The journey takes us at the heart of strategic planning in small enterprises (SEs). We explore the role of strategy and business models in SEs and how the two are adopted by SE managers, the level of involvement of their employees, and the outcomes on the enterprise.

In the increasingly fast-paced and highly competitive business landscape systemic strategic planning provides small enterprises (SEs) with valuable opportunities to understand and thoroughly examine their enterprises’ internal and external environments, and identify ways to enhance the likelihood of steering the company towards a preferred future.
In this in situ research initiative, which focuses on enterprises in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, we seek primarily to gather a better understanding of small enterprise managers’ views on strategic planning. Secondly, we explore tools, techniques, and practices used. Thirdly, we explore the growing trend of business modeling and how it is welcomed by SEs.
Our research team has uncovered a limited use or absence of systemic strategic planning amongst SEs. As a result, many SE managers have a preconceived notion that strategic planning is not for them and thus, at a cost, turn their attention to what is inherently most intuitive to them: operational planning.
SE managers often focus on an isolated aspect of the process, such as sales or financial performance, rather than the integrated process, and thus fail to close the loop.
Our research findings have identified a combination of key factors that impact the adoption of strategic planning. To that affect, several recommendations are proposed to the stackeholders as means of increasing the systemic adoption of strategic planning in SEs.