The role of strategic planning is to design a favorable future for the company and to identify the means necessary for its concrete realization. The plan formally takes up the different stages followed in the choice of a development strategy. A key element of the strategic plan is the definition of the company's mission, which should reflect the company's long-term vision of what it wants to be and the markets it intends to serve. The strategic plan is based on an external audit. The environment is complex and constantly changing, and the company must continually reconsider it in order to identify the threats and opportunities that arise. Assessing one's own strengths and weaknesses is also an important part of the strategic thinking process. The objective is to assess the company's resources in order to identify a defensible competitive advantage on which to base the development strategy. Based on information gathered in internal and external audit (also called SWOT analysis).