Babysitter For Friday

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

For most organizations, the principal representation of their strategic dimension is their written strategic plan. The plan articulates the organization mission, vision, values, goals, and objectives and the motives behind its decisions and actions. However, written plans should be used as strategic guidelines not as a blueprint that has to be followed. Although there are many ways to construct a strategic plan, to be useful and effective it must answer the following questions:

Strategic planning can dictate the success of any organization if properly planned as well as the failure of an organization if not implemented as planned. Strategic planning is all about making choices. It is a process designed to support leaders in being intentional about their goals and methods. Simply stated, strategic planning is a management tool, and like any management tool, it is used for one purpose only—to help an organization do a better job. This portion of the strategic plan will explain why an

At some point it becomes necessary for an organization to undergo changes. If embracing change is truly one of the organizations core beliefs than efforts should be taken to make the necessary transition. A strategic planning structure allows the organization to stay focused on plans, yet be flexible and adaptive and, therefore, able to deal with change effectively (Galbraith, et al., 2001, pg. 38).”

In his article, “The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning,” Henry Mintzberg (1994) provides his views on the process of strategic planning. He offers that most companies and organizations start a strategic planning process with little understanding of the definition or actual purpose of planning. He tends to admonish much of the conventional understanding concerning strategic planning and proposes his interpretations. He states that “the most successful strategies are visions, not plans” (Mintzberg, 1994, p. 107).

Planning is considered to be one of the best ways to ensure that an organization remains stable and is able to grow as desired. Creating an annual strategic plan is also a great way for businesses to develop a way to monitor their progress while assessing the results and the impact of their actions at the same time.

Without formal planning, a company might misunderstand its purpose, the focus of the business will be unclear to managers, and resources will wasted. “…the sum total of the organization’s effort might yield suboptimal results or outcomes or yield optimal results that do not directly or indirectly contribute to the organization’s purpose for existence” (Simerson, pg. 2). With this mind, it becomes clear why it is so important for businesses to come up with the right strategic plans, which lead to creating the right tactical plans, which lead to creating the right operational plans, so that the goals that have been set by the strategic plans can be

However, as Masaoka (2011) clearly declares, different approaches are needed in place of the traditional approach to strategic planning. There are two approaches that can serve as alternatives and still provide the fundamental purpose of strategic planning, which is to determine a desired state for the organization, by way of the current state of the organization, and implementing the necessary reform to achieve the desired state (Lachman,

At some point it becomes necessary for an organization to undergo changes. If embracing change is truly one of the organizations core beliefs than efforts should be taken to make the necessary transition. A strategic planning structure allows the organization to stay focused on plans, yet be flexible and adaptive and, therefore, able to deal with change effectively (Galbraith, et al., 2001, pg. 38).”

The first step to a successful mission is the goal of a business or organisation is planning. Therefore, no matter whether the organisation is big or small, a strong plan will help to face the challenges on the way to successful business. This task includes evaluating an organisation and the environment in which it operates, as well as the process of making systematic decisions about proposed future outcomes, establishing long-term goals, and mapping a plan to achieve the goals that have been identified. Namely, strategic planning assumes and incorporates the probability of a changing environment that will require adjustments to the identified goals and the process of achieving them. According to Mead, “Strategic management, or more accurately strategic leadership as about managing radical change to achieve a dramatic improvement in performance” (Mead, 1998). In strategic planning, several models have been designed to assist organisations in elaboration. The purpose of this literature review is to evaluate the practicability of the different strategic planning models, for a better understanding of fundamental steps and methods in strategic planning.

Per John M. Bryson, strategic planning, if properly conducted, can help the leaders and managers of public and non-profit organizations think, learn and act tactically. Strategic planning enables organizational leaders and managers to first identify their organization’s mission and/or purpose. Thereafter, the planning process permits these leaders to pinpoint the actions and activities that will enable the organization to achieve its mission. Finally, the planning process requires the organizational leaders to synthesize objectives and activities into a blueprint or concrete plan of action under which the organization will conduct its business.

According to literature, strategic planning is vital for strategic management. Burgelman (1994) points that strategic planning is a process which decides how, when and who is going to plan and how the results will be implemented. Drucker (1974) identified that the planning for an organization’s future that includes setting major overall objectives, the determination of basic approaches to be used in

In the business world, strategic planning is an essential process for successful businesses, which helps to shape their future path. Unlike other planning methods, strategic planning is a long term planning process which can include a tree to five year look-ahead. Strategic planning is used to give all employees, including management, focus and direction, as well as the ability to keep an end goal in sight. This task, normally conducted on an annual basis, is given to senior management and can take several days to complete.

Strategic planning is a process used by various organizations in defining their strategy and direction. It is also used for decision making purposes affecting the strategy to be used for allocating resources. In order to accurately determine the direction of a given organization, it is critical to understand the organization's current position as well as the possible avenues via which it can effectively pursue a particular objective (Mckeown,2012). Mckeown further noted that strategic planning deals with three main questions;

One thing I’ve learned from this chapter is that planning is the process of determining appropriate goals and courses of action. Once a plan has been created the next step is to design a strategy. A strategy is a series or managerial decisions that help managers obtain organizational goals. For most organizations, there are three steps to planning. The first step is the creation of a mission statement. A mission statement is essential for a company to clearly communicate what it does and how it does it with outside investors and people in general. A mission statement is a broad statement of what a company’s purpose is as well as what the company does (i.e. selling goods or services) and who they do it with (i.e. people of certain demographic or geographic location). The next phase in the planning process is formulating a strategy. Formulating a strategy is done by examining a company’s present situation and creating strategies to overcome any challenges facing the company. This method gives people from different departments direction which is advantageous when attempting to achieve the company’s desired future state. The final step in the planning process is implementing the strategy. The strategy is implemented by managers who allocate resources and responsibilities to people and groups within an organization in the most efficient and effective manner possible im order to achieve the company’s goals. After a strategy has been implemented managers look at the results. If