Question

What is the difference between strategic plan, tactical plan and operational plan?can you please give specific examples.

Accepted Answer

Each of these is an approach to achieving the organization's goals at their respective strategic, tactical, and operational levels.  Once the organization sets strategic, tactical, and operational goals, it should develop respective plans achieving the goals at each level.A strategic plan focuses on the entire organization, at a high level, and establishes a formula for how the business will achieve the goals that meet the mission statement.  The strategic plan might establish a target number for improving a business process.  A tactical plan describes actions (tactics) that various divisions or departments will take to meet the demands of the strategic plan.  Not as high level as, and more specific than, the strategic plan, it establishes general actions and/or deadlines that support the strategic plan .  The tactical plan might establish target numbers for how the divisions or departments will meet the target numbers set in the strategic plan.  An operational plan focuses on how the tactical and operational plan will actually be carried out.  This should include specific numbers, deadlines, staffing decisions, and other information that details who, what, when, where, and how the division or department will do its part to achieve the organization's mission in line with the strategic and tactical plans.Here's an example from the non-profit world: If part of the mission is to eliminate the conditions that cause poverty, then one of the strategic goals might be to change the regulations that prevent low-income people from getting public assistance if they have any assets (such as a car or home).  The strategic plan would include getting public and legislative support for such a change in federal and state policy.A tactical goal would be to educate legislators about the adverse effect the current policies have on low-income people struggling to get out of poverty and how these policies create roadblocks that keep them in poverty (people need a car to get to their job, for example).  A tactical plan that supports this would be identify which public policies are creating the roadblocks, what types of policy changes are needed, and to develop those educational materials,
The operational plan might include a series of a series of breakfast meetings with state and federal legislators.  It would identify who would participate (staff, community members, which legislators,etc.), how many meetings, what pieces of legislation need to be changed or created, etc.

Answer

Strategic plans, tactical plans, and operational plans all work together to move an organization forward. The difference between them lies in the level of specificity and the level of management which deals with them.
To provide specific examples for the purposes of this question, I will consider the question from the point of view of an advertising agency.
Strategic planning affects the whole company and is the responsibility of top management. Strategic plans are broad and general and deal with the mission of the company, as well as its future goals. So, for an advertising agency, a strategic plan could be something like this: To gain new clients by providing innovative service, having state-of-the-art technology at our disposal and staying on the cutting edge of the industry.
Tactical planning relates to mid-level management and offers specific actions as ways of working towards the strategic plan. These plans are less general than strategic plans, but still do not include vast amounts of detail. An example would be making a list of new positions that would need to be filled to ensure the viability of the agency's strategic plan.
Operational planning, executed by low-level management, is when we get to the specific details. They look at the company's day-to-day activities and consider the processes and procedures that would support the tactical plans. An example would be considering the computing needs of the agency: How many new machines do we need to buy? How many existing computers need to be upgraded? What software is required and where will we buy it?

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What is the difference between strategic plan, tactical plan and operational plan? can you please give specific examples.

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