Importance of Strategic Planning - Coursework Example

STRATEGIC PLANNING By Student’s Name Code+ course name Instructor’s Name University Name City, State Introduction Strategic planning is only useful to an organization and has an impact when it drives decision making in the organization. Good strategic planning remains focused to the business units and are limited to the number of days in a year. This means that the strategic planning has to be guided and controlled by time. It is true that the best performing companies are the companies that have a good strategic plan. It takes time to prepare a good strategic plan. This is because all the stakeholders in an organization must be considered and specifically their views is sought to make a good strategic plan. It asks and answers very crucial issues. Situation analysis is tailored to employ divergent learning and starts with assuming that continuous change is normal. Thus, conscious efforts to appropriately act on the change are very important in strategy creation (Rothwell & Kazanas 2003). Theorists in This School of Thought Petersen a strategist, states that for situation analysis to be most effective, it should adhere to the following very crucial rules like producing a diagnosis that leads to unearthing and revealing of the real causes as well as the expected consequences. Simplicity should however not be mistaken for providing minor and obvious details of the subject matter. According to him a good research on the market, production, competition and the environment of the organization is necessary. This will only avoid making a bad decision and also improve the quality of the decisions to be made. In addition, a good research helps to make a good strategic plan that will lead the company to success. Good managers invest in making a good strategic plan since the returns are always great and admirable (Steiner 1969). Another theorist in this school who advocates for a strategic plan is Michael Porter. According to him, there is a process involved in effective decision making and specification of the best strategy. This process must be carefully taken to have the best decision made for the organization. It is a process that takes into consideration putting together the main points from situation analysis and listing major threats and opportunities of the venture. A strategic plan is the most important thing in an organization but must be accompanied by good managers who will use it to the success of the organization. Change of the strategy must automatically lead to change of the firm’s culture. To prove this is that the attempts to solely change the culture of the corporate mostly fail due to false assumptions. This is because culture is specific and observable and it must be measured and rewarded. It is good to note that the strategic plan helps in business performance. The uniqueness of a culture and the performance of the business are related thus to successfully align the two, they must be created simultaneously (Dess & Miller 1993). Igor Ansoff is another very important contributor to the development of strategic plans. Igor in his research and the widely used Ansoff’s matrix strongly advocates for the appropriate starting point for success coupled with simple, specific and strategic goals which should be achieved in a procedural manner. Therefore, the setting of clear and achievable goals is a crucial step in the success of a good strategic plan. A good strategic plan therefore, should ensure that there is commitment rather than compliance shown by teamwork in the organization, continuous learning and knowledge sharing to sustain the culture of uniformity and continuous implementation of the plan. To enhance innovation in a firm, there should be unrestricted interaction between strategy and leadership of the organization (Strategic planning management 1983). This helps members of the organization to avoid the tendency of opposition to change. A good example is the Coca Cola Company which is a global brand. The company ensures that they hold monthly meetings with their employees and especially those involved in marketing their products. Coca Cola management in these meetings communicates to the employees their plan to achieve their organizational goals. The leaders are mostly faced by the challenge to motivate people to accept and work for change especially when it’s not very vital. He illustrates change as a multiplicative equation whereby if the result is nil then the change efforts are interpreted as unfruitful. For effectiveness-guarantee, he recommends rules like simplicity and maximum participation (Fahey 1989). Strategic planning was introduced to the organizations in the 1960s and since then the organizations that take it seriously have been successful as compared to the rest. It helps in implementing strategies as well as enhancing competitiveness. A good strategic plan helps in separating thinking from doing. A good manager helps in implementing the strategic plan to the letter as it also helps in making operational decisions in the way of achieving the organizational goals and objectives of the organization (Naylor 1980). An organization’s strategic plan and the organizational operational plan should be connected to each other so that it is easy to follow. The interconnection also makes it easy for the management to communicate their intentions to the stakeholders. An example is where most of the companies hold strategic meetings with the employees in an organization. This helps in involving the employees and giving them the sense of ownership to the organization. The employees feel involved in making the decision of the company and hence also get involved in achieving the vision of the organization (Kotler 1980). In addition it also helps the stakeholders to feel as part of the team that came up with the plans and hence feel motivated to achieve the positive end results. The first step to develop a good strategic plan is the management should identify the resources that will result in maximization of profits by the organization. In the course of identifying the resources the management should come up with a strong tendering committee to help them save during acquisition of requirements. However, the ultimate role of the tendering committee is to ensure that a reliable and efficient supplier is identified. After this the supplier will be liable to supply the identified resources according to the stipulated budget (Haines, 1995). According to Henry Mintzberg, a strategic plan is tailored to enable the leader to make the most effective and appropriate choices based on the best ideas. This is because the plan should provide a good answer to every question that arises for management of the organization. Strategic learning should involve formation of the vision from the ideas. It is also made to tally with the mission of the company. A good strategic plan has the objective in line with the mission of the organization to avoid divergent ideas. Petersen also advocates for strategic choices prior to vision creation which acts as a way to portray the future success of the organization (Mintzberg, 1994). A good vision therefore is made from the strategic plan and the entire stakeholders of the organization should have adequate information on the same. Success is making the customer to benefit most from the organization and maximization of profits of the firm in the specified markets. Therefore, this means that the customer is the biggest stakeholder of an organization and his views and expectations should be taken care of. As stated earlier, a good research on the customers’ expectations is necessary and the management should invest in getting the customers views to helps improve their relationship with the customers (Collins, 2001). Henry insists that strategic planning has to follow a good process and the stages have to be properly followed. He says that planning must involve identifying competent members in the organization to help in planning and implementation of the strategic plan. The choice will have to be done carefully. This is especially important so that the stakeholders are properly involved in the implementation. Inclusion of all the stakeholders will make it easier for the plan to operate and hence there will be no need to change most of the stakeholders. A team member from the shareholders will also be crucial inclusion so that the shareholders will also have a sense of ownership to the plan. The selected people must be having good records of hard work in the organization (Ward & Peppard, 2002). The members will then be assigned duties that they are required to perform according to the aims and objectives of the strategic plan. The team should also be conversant with the steps involved in the implementation of the plan. I will then appoint a team leader among the members of the team. The team leader’s role will majorly involve addressing the issues raised by the team members by contacting relevant personnel. The team leader will also be responsible for encouraging the team members (Zuckerman, 2005). Henry is often referred to as 'the great management iconoclast'. This is because from his contributions, he was ready to attack the previously followed and sacred concepts that were in the management businesses. He gave a common sense approach to management of businesses that was later widely accepted. These contributions earned him a good following from many managers and other people involved in management. In his contribution he exposed the gaps that were between reality and academic concepts (Bryson, 1995). An example of a successful company that is known for a good strategic plan is Harley-Davidson. The organization made a strategic plan that it would use to introduce three models of bikes into the market. The strategic plan is supposed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. In the plan the company had outlined all the strategies that it would use from production to the marketing of the bikes. Strategic plans are always formulated to improve the performance and efficiency of an organization. After formulation, the plans are supposed to be implemented (Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm), Films Media Group & TV Ontario 2005). Conclusion In conclusion all companies and organizations with an ambition to be successful have to make a good strategic plan. In addition proper research should be conducted carefully before strategic planning. Managers should invest in proper planning to avoid unfocused decision making. Successful businesses should start with a stated original idea for use as a basis for its strategic plans. A good strategic plan will provide solutions to the management when making decisions. This therefore, means that when making any decision that concerns the welfare of the organization the strategic plan must be used (Holloway 1986). It provides various efforts to provide the necessary ideas gathered into clear statements for easier understanding by everyone in the firm. The plan should be made available to everyone working for the company to provide a way of movement and decision making from a point of reference. In this case therefore the senior employees who include the directors, the managers, and supervisors and eventually the general employee should be made familiar with the strategic plan and especially this should be done regularly (Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, 1961). References Holloway, C. 1986. Strategic planning. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm), Films Media Group., & TVOntario. 2005. Strategic planning. New York, N.Y: Films Media Group. Mintzberg, H. 1994. The rise and fall of strategic planning: Reconceiving roles for planning, plans, planners. New York: Free Press. Bryson, J. M. 1995. Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Ward, J., & Peppard, J. 2002. Strategic planning for information systems. Chichester, West Sussex, England: J. Wiley. Collins, J. C. 2001. Good to great: Why some companies make the leap--and others don't. New York, NY: HarperBusiness. Zuckerman, A. M. 2005. Healthcare strategic planning. Chicago, Ill: Health Administration Press. Haines, S. G. 1995. Successful strategic planning. Menlo Park, Calif: Crisp Publications. Naylor, T. H. 1980. Strategic planning management. Oxford, Ohio: Planning Executives Institute. Fahey, L. 1989. The Strategic planning management reader. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall. Strategic planning management. 1983. Chicago, IL: Communiqué, Inc. Dess, G. G., & Miller, A. 1993. Strategic management. New York: McGraw-Hill. Rothwell, W. J., & Kazanas, H. C. 2003. Planning and managing human resources: Strategic planning for human resources management. Amherst, Mass: HRD Press. Steiner, G. A. 1969. Top management planning. New York: Macmillan. Kotler, P. 1980. Marketing management: Analysis, planning, and control. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall. Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. 1961. Management planning. Toronto: publisher not identified. Read More