A good tool to provide focus for developing strategic plans using the information from a SWOT analysis is a TOWS analysis. It’s the ‘so what?’ that follows your SWOT, and uses the internal and external factors identified in the SWOT to help develop a strategic plan. 

Quadrant one (S-O) identifies the plans we can make using our strengths to take advantage of the opportunities. Quadrant two (W-O) identifies plans that are needed to overcome the weaknesses that prevent us from taking advantage of the opportunities. Quadrant three (S-T) identifies the plans to use our strengths to overcome the external threats we face. Finally, quadrant four (W-T) identifies those plans needed to minimise any threats that occur because of our weaknesses.

Consider this in the light of the management information you have already and you can start to be specific about your plans, improving the likelihood of success. You will have a clearer idea of the activities needed to take advantage of opportunities, or mitigate threats. For example, growing dispensing items might be an opportunity, but if you segment dispensing items, you might find threats to walk-in volume, but opportunities to increase prescriptions from GP surgeries by promoting electronic repeat or serial dispensing. 

A good TOWS analysis will generate many plans. The next stage is to identify the value that could be generated by each plan and prioritise which plans should be implemented to add or preserve the greatest value to the business.

The main focus of your business plan is identifying your goals and objectives.

Goals should describe the future state to which you want to move. The better you are able to describe this, the easier it will be to achieve. You should include performance and implementation goals. You might set targets for prescription numbers, or service activities, but balance this with implementation enablers that will be required to deliver the performance you want, like skills development within the team to deliver a new service, or an upgrade in IT capability, for example text messaging to tell customers their prescriptions are awaiting collection.

If goal setting is used to decide the destination of a journey, objective setting is integral in deciding the route. Objectives are activities and should describe what is going to be done. From objectives more detailed plans can be developed. Sometimes when you look at the activities in a business plan you will find that objectives written to deliver one goal also support others.

Objective setting and writing detailed plans are a management role, but can be shared with your team. They will be the ones delivering some of these objectives and they will see the problems of their implementation from a different position.