5 steps to business planning

Infographic funnel of the strategic planning process including purpose, vision, SWOT, PESTEL, and action planning—highlighting ISO business strategy alignment.

Well, it’s that time of year again, the Christmas songs are out and I’m already out of Whamageddon, having heard that damn song “Last Christmas” on the very first day of December! All far too early for me! In the words of another famous singer, Mr Lennon, “Another year over and what have we done?” […]

Mission, vision, values… what’s the purpose?

Chalkboard-style graphic with the words “Mission, Vision, Values… What’s the Purpose?” surrounded by business icons—used to frame ISO strategic intent and leadership context.

Many organisations publish their mission, vision and values statements but what is the purpose? The question above is actually two questions: The obvious one of “what is the purpose of a mission, vision and values statements?” The second is perhaps more interesting: What is the “purpose” of an organisation and how does this differ from […]

SWOT analysis

SWOT Analysis chart outlining strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats—used for strategic assessment in ISO 9001 planning and management reviews.

The SWOT analysis is probably the archetypal marketing or business planning tool, the origins for which seem have been lost in the mists of time. Some credit an American business thinker, a guy called Albert Humphrey, who worked at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) for its invention. However, whilst he developed other tools, […]

Porter analysis

Porter’s Five Forces diagram illustrating competitive rivalry, threat of new entrants and substitutes, and bargaining power of suppliers and customers—used in ISO market and risk analysis.

When to use it Porter’s Five Forces Model is another well-known, top-level, battle-hardened, often deployed tool for analysing the external competitive environment a business faces, but whereas PESTEL works at the macro-environmental level (looking at the issues beyond the control of the company), Porter works at a level below that, where, very significantly, given the […]

PESTEL analysis

Visual breakdown of PESTEL Analysis showing political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors for external strategic assessment in ISO business planning.

PESTEL analysis is probably one of the most well-known, top-level, battle-hardened and frequently deployed business planning tools – a great tool! PESTEL being an acronym for Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Environmental and Legislation. When we first came across the tool (some 30 years ago) it was simply PEST analysis: the EL has been added along […]