A strategic planner gathers and interprets knowledge about an organization, including financials, operations, marketing, and public perception. They also consider external factors like competitors, customers, and the economy to make recommendations for future operations. This mid-career position often leads to promotion to top management or even CEO.
A strategic planner works to provide a framework that helps the organization plan for future operations and growth. The position requires in-depth knowledge of the organization and the ability to understand and work across multiple disciplines including finance, marketing and research. With a mixture of research and careful projections, a typical strategic planner will try to find the best balance between fact and speculation.
One of the main duties of a strategic planner is to gather and interpret knowledge about his organization. An individual in this position generally knows all facets of an organization’s history, from financials and operations, to public perception and marketing efforts. It is also important to keep track of current and future financial projections and understand the budget and its impact on future operations.
A strategic planner will also look at elements outside the organization such as competitors, customers and the general economic climate. The planner will compare this information with internal data to determine the organization’s position in relation to the rest of the world. With this data, the planner can make recommendations on how the organization should handle current and future operations.
Depending on a company’s needs, a strategic planner can wait anywhere from a few years to a few decades. A plan can focus on a single issue or provide a vision for the entire organization. The planner must be able to reconcile information that generally remains the same, such as the organizational vision, values and history, with ever-changing elements, including finances, customer behavior, marketing trends and the general climate in the outside world.
A typical strategic planner works closely with top management, although it is often necessary to contact all levels of employees to get a clear understanding of how the organization works. Because planners spend so much time with senior executives, they tend to better understand how to succeed in that position. For this reason, many strategic planners end up being promoted to the highest levels of an organization and even the position of CEO (CEO).
Due to the depth of organizational knowledge required by the position, many strategic planners are promoted from within. They tend to be mid-career professionals, although some Masters of Business Administration occasionally enter the workforce in that position. It is also possible for an entry-level professional to enter the field by working first as an assistant strategic planner in a larger organization.
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