What are the rules of effective strategic planning?

1. Ensure political accountability and leadership
2. Ensure wider corporate ownership and responsibility
3. Have clear and agreed objectives
4. Establish clear governance structures
5. Make the best use of skills and resources
6. Get the right partners round the table
7. Develop and manage relationships
8. Maintain continuity in decision-makers and key personnel
9. Establish good project management principles
10. Keep arrangements under review

10 Rules for Effective Strategic Planning

• The definition. First things first. Strategic planning is any process meant to determine a company's future direction, including its key goals, strategies for achieving them, and business plans.
• Executive owner and facilitator. You need a member of the executive staff to own the process from start to finish, plus an objective facilitator from outside the company with expertise in this sort of thing.
• The team. The team must be committed to participating in the entire process from start to finish. It's usually executive management. There can be additions but there's a size tradeoff: bigger equals more ideas but harder to manage.
• Rules of engagement. The facilitator or executive owner sets ground rules or rules of engagement, i.e. attack the problem, not the person; be quiet unless you have something material to add; don't beat issues to death; no cell phones; that sort of thing.
• The problem and process objectives. You're doing this for a reason. Agree on the problem statement and objectives of the process. You can also give it a name if that will help galvanize everyone.
• Situation or SWOT analysis. Takes time, but it must be brutally honest and objective with no sugarcoating. If you don't know where you stand versus the competition, the entire process is a waste of incredibly valuable executive time.
• No sacred cows. Executives get too close to and emotionally wrapped up in their groups, responsibilities, programs, and products. The team has to get beyond all the subjectivity to achieve open and honest perspective. Everything's on the table.
• Brainstorm. Be completely open to any ideas. When they're all listed, have each person pick their top three ideas (weighted first =3 points, second =2 points, third =1 point), then add it up, take the top x ideas, assign each to an exec who develops a business plan.
• Coalesce. Present the plans, debate, coalesce on company direction, key goals, strategies, etc. Several meetings and iterations are fine, including bouncing off the next level of management and a controlled group of outsiders to get feedback (optional).
• Plan and execute. Develop a set of plans for communicating the new direction down through the organization and externally, affecting organizational and behavioral change, product development and launch, marketing and sales, etc. The devil's in the details.

Last word: Strategic planning is a critical process that's extremely challenging and commonly botched by consultants and executives. How to avoid that? Make sure you know what you're doing. 

The most important rule

Commissioning on as much as possible

I agree with Professors answer virtuous Imad and Vinod

Any Plan that leads to success of business in the long term is called Strategic Planning.It varies from business to business but the aim and objective is to deliver objectives Mission of Organization to deliver results Vision to be top in the game and deliver outstanding values to customers and share holders and derive success.

Agreed to the experts.................................. 

I agree wit all the expert but MR.Vinod jetley and Emad has explained in detail.But i think there is not any specific rules in planning, it is just a matter of where you want to reach and think upon that how and where you want to reach, you will find out the answers based upon market condition and competition so you will have to make planning accordingly, so i think it differs from place, situation and market etc.

Rules for Strategic Planning are :

 - Plan for Long Term.

 - Stay focused on "Mission & Long Term Organizational Objectives".

 - Detailed SWOT Analysis and serious attempt to mitigate the Weaknesses & Threats.

 - Change the Organizational Internal Environmental Factors to ensure long term survival & growth.

 - Plan Risk Response, Risk Mitigation and Fall-Back Plans.

 - Plan for Expansion, Diversification, Merger & Acquisition strategies.

Fully agreed with Experts answer <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

[1] predetermination of the objectives to be accessible.

[2] put policies and rules that guide us in our selection of the method to achieve the goal.

[3] put and choose an alternative from among several alternatives available for the implementation of the desired goal, and to identify the necessary resources for the implementation of this alternative.

[4] determine the capabilities already available.

[5] determine how to provide capabilities not available.

[6] needed to implement the target time programming, which deals with identifying the necessary activities to achieve the goal, and how to do these activities, and the chronological order to carry out these activities and then determine responsibility for the implementation of these activities. - See