Strategic Planning for Construction Success

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Ever feel like your construction projects are less 'building' and more 'battling'?  You're not alone. In today's fast paced world of construction, projects can spiral out of control fast without building a structured plan. Just like you would for any project, you need a solid strategic plan for your construction business.

To succeed as a business there is a portion of luck involved although it is about playing the numbers in your favour. Are we doing everything we can to succeed as a business?

To give us that advantage to succeed as a construction businesses, we need a solid strategic planning process to navigate the competitive landscape. Strategic planning aligns your company on key priorities, actionable goals and continuous looking to improve increases the odds of long-term success.

This guide explores the essentials of strategic planning in construction and the built environment, covering:

• What strategic planning is
• Why it’s critical for your business
• The seven steps of the strategic planning process
• Strategic frameworks tailored for construction
• Best practices for implementation

Let’s dive in and create a roadmap for success in the construction industry.

What Is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning creates the path for achieving your company’s goals. By looking at internal and external factors, the Strategic Planning reviews the gap between where your business currently is and where it needs to be. The idea is to build an action plan of what we need to do as a company in order to reach the next stage of our business.

Without a plan, your business will be wasting resources, time and energy as there will be gaps in the direction even if you are a sole Director/Owner of a business.

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Key Questions Answered by Strategic Planning:

• Where are you now? Evaluate your current strengths and weaknesses.
• Where do you want to be? Define your long-term objectives.
• How will you get there? Identify the strategies and resources required to achieve your goals.

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Strategic Planning Superpowers: Why Your Construction Business Needs It

In the construction industry, where projects are complex and market conditions can shift faster that foundation in quicksand, having a strategic plan isn't just a nice to have-it's your superpower. Without one, businesses risk misallocating resources, missing growth opportunities, or failing to adapt to change... A well-designed business strategy will assist you in growing the business with a strong foundation and to increase the odds, working with a Business Development Strategy specialist such as Saint Global will help accelerate the implementation of your strategy and provide accountability along the way.

A well-crafted strategic plan provides:

• Focus: Aligning your team on shared goals.
• Efficiency: Ensuring resources are allocated to the most impactful initiatives.
• Agility: Allowing you to adapt to market changes and unforeseen challenges.

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Laying the Foundation: Your Mission, Vision, and Values

The first stage is identifying what is your business trying to solve. Consider what type of projects you want to be working on, how many employees/subcontractors are you looking to manage and how do you want to position your company in the market. This will help in painting the picture of how your company will look like in the future and will guide the rest of the strategic planning process. Some questions to ask are:

• What is the purpose of our business?
• What are we looking to achieve long term?
• What are the key goods/services that we provide?
• What are our values/ethics?
• What qualities are looking for from our employees?

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Taking Stock: Where Does Your Business Stand? 

You can't build a house on a weak foundation. The same applies to your business.

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Taking a honest look at where your business currently stands, reviewing your resources, systems & processes (if in place), ongoing projects (what is going well, what doesn't go well), financial health, how do we compare to our competitors and current market conditions. Think of this as your business health check.

To really understand your current position, there are internal and external considerations. By performing a SWOT analysis of your business, you can objectively view how your business performs:

S: Strengths as a business (completive advantages)

W: Weaknesses as a business (where do we need to improve?)

O: Opportunities for improvement or growth (emerging trends/opportunities to leverage)

T: Threats to improvement or growth (changes in technology, regulations or consumer behaviour)

Another method is the PESTLE Analysis which is a comprehensive assessment of the external environment for your business and common when conducting environment scans for strategic planning. This can typical be a bit too much for a small construction company but it can help with the mindset required for strategic planning.

PESTLE stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors. Here are some examples that fall under each heading:

Political

• Political and government stability
• Political orientation
• Local and National elections
• Taxation (current & future)
• Trade Unions
• Wars (both home and international)
• Pandemic policies (Covid)
• Grants, funding, and other Pressure groups

Economic

• National debt
• Consumer spending
• Government Spending (current & future)
• Inflation
• Unemployment levels
• Taxation
• Exchange rate
• Supply chain volatility
• Overall economic situation

Social

• Demographics
• Customer attitudes and buying patterns
• Media influences and role models
• Brand image
• Ethical issues
• Consumer spend
• Post-pandemic lifestyle changes
• Cultural shifts

Technological

• Technology demand
• Technology development (current & future)
• Levels of research and development funding
• Intellectual property rights & copyright
• Lifecycle of a product
• Government investment in technology
• Internet connectivity

Legal

• Legislation in areas such as competition, Health & Safety, and employment laws
• Environmental legislation
• Changes and effects of EU law and Brexit
• Pandemic law changes
• Regulatory bodies

Environmental

• Global warming
• Pollution levels
• Plastic waste
• Attitudes of customers, media, protestors, and lawmakers on the environment
• Renewable energy
• Deforestation
• Green issues
• Sustainability
• Environmental protection

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Setting Your Sights: SMART Objectives and KPIs 

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Objective setting is about setting goals in the business. A model for effective goals is to set:

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Specific - what are we looking to accomplish i.e. increase sales by £100,000 within 12 months

Measurable - how can we track the progress of this goal? I.e. we want to see turnover increase from £700,000 to £800,000 - a tool like Xero would help us monitor this KPI and link it with our OKR dashboard.

Achievable - To continuous develop the business, it is important to set achievable targets that are manageable and motivate as to continue. Setting a target in year 1 to achieve £5 million would be ambitious to say the least.

Relevant - To what the company is looking to achieve and the direction of the business

Time-bound - To provide accountability and give yourself a deadline of when we want to have this goal in place/achieved by.

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These are called SMART objectives. These objectives should cover various aspects of the business, such as financial performance, project completion rates, customer satisfaction, and market expansion.

Once we have identified our objectives, we need to be able to track them. Within Saint Global’s Business Development Strategy they use Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track business performance. This is to ensure every level of the business is aligned and provides accountability to keep everyone on track.

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Example:

Objective: Improve on-time project delivery.

Key Result 1: Complete 90% of projects within deadlines.

Key Result 2: Reduce project delays by 20% in the next year.

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Blueprinting Your Success: How to Write a Solid Strategic Plan

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A Strategy can be hard to know what to include, the team at Saint Global have created us an Example Business Development Strategy Brief for our readers to assist them on their journey, you can view it here.

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Step 1 - Introduction & company review

Start with an executive summary: company details, situational analysis, mission statement & core values and business objectives

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Step 2 - Market Analysis

This is similar to a PESTLE analysis, we are reviewing the industry performance, latest market trends, identifying geographical operational zones, target clientele, strategic partnerships, USPs, SWOT and competitor analysis (environmental scan)

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Step 3 - Review of company performance (strategic approach)

Identifying the gaps in the business, where are we performing weak, do we have the right systems in place, have processes been identified, review of the customer journey, client/staff retention techniques and organisation structure reviews.

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Step 4 - Strategy Review and Monitoring 

Saint Global have quarterly reviews to keep Directors on the right path and provide accountability towards achieving the goals set out in the strategy. This increases productivity and accelerates the growth in the business 

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Step 5 - Conclusion

Forthcoming commentary of the strategy, bringing everything together.

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Staying on Course: Monitoring and Reviewing Your Strategy

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Once the strategy has been developed, this can be considered to be the easy part. The implementation side will consume time, funding and all of your effort to push it over the line. The strategy if used correctly will provide you with everything you need to stay on track from timelines, prioritised performance targets and direction.

The importance of the quarterly reviews is to give the opportunity to realign the strategy for any issues or inefficiencies and to take corrective action promptly.

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Every quarter at a minimum you want to be asking:

• Are there bottlenecks or inefficiencies?
• Are all systems/processes working effectively?
• How are external factors impacting our plan?
• Are we prepared to make adjustments as needed?

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Strategic Planning Frameworks for Construction Businesses

Example of frameworks can guide your strategic planning process:

• SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It's a decision-making tool used to identify the internal and external factors that are affecting a business to understand their current position.
• Balanced Scorecard (BSC): This involves measuring 4 areas of a business: Learning and growth, business processes, customers and finance.
• OKRs (Objectives and Key Results): Set measurable objectives that are linked with key results (identified goals with direction)
• Scenario Planning: Prepare for future with using different scenarios and seeing what impact it could have on the business i.e taking on a new employee or buying a new van.
• Porter’s Five Forces: A method of analysing competitive pressure within the industry i.e. new threats, supplier pressure (pricing/product demand), availability of alternative brands, competitive rivalry.

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Saint Global are Business Development Specialists for the Construction Industry and Built Environment assisting with common issues with Strategic Development and implementation. Here are a few areas Saint Global can assist with:

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• Proven strategy methodology and techniques
• Industry leading Market intelligence
• Aligning the planning and execution stages of the strategy with quarterly reviews to accelerate growth and accountability 
• OKR dashboard to view the latest analytics in the business
• Team buy in - established feedback measures and delegation to encourage team buy in

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Key Takeaways

Strategic planning is critical for success in the construction industry and the built environment. By following a structured process, leveraging robust frameworks, and maintaining flexibility, you can align your business goals with actionable strategies.

At Saint Global, we specialise in helping construction businesses craft strategic plans tailored to their unique challenges and opportunities. Contact us today to learn how we can help you build a roadmap for sustained growth and success in the construction industry.

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Why is strategic planning so important for construction businesses?

Strategic planning is crucial for construction businesses because it provides focus, improves efficiency, and increases agility.  It helps align teams on shared goals, ensures resources are used effectively, and enables businesses to adapt to changing market conditions and unexpected challenges.  Without a plan, construction businesses risk misallocating resources, missing growth opportunities, and struggling to compete.

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What are the key components of a strategic plan for a construction company?

A comprehensive construction strategic plan typically includes a clear mission, vision, and values statement; a thorough assessment of the current business position (including SWOT and PESTLE analyses); well-defined, measurable objectives (using SMART goals); a detailed action plan outlining the steps to achieve those objectives; and a system for monitoring progress and reviewing the strategy regularly.

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How often should a construction business review its strategic plan?

Strategic plans shouldn't be static documents.  Regular reviews are essential to ensure the plan remains relevant and effective.  At a minimum, construction businesses should conduct quarterly reviews to assess progress, identify any bottlenecks or inefficiencies, and make necessary adjustments.  More frequent check-ins may be needed depending on the pace of the business and the industry.

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What are some common strategic planning frameworks that construction businesses can use?

Several frameworks can guide the strategic planning process.  These include SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), Balanced Scorecard (BSC), OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), Scenario Planning, and Porter’s Five Forces.  Each framework offers a unique perspective and helps businesses analyse their internal and external environments, set goals, and develop effective strategies.

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How can Saint Global help my construction business with strategic planning?

Saint Global specialises in helping construction businesses develop and implement effective strategic plans.  They offer proven methodologies, industry-leading market intelligence, and ongoing support, including quarterly reviews, to ensure plans are executed successfully.  They can also help with aligning planning and execution, fostering team buy-in, and providing tools to track key performance indicators.

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