Strategic planning or corporate planning is an activity undertaken by an organization through which it seeks to define its future direction and makes decisions such as resource allocation aimed at achieving its intended goals. "Strategy" has many definitions, but it generally involves setting major goals, determining actions to achieve these goals, setting a timeline, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy describes how the ends (goals) will be achieved by the means (resources) in a given span of time. Often, strategic planning is long term and organizational action steps are established from two to five years in the future. Strategy can be planned ("intended") or can be observed as a pattern of activity ("emergent") as the organization adapts to its environment or competes in the market.

The senior leadership of an organization is generally tasked with determining strategy. It is executed by strategic planners or strategists, who involve many parties and research sources in their analysis of the organization and its relationship to the environment in which it competes.

Strategy includes processes of formulation and implementation; strategic planning helps coordinate both. However, strategic planning is analytical in nature (i.e., it involves "finding the dots"); strategy formation itself involves synthesis (i.e., "connecting the dots") via strategic thinking. As such, strategic planning occurs around the strategy formation activity.

Strategic planning became prominent in corporations during the 1960s and remains an important aspect of strategic management.

McKinsey & Company developed a capability maturity model in the 1970s to describe the sophistication of planning processes, with strategic management ranked the highest. The four stages include:

Stages 3 and 4 are strategic planning, while the first two stages are non-strategic, essentially financially-based. Each stage builds on the previous stages; that is, a stage 4 organization completes activities in all four categories.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Government Performance and Results Act, which required US federal agencies to develop strategic plans for how they would deliver high quality products and services to the American people.

In the business sector, McKinsey research undertaken and published in 2006 found that, although many companies had a formal strategic-planning process, the process was not being used for their "most important decisions".