What is the Difference Between Strategic Planning and Operational Planning?
The difference between strategic and operational planning is about focus:
- Strategic Planning. At the strategic level, an organization employs available resources to secure its business goals & objectives (e.g., corporate business plan).
- Operational Planning. At the operational level, an organization uses available resources to attain those strategic goals & objectives within a specific Line of Business (LOB).
- Tactical Planning. At a tactical level, departments/teams employ techniques/procedures to support operational objectives, as defined by the LOB.
Strategy planning refers to the organizational level mission and goals of the business (e.g., executive-level management):
- Strategic planning focuses on long-term business goals and strategic objectives.
- It is typically executive-level and involves “looking into the future” to determine where the business should be in 3, 5 or 10 years and then developing the concept for how to achieve those goals.
Operational planning refers to the ongoing processes and activities that support the daily functioning and overall mission of an organization (e.g., mid-level management):
- Operational planning focuses on managing and coordinating resources, systems and workflows to deliver consistent and reliable outcomes.
- It is typically mid-level and involves managing teams, ensuring policies and procedures are followed and maintaining systems’ performance. For example, an operational plan in cybersecurity might involve running continuous monitoring systems, managing incident response teams, or maintaining access controls.
Effectively connecting strategy and operations is crucial, where a well-crafted strategy without solid operational execution fails to deliver value and operations without strategic guidance may lack purpose or efficiency.