Strategic evaluation is a way for businesses to evaluate the health and productivity of their company and their future endeavors. Typically, strategic evaluations attempt to see past the obvious factors that influence short-term plans, and seek a more-dynamic study of the trends that will dictate the future success or failure of the company. Like a chess match, strategic evaluation succeeds when companies are able to accurately analyze and predict several moves ahead into the future, in order to best tailor their present policies.

Uniformity

In forming a strategic evaluation of a company's future goals, it is important that an idea not compromise the integrity of another idea. Companies that have hypocritical or oxymoronical policies are obviously prone to failure. Oftentimes, two worthy goals will be inconsistent with one another, and thus care must be taken to be sure both are not included in a final plan.

Business Environment in Flux

Aside from ensuring that goals do not compromise the integrity of one another, it is also important that the goals of a business be commensurate with the environment that they are in. A strategic evaluation, going a step beyond, will consider this primarily in terms of how social and economic changes in the future might cause disruption to an environment that is presently perfect. This is known as a "generic" strategy.

Seeking an Advantage

Another way to analyze the environment in which the business exists is by looking at how other competing firms might change over time, and attempting to react accordingly. This competitive strategy looks at the various differences between other companies, and how the predicted changes in their business can be used to levy an advantage. Perhaps the most crucial consideration in competitive strategy is seeking a way to create a plan unique to your own firm, that cannot be duplicated, stolen or undermined by the strategies of another.

Feasibility

The final crucial core component of strategic evaluation is a consideration of the feasibility of a plan. This means ensuring that the moves the business intends on making will not be too large of a drain on available resources, nor bring up consequences that are unsolvable. Normally, feasibility is defined in economic terms. It must be guaranteed that there are enough funds available to finance the plotted endeavors. However, it is also important to look at a company's past, and whether or not the company has demonstrated the talent and capability to pull off what is planned.