Strategic planning is critical to business success. Different from classic business planning, the strategic variety involves vision, mission and outside-of-the-box thinking. Strategic planning describes where you want your company to go, not necessarily how you're going to get there. However, like all other "travel plans," without knowing where you want to go, creating details on how to arrive are meaningless. Strategic planning defines the "where" that your company is heading.
Often confused with business operation plans, strategic plans are expressions of ownership dreams and visions of successful results. Strategic planning functions as the "design" just as a blueprint functions as the "how" to build something. The strategic plan displays the finished product or goal. Usually, in smaller businesses, strategic planning is focused on the overall company, not on a department or division.