More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays on strategic planning
The concept and theory of strategic planning
Strategic planning chapter 1 and 2 answers
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Importance of Strategic Planning
Strategic planning has a focus on stabilizing the current environment, and it also support the organization's business plans and goals. Strategic planning helps to implement new projects, new technology, consolidation of data centers, data warehouses, exponential data growth, cost of ownership, and resources available in an organization to assess the future requirements. Strategic planning analyzes the business plan, potential blockage or other issues in the current architecture, processes and their implementation in new initiatives, and processes. Strategic planning helps to formulate the ideas about the key factors that are affecting the present and future development of the organization and the opportunities offered by the environment and the competence of the organization.
Strategic Planning
The key role in solving strategic tasks belongs to strategic planning, which is the process of developing and maintaining strategic balance between organization’s goals and resources in the changing market environment. The purpose of the strategic planning is to determine the most promising fields of activity providing its growth and prosperity. Strategic planning is a component of a broader concept “strategic management”. All four management functions (planning, organizing, leading and controlling), when talking about strategic management include strategic orientation. When viewing strategic planning from the highest level possible within a company, the planning function is the area that stands out as the most important area which involves a great deal of development and focus.
Why strategic planning?
The interest in the strategic planning is caused by several reasons:
1. Realization of the...
... middle of paper ...
...ompletes an analytical assessment of a firm. A firm establishes its competitive building by investing scarce resources again and again in its value-added activities. By doing this the organizations will be able to give rise superior products and services that the buyer's desire and continue to grow the business and adhere to its strategic plan once implemented.
References
Rigby, D. (December 2007). Selecting management tools wisely. Harvard business review, 85(12), 20-22, 3. Retrieved on September 18, 2008, from EBSCOhost database.
Sandenaw R.I., (November 2007). Seven steps to business planning. Credit Union Magazine, 73(11), 2-3. Retrieved on September 18, 2008 from EBSCOhost database.
Urbany J.E., Davis J.H. (November 2007). Strategic Insight in Three Circles. Harvard business review, 85(11). Retrieved on September 18, 2008 from EBSCOhost database
Strategic planning requires a few steps. The steps would be to appoint a strategic planning committee, interview key stakeholders, conduct an analysis that measures strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats, develop a plan, and communicate the plan
In this an organization must know what is their target market? Where they have to compete? Who are their rivals and what are their possible strategies? And finally what should be the company strategy for survival in that competitive market.
A strategic plan is a tool that delivers guidance in achieving a mission or goal with maximum proficiency and control for an organization. Strategic planning is used to transform and revitalize organizations. The plan helps provide an inclusive understanding of opportunities and challenges both internally and externally for the organization. The plan delivers an assessment of the strengths and limitations that are realistic within the company. A well-developed strategic plan will offer a comprehensive approach and empowerment for the stakeholders involved. It is an opportunity for learning and understanding priorities that will drive the business to succeed. Jones (2010), describes how in health care organizations, strategic plans characteristically concentrate on operational and organizational goals such as when to obtain new technology, how to meet competitive challenges, and what staffing, tools, or facilities are needed to ensure organizational survival. The mission and value statements are significant in determining the quality of a strategic initiative. Forcing the organization to look toward the future creates proactive objectives in which both short-term and long-terms plans and goals are necessary in order to succeed.
New businesses will take longer to thrive with the United States falling economy. The faltering job market and the deepening slump in housing threaten to hurt consumer spending. Consumers are becoming more conscious of their spending and therefore using cash to pay for smaller necessary purchases. The cost of entertainment and other presumed luxuries may be pushed to the background by most families, when having to choose whether to pay for a bill or treat the family out. Thriving businesses will understand the need to provide a service or product at affordable prices.
Strategic management is the ongoing process of ensuring a competitively superior fit between the organization and its ever-changing environment (Kreitner, G13). Strategic management serves as the competitive edge for the entire management process. It effectively blends strategic planning, implementation, and control. Organizations that are guided by a coherent strategic framework tend to execute even the smallest details of their mission in a coordinated fashion. The strategic management process includes the formulation of a strategy/strategic plans, implementation of the strategy, and strategic control. A clear statement of the organizational mission serves as the focal point for the entire planning process. People inside and outside the organization are given a general idea of why the organization exists and where it is headed. Working from the mission statement, management formulates the organization's strategy, a general explanation of how the organization's mission is to be accomplished. Then general intentions are translated into more concrete and measurable plans, policies, and budget allocations. Implementation is the most important part of the strategy. Strategic plans must be filtered down to lower levels to be success. Strategic plans can go astray, but a formal control system helps keep strategic plans on track. In the strategic management process general managers who adopt a strategic management perspective appreciate that strategic plans require updating and fine-tuning as conditions change. Given today's competitive pressures, management cannot afford to let strategic plans sit as is. A strategic orientation encourages farsightedness. Sun Microsystems Inc. is one company that developed a strategy to become the competitive leader and become the most reliable in the net business. I will explain how Sun's strategy integrates their marketing, management, technology, and service functions into one effective strategy. First I'll discuss who Sun is and what encouraged them to develop their strategy.
A marketer doesn’t just have a plan. Marketers now open up to a wider strategic plan and it’s based on steps that balance out what the market is offering consumers. These marketers must analyze their production with these steps, then make a portfolio of the growth and even their down falls therefore this keeps these marketers to continuously innovate and create even a greater amount of value for their customers. Marketing management functions are discussed along with the marketing mix and strategy.
Planning is concerned with the future impact of today’s decision. (Erven, n.d.) Planning, as a basic definition, is setting objectives, analyzing dependencies and scheduling activities and resources to ensure that objectives are met. It is an ongoing process of developing the business’ mission and objectives and determining how they will be accomplished. Planning includes both the broadest view of the organization, e.g., its mission, and the narrowest, e.g., a tactic for accomplishing a specific goal. Planning is the essential function from which the other three functions of management stem.
The first function of management is planning. Planning is a process that managers use to identify and involve goal setting and decide the best way to achieve the goal.(Bartol 2007) Planning connect the gap between where we do, where we intend to go. It predict the possible things to happen which would not otherwise happen (MSG 2012). There are several steps to the planning process, which are determine the goals of the organisation, evaluate the current position, consider possible future conditions, identify possible alternative actions and choose the best. Planning is the criteria thinking through goals and making decision to achieve the goal of the organisation’s objective, which requires a systematic way. Also objectives focus the managers how to achieve the final result as managers have to predict anything will happen, avoid the problem and fight back to competitors. An example of planning, which is the President Canon Inc Tsuneji Uchida and lead Canon Company become the no.1 in the global business (Canon.Inc 2011). Tsuneji Uchida has to understand what is the company objective and goal. First, make decision to protect the position and the aim of canon, improve the operation more diversity. Second, he creates the new design of camera and new technology, he plan to do these things to maximise profit.
A strategic plan is the official, restricted method intended to help a firm to make out and keep the best possible placement with the most important basics of its setting (Rowley, 1997). The following is a strategic plan meant for Horizon, a telecommunication company that has a global presence. In the US, Unilever has a centralized IT department led by the IT manager, who answers directly to the chief executive officer. The vision of the IT department of horizon is to be a world class department that offers practical solutions for the company and support to customers. Therefore, this plan is meant to aid the company offer reliable after sale support to customers, answer to customer complaints, and helps the company employees
There are mixed opinions on the importance of spending time on strategic planning. The strategic planning process for entrepreneurial ventures and small businesses is a less formal approach. A lot of time shouldn’t be spent on developing elaborate business plans. A business plan is useless without customers. Researchers generally agree that the strategic planning process in small organizations versus large organizations should be less formal. Flexibility is crucial to an organization’s competitive success and should be aware of and open to environmental change. If the process is too formal, rigid or cumbersome, flexibility may be lost which is a crucial part of its success. Value is more in “doing the process” itself,
If asked what strategic planning is one could interpret it as simply a road map that can guide the organization in the right direction. It is very unlikely that an organization would know which direction to take without a sense of direction. Managers are faced every day with decisions that have a major impact on the direction the organization must take, therefore, strategic planning can play an important role in guiding managers in the right direction. In other words strategic planning is a tool that management can use to give them a sense of direction that will guide them in doing a better job and to ensure that all the members of the organization are working toward the same goals
Sivakumar (2004) describes a strategic decision, a decision that significantly affects the scope of a company, requiring a high degree of commitment. Strategic decisions are interconnected with a company’s long-term goals. For example, a company’s decision to focus its expansion within their domestic market or enter a new geographical market. Strategic decisions are increasingly difficult for managers to make because of ever increasing uncertainty and lack of reliable information. When it comes to making decisions managers tend to rely on past experiences and their gut feeling when coming to a decision (Soll, Milkman & Payne, 2015). Fortunately, tools to correctly identify uncertainty and biases are available to managers. In order to improve the overall decision making process managers must address and understand uncertainty, cognitive biases and the open-endedness of strategic decisions.
Strategic planning is an organizational process in which it looks towards developing and sustaining success or balance in its ever changing environment.
Strategic Planning is looking at where you are now, knowing where you want to be in the future and planning the steps to get you there.
Strategic planning is the continuous and systematic process of guiding members of an organization to make decisions about its future, develop the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that future, and determine how success will be achieved.