Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning Overview
Strategic planning is all about making plans for the purpose of helping an organization reach its goals. This plan will determine the direction that the organization is headed. In essence, it helps to define the organization’s objectives and clarifies the path it intends to take but more importantly, strategic planning also identifies how such goals would be achieved.
There are many strategic planning models and choosing from these should be given much consideration otherwise you could end up picking the wrong one. In order to determine which model to use, you must see to it that you fully understand your business scenario and conduct in-depth analysis to determine your company’s strength and weaknesses, values, principles, and other relevant factors.
Strategic planning is a complex process that must only be handled by those who have a sufficient amount of knowledge on how to carry it out. This is why exforsys.com has created this training program to help you learn and become familiar with strategic planning, so that you will be able to plan for your own organization.
Training Objectives
By the end of this self-paced training, you will be able to:
Understand the concept of strategic planning
Become familiar with the different strategic planning models
Know how to create your own strategic plan
Learn the various methods used in order to determine which strategic planning model to use
Understand the importance of setting organization’s goals
Understand the importance of research and development prior to conducting a strategic planning
Be able to conduct strategic planning amid difficult times
Target Audience
Business owners, executives, managers, and supervisors can learn a lot from the strategic planning training program provided in this section. This is also beneficial for those who are still starting out on their careers but want to advance their knowledge on strategic planning.
Many scholars have defined strategic planning in various ways. Strategic planning can be defined as specific plans, goals and objectives of an organization or a company that includes the policies and the resources employed to achieve the said plans, goals and objectives. These plans, goals and objectives basically answer two very simple questions: 1) What does the organization or company want to be in the future? 2) How does the organization or company plan to get to that position in the future? Plans, goals and objectives must be specific so that it will be easily understood and measured against an…
Strategic planning models are as numerous as the various proponents to it. A quick check at a list of the greatest management thinkers and their ideas places the list at more than thirty. This does not include other management thinkers who have had ideas that are put to use but are not acknowledged by the academe. Our scope is limited to a strategic planning model that we have named as the strategic square. It is a group of four strategic planning models, corresponding to the four sides of a square. One can actually reposition it, so it basically means that…
Unless responsibilities are clearly defined and assigned, it is not possible to accomplish any task in business or organizations. Without responsibilities, people in business or organizations would not be able to establish goals for themselves and without such goals; business or organizations would come to a standstill. The strategic planner has certain responsibilities that have to be clearly understood. What are the primary task that he should perform? How does it contribute to business or organizations? The Strategic Planner Conceptualizes The fundamental resource of the strategic planner is thinking. He is there to think, not about anything else but the future of the…
Creating a strategic plan may be easy to some people. There are templates available in the market. The creation of strategic plans that do not work is of no value; it is fiction not reality. In the real world, while fiction entertains, amuses and provokes, it does not contribute to the goals of business or organizations. Realistic Strategic Plan Can a strategic plan work? Can it actually work? This thought provoking question will be our criterion as we as we navigate through the maze of planning workability. What works will work, what does not work will not work, no matter…
Foundations are fundamental, basic and necessary in any undertaking or structure. Buildings have foundations, education has foundations and in business, strategic planning also has foundations. Foundations have the uncanny ability to preserve the structure of business or organizations and foundations do something else that is extremely important, they spread the load and stress to make the structure of business and organization stable. Foundations are Fundamental How does a business or organization create the foundation of strategic planning? This is a question that may cause our brain to be engaged in deep thought. How are foundations created? Foundations are basically created…
SWOT Analysis is a framework wherein it evaluates the internal and external factors of the business in attaining its objectives. It is very useful when generating an effective strategic plans or alternatives. SWOT is the acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It defines for different aspects of the situation within the business itself. SWOT analysis is a tool that can be used by the managers by reviewing the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, then a helpful and concrete strategy can be formulated in order to ensure that the success of the organization will soon be realized. SWOT analysis’…
Strategic planning is affected not only by internal and external variables but also by the macro environment. A framework that serves to scan external macro environment factors in which business or organizations operate is grouped into the four factors of Political, Economic, Social and Technological and referred to as PEST analysis. These macro environment factors affect business and organizations in their operations so that they have to be incorporated into the strategic planning framework. Political Factors Political Factors are government regulations and government legal issues that define formal and informal rules under which the firm must operate. Business and organizations…
The success of business or organizations in its specific undertaking is credited to a well designed and thought out plan. Business and organizational direction is dictated by specific plans, designed by the planning team. So we have business plans, strategic plans, marketing plans, distribution plans, and so on. To make these plans profitable and useful, these have to be communicated throughout the business or organization, must especially to the employees who is most qualified and most affected by its implementation. What steps do business and management do to achieve the goal of sharing its plan to its employees? The first…
The development of strategic planning begins with an agreement on a definition or purpose for the business or organization. It basically answers the question, What business are we in? This question will dictate the type of products or services the business will offer as defined by the needs and wants of the specific market. This agreement on a definition or purpose for the business or organization is commonly termed as the Mission Statement. This Mission Statement can be thought of as a kind of constitution or charter that is established by any business or organization when it comes into existence….
Business or Organizations who are in their infancy or who are in their maturity need a very essential tool to assure survival. That tool is none other than Research and Development or R & D. Research and Development was extensively used by the pharmaceutical industry and those involved in scientific projects because it was considered an essential, a necessity. Today, however, small, medium-sized and large business and organizations have to employ research and development. It has become a necessity as well to business or organizations that desire to survive in the modern marketplace. Research and Development is Essential The roots…
Intelligence is a potent weapon to those who possess it. Without intelligence human beings simply become at par with the animals. It is intelligence that sets human being distant from all other species. It has its special and unique purpose in each individual. History tells us that the ancient Greeks won their battles not because of brute strength and superior weaponry but by fighting intelligently. Instead of fighting one man to one man, they fought as a team, rendering the opposing forces doomed. They used intelligent offense. The ancient Romans also won their battles by fighting intelligently. They designed segmented…
Every time there is a modern business is discussed, the issue of a challenging environment is first on the agenda. Modern business is synonymous with a challenging environment. Theories, rules and trends that have been the backbone of business have become if not less effective, almost obsolete altogether. Today’s business environment is just changing so fast and so unpredictable that one has to decipher it from different angles and viewpoints. Modern Business: A Challenging Environment The conventional no longer holds true for modern business. There is a new set of rules to be followed or observed if one wants to…
Supply chains are basically networks. They are networks of facilities, people and distribution options whose primary purpose is procurement and transformation of goods so that can then be delivered and distributed to potential customers. Supply chains can be pictured as arteries that supply business or organizations its industrial life. Disrupt a supply chain and you will find business or organizations gasping for breath and clinging to dear life. Strategic Planning improves Efficiency Networks are interconnected and interdependent. One is connected to the other in a peculiar relationship and one is dependent on the other in a peculiar kind of relationship….
Information Technology or IT is a byword in business or organizations. A foundational understanding of IT is however essential before the strategic planning task is to begin. Information technology or IT refers to the collective means to assembly and electronically store, transmit, to process and retrieve words, numbers, images, and sounds, as well as to electronic means to control machines of all kinds, from everyday appliances to vast automated factories. This simplified definition according the MIT Center for Information Research is helpful in a better understanding of IT. The implications of IT in strategic planning and as a strategic weapon…
A Strategic plan is a basic tool for business or organization. It is what gives it a written and concrete expression of its basic direction. It answers the basic question of the business or organizational direction, What do we want to be in the future? How do we hope to occupy that position in the future? An absence of a strategic plan, an indispensable tool for business or organizational success, may have negative repercussions that may well hang on to the future. Plan to Plan Since perfection is a character that is absent in all strategic plans, how can strategic…
Business and organizations have experienced tremendous change and upheaval in the last hundred years or so. Academics have identified at least three major changes and upheaval that have currently shaped the modern day business climate. The Essentials of Downsizing First, there was the agricultural economy. When man started settling down instead of hunting, he started domesticating animals and establishing farms. Wealth and success then, depended on who had vast tracks of land converted into farms and depended on who had the most number of domesticated animals. Second, there was the industrial economy. When populations increased, so did the demand not…
Organizations are structures. And structures are specifically designed to satisfy certain minimum provisions. Within these structures are forms and forms have to satisfy conventional specifications and requirements These specification and requirements, management thinkers believe are embodied in the following: clarity, economy, direction of vision, understanding of the individual, decision making, stability and adaptability, perpetuation and self-renewal. Clarity is defined as knowing where one belongs in the organization. If you do not know where you belong in the organization, you would be at a loss as to what contribution to make. Economy is defined as the minimum effort required to control,…
The allure of conservatism in business or organizations stem from the conviction that pioneering efforts does not pay off. Many believe that it is better to be a follower than a leader. This is probably the reason why many prefer to wait and see and then follow. In many instances this idea may be well founded but it is not always the case. When planning strategically, the same premise may be true. Business or organizations may be well contended with a plan, followed from others in the same or similar industry who have made it. Why reinvent the wheel when…
Times are indeed uncertain. A particular business might exist today and disappear tomorrow. A particular customer might exist today and be gone tomorrow. A significant cost item may be so low today and become so high tomorrow. A major raw material component may be in plentiful supply today and suddenly become scarce tomorrow. Business or organizations are in for uncertain times. The strategic planner must bear in mind to expect, and to expect more of the unexpected. These may be the only keys left to unlock the door of survival way well into the future. To expect the unexpected is…
