included:
 Sales growth through co-  Ability to capitalize on  Safety certifications
pack opportunities changing image  RDC
 Chain accounts  Value line  NPD
 Cash & carry business  IQF Customers  Increase retail sales

5. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
Finally, the identified threats included:
 Economy  Competition  Customer retention
 Brand erosion  Shrinking margins  Distributor consolidation
SCOT Analysis – Takeaways
The final step in the SCOT Analysis is to select the “high-leverage” opportunities via a vote of the
management team. Of the original list of opportunities, the following “high-leverage” opportunities
were identified:
 Co-pack opportunities  Cash & Carry  Ability to capitalize on
 Chain accounts  NPD changing image
SCOT Analysis chart
360° World View
The purpose of the 360° World View module is to look, as best we can, to the future. From this view of
the future, we seek to create solutions that will be relevant and meaningful. We look to things in our
environment that are outside of our immediate context. We tried to focus on what is worth “watching”
and how it might impact the Company in the future.

6. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
As part of this module, we examined the following six categories to help frame our discussion:
 Globalization (Anything happening at a more “macro” level)
 Economics (Economic conditions impacting the Company)
 Workforce (What’s likely to change about the people the Company hires?)
 Industry Trends (What’s happening within the industry?)
 Technology Trends (What’s happening technologically that’s likely to impact the Company?)
 Consumer/Customer Trends (How are our customers changing?)
360° World View – Takeaways
Some important takeaways from the 360° World View module were:
 Fewer small distributors  Slow growth and stronger competition
 Sales opportunities through the web due to acquisitions in the industry
 Pricing  Export potential
 Packaging  Ethnic markets and more diverse flavors
 Move towards healthier foods
360° World View chart

7. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
Bold Future
The next module in the i2a process is creating our Bold Future. This module focuses on three questions:
 What do we want to create?
 How do we want to create this future?
 What are our next steps?
The end result from this module is to name and define our strategic initiatives and to then identify our
top strategies for our strategic plan.
Vision Statement
The initial step of the Bold Future module was for the group to imagine what the Company would look
like five years in the future. From the discussions that followed, the management team came up with
the following “story” of ABC Manufacturing Company in 2015:
ABC Manufacturing Company will be successful and a recognized co-pack retailer of
choice. The Company will have experienced increased sales and introduced numerous
new products. The Company will have better communication and are more cohesive
process. ABC will have brought in new chain accounts and seen an increase in retail
growth which resulted in continued expansion.
This “story” is frequently referred to as a Vision Statement. A vision statement describes a company in
the somewhat distant future. While a vision statement and mission statement may seem similar in
nature, there is a difference in the two statements. A mission statement is typically more concerned
with the overall aim of the company, a statement on the company’s reason for being. A vision
statement, by contrast, is not about what the company currently is, but what the company hopes to
become.
Our vision statement focused on a few key ideas that the management team saw popping up
throughout the strategic planning session.

8. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
Bold Future chart – 5 Years Out
Once we determined our future goals, the next step in the Bold Future module was to brainstorm on
how to achieve those goals. The Committee was asked to develop ideas for the next year that would
allow us to accomplish the future we had created.
Bold Future – The Upcoming Year – Takeaways
The takeaways when developing our plan for the upcoming year were:
 Become recognized copacker retailer of choice
 Increased brand recognition
 Regain market share
 Focused marketing efforts
 Training of sales force on various product lines
 Interdepartmental education
 Better communication
 Increased synergy between East Coast and West Coast operations
 Retail growth of approximately 10-15%

9. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
 Greater diversity in product mix
 Create new products that stimulate excitement
 Land new chain accounts
 Departmental accountability
 Improve processes to create efficiency
Bold Future chart – One Year Out

10. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
The final step in the Bold Future module is to group these ideas into strategic focus areas. These
strategic focus areas would become the Top Strategies in our strategic plan. The management team
examined the various ideas and consolidated them into the following Top 6 Strategic Focus Areas:
 Co-Pack Growth
 Corporate Branding
 Enhanced Communication
 Chain Account Growth
 Standardized Business Processes
 Professional Development
Creating Priorities
The final module in the i2a process is Creating Priorities. In this module, the management team began
to brainstorm on some specific action items and then categorized them into three different groups
based on their prioritization. The three different groups are:
 Critical – High likelihood of impacting our future success and the timing to address is NOW
 Essential – May impact our future success and the timing to address is FLEXIBLE
 Significant – Not likely to DIRECTLY impact our future success but addressing may bolster Critical
and Essential efforts
Creating Priorities – Key Takeaways
The key takeaway from this module was the identification of some specific action plans and then the
categorization as Critical, Essential or Significant.
The critical items identified were:
 Seek targeted opportunities for co-packing
 More cross marketing
 Better definition of roles & responsibilities
 Dedicated staff with prospecting plan for national accounts
 Ongoing product training and creation of training tools
The essential items identified were:
 Update the website to enhance the co-pack area
 Focus on current brands and give incentives to switch and grow
 Information flow chart
 Creation of an intranet to enhance communication
 Create an internal ABC Manufacturing Company University to provide better training on product
lines and also inform all employees on various jobs within the Company

11. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
Finally, the significant items identified were:
 Alliance with current co-packers for referrals
 Develop and document specific procedures for each job within the Company
 Video conferencing between East Coast and West Coast operations
 Hire co-pack focused salesperson
 Develop one message that is easily understood and can be communicated to all customers
 Increase incentives for chain accounts
 Minimum of quarterly meeting for all employees to inform them of current events within ABC
Manufacturing Company
Creating Priorities chart

12. ABC Manufacturing Company
Strategic Plan – 2011-2015
Next Steps
The next step for ABC Manufacturing Company was to assign a “champion” for each of the six strategic
initiatives identified during the strategic planning session. Once a champion was identified, it was their
responsibility to communicate the results of the strategic planning session to their task force and then
to develop an action plan detailing specific action items for each of the strategic initiatives. It was also
important that the Critical ideas from the Creating Priorities module get incorporated into the action
plans. Finally, each task force would be responsible for communicating their action plan to the entire
management team and then tracking the implementation and success of their strategic initiative.