Strategic planning creates the tactical roadmap that maximizes the organization's unique strengths in three key areas: "master strategy," leadership, and corporate culture. The master strategy is an approach that all organizations utilize in one way or another, building toward aggressive growth, maximized profits, and sustained profitability.
The strategic plan should be the cornerstone of every financial institution's "master strategy," but few organizations fully utilize the strategic planning process as the central mechanism for planning and guiding the institution toward its strategic objectives.