10 Steps to Successful Strategic Planning

A strategic plan is central to a company's ability to make critical business decisions and develop a mission and vision that will inspire and excite employees, customers, partners and shareholders. Yet, many organizations shy away from strategic planning due to pitfalls that range from overwhelming complexity to fears that such planning is a waste of time in an ever-changing marketplace. 10 Steps to Strategic Planning offers a process as simple as it sounds to help you overcome your fear and get your organization on the path to planned success. Loaded with worksheets, exercises, tips, tools, checklists, and other easy-to-use and interactive learning aids, this book walks you through the process from beginning to end.

About the Authors

Susan Barksdale and Teri Lund have worked together for more than 15 years providing businesses with consulting services and expertise in strategic planning, evaluation, and performance improvement. They are known for their practical approaches to improving business processes, performance, and the bottom line, and have been praised for their ability to translate complex theory into easy-to-understand applications. They have worked to improve performance and strategy for many organizations, including HP, Intel, Microsoft, Allstate Insurance, Wells Fargo, US Bank, The Capital Group Companies, TVA, ETHOS Development, Sun Microsystems, and Intelsoft Texhnologies.

Susan Barksdale has been a consultant for many large corporations for the past 23 years. Prior to this, she managed training and consulting departments for two financial consulting firms. She holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin (UW). Before entering the performance improvement field in 1979, she was a psychotherapist at a major medical center and in private practice. Barksdale also taught communication and behavior management courses at UW-Milwaukee.

Teri Lund has been an external consultant for the past 15 years, after holding management positions for Barclays Bank, Kaiser Permanente, and Sealund and Associates. She has a bachelor of science degree in education from Montana State University and a master's degree in international business and finance from New York University. Lund has in-depth experience in managing projects, implementing technology solutions, and determining and measuring return-on-investment.

Barksdale and Lund repeatedly have been invited to present their work before international audiences at professional performance improvement conferences, and their writing has been published in several periodicals.