The Benefits and Limitations of Strategic Planning for Organizations
"It was August of 1914 and Germany had committed virtually its entire army to the invasion of Belgium and France. Few German troops remained to defend East Prussia against the invasion of two huge Russian armies. Despite the numerical inferiority, Colonel Hoffmann, chief of the German Eighth Army staff, created an audacious strategy to surround and annihilate one of the Russian armies. He began to plan a detailed attack. At the same time, on a train traveling east, General Ludendorff, the incoming chief of staff of the reinforced German forces in East Prussia, identified the same opportunity and created exactly the same strategy.
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Such a change may be a new competitor that has entered the same market an unpredictable change such as a natural disaster. The nature of today's business climate is that it is no longer enough to depend upon predictions or forecasts when planning the long-term future of an organization as circumstances may change over a relatively short period of time, making an inflexible long-term business plan unworkable and unproductive. Strategic planning enables an organization to determine it's long-term goals and also identify the best approach for realizing those goals.
Strategic planning can benefit organizations at all different times in their life cycle. For example, at the beginning of an organization's lifecycle, when it is still at the start-up stage, a detailed strategic plan may help it to gain investment. This is because if the firm were to show that it has planned, firstly where it wants to go i.e. target markets, and then also how it plans to get there, it may prove to be more appealing to a prospective investor. Similarly if the company is at the mid-point of its life cycle, in that it is up and running and progressing, then strategic planning can allow an organization to inform stakeholders, especially employees, exactly where it is planning to go and how it intends to get there. Most people perform better (in quality and quantity) if they know what is
Successful organizations develop both, short and long term goals focus on operational and financial strategies. This process needs constant evaluation in order to identify opportunities for growth. The goal of every healthcare facility should be to become a leader in the industry, attract high-quality staff and health experts, and establish cutting-edge services for the community. By reviewing current operational realities while working a market research enables the organization to develop strategy solutions to address environmental concerns.
Formulate a process for undertaking strategic planning in your area of interest. What is the need for strategic planning at this time? Which actors should be involved? How do you apply the steps and procedures discussed in Berman Chapter 4 to your process? Which steps would you undertake to ensure that conditions for success are in place?
Strategic planning is important for all businesses because this is when they set there aims and will discuss how they can achieve that aim. These aims have to be realistic and the owners will discuss this with their workers. Some aims might be hard to get but executives will want their workers to push hard so that it can be achieved. Marks and Spencer’s aim was to be the best supermarket in Britain but the recession had affected them really bad giving them losses of over 100 million pounds. Currently they are making profits of 50 million pounds but it is nowhere near what they made a few years ago.
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).
The strategic planning process begins by reviewing the organizations mission, vision and values. Clarifying the mission, vision, and goals at the beginning strategic planning process can help align fragmented entities (2 p. 293). The mission statement identifies the organizations reason for existing and how it is unique in comparison to other organizations (A p. 294). It is a short, concise and clear statement that serves as a rallying point for the organization (4 p. 752). The mission provides clues about the types of services that can be expected from the organization (A). Failing to check new projects against the mission can cause an organization to get into trouble (A p. 294).
E TRADE is a great option for the active trader. The active trader is someone who makes 150 plus trades per quarter. If you make less than that, E TRADE is not cost effective. The trader would be best serviced going to Ameritrade or Schwab. E TRADE should look at Schwab and how they have maintained their customer base.
When evaluating a strategic plan models, we should first consider the meaning of strategic planning. Strategic planning is when an organisation has a long term project, in between a year or two and this will involve the entire organisation workers to bring ideas together and look into each contributions before working on the plans, and this can be break down in three to four faces in other too be achievable and to meet the said target. Strategic planning can be done when an organization is just started. The strategic plan is usually part of an overall business plan, along with marketing, financial and operational or management plan.
Strategic planning is a completely valid and useful tool for guiding all types of organizations, including healthcare organizations. The organizational level at which the strategic planning process is relevant depends on the unit's size, its complexity and the differentiation of the service provided. A cardiology department, a hemodynamic unit or an electrophysiology unit can be an appropriate level, as long as their plans align with other plans at higher levels. The leader of each unit is the person responsible for promoting the planning process, a core and essential part of his or her role. The process of strategic planning is programmable, systematic, rational, and holistic and integrates the short, medium and long term, allowing the healthcare
Strategic planning involves making decisions about the organization’s long-term goals and strategies and how the organization decides to implement their goals (Bateman, Snell, Konopaske, pg. 113). Strategies help organizations to have a clear perspective on how to go about accomplishing the goals they have in place. All organizations have a clear vision of what their mission and purpose as a company is, they know how to fulfill the mission, vision, and purpose and they know how to ensure that they accomplish all their goals. However, the route the organization takes to define these things determines how effective they will be.
Strategic planning is the process of determining a company's long-term goals and then identifying the best approach for achieving those goals (Wikipedia). This process aligns strategic planning with overall organization planning by assessing organizational objectives and strategies, setting the organizational mission and mandate, assessing the external environment and setting policies, objectives and strategies (Wikipedia). A study completed in 1999 revealed that less than 40% of US businesses included IT senior management in the strategic planning process. This first part of this paper will explore the reasons why organizations would be unwilling to include IT management in this process. It will also present reasons why IT management
Strategic planning is simple process where as experience and knowledge on all aspects of strategic planning makes it easy. In an strategic planning there are some levels and regulations to organize it in efficient manner. First step in strategic planning is to identifying the team leader who is responsible for planning, participating, evaluating and organizing the staff. This maintains some roles, authority ,accountability for the strategic planning.
An organization begins to establish and implement its goals through the process of Strategic planning. Strategic Planning gives an organization a clear picture of how to accomplish the goals it has set to achieve. Organizations are successful when there is a precise vision of what the mission is, and the steps needed to complete it. The steps an organization takes clarify its vision will determine how effective it will be. Many organization have a more basic process while others have more complex and detailed strategies. An organizations strategy will show how the organization has progressed and how successful it will be in the future.
Strategic planning is a process that can allows us to both study and conduct simulations of the future. The process can show hidden opportunities or threats and providing the way to apply on them early. Strategic planning gives a clear framework with criteria for us to make day-to-day decisions, It also help to identify fragmentary and unaligned choices and personal value judgments. This strategic planning encourages the commitment of the entire HO in order to achieve the planned results and this is why it is an important element in institutional cohesion. An organization that has better strategic planning and applies it consistently can help to raise up corporate reputation.
The company has made tremendous progress in the last eight years (Refer to Company Background, Appendix 1, Page ) with regards to achieving a competitive position as well as increasing its market share, but need has
exists when the firm is able to deliver the same benefits as competitors but at a