Strategic Concepts

Strategic Concepts

Strategic planning is a business process, which entails defining the direction that a business organization wants to follow and the position that an organization want to be in the future. It also entails allocating resources that will enable an organization achieve its desired position in the future. According to Robinson (2005), the concept of strategic planning involves answering the following questions. Where are we, where do we want to go, and how do we get there? This implies that strategic planning involves determining where a business should be in the next three to five (or more) years.

The practice of strategic planning in business organizations involves understanding the business’s mission, vision, goals and objectives, and values (The Strategic Planning Process, 2010). The mission and vision of an organization are usually captured in its mission and vision statements. A mission statement states what an organization do and how it achieves what it does, while a vision statement states what and where an organization want to be in the future. Usually, both the mission and vision statements are defined during the inception stage of an organization. This implies that the practice of strategic planning begins as an organization commences its activities. Moreover, goals and objectives of an organization are derived from an organization’s mission and vision statement. They are the short-term and long-term things that an organization wants to achieve in order to achieve its vision. This implies that the practice of strategic planning is done continuously: devising ways of directing efforts towards achievement of a common end (The Strategic Planning Process, 2010).

The process of strategic planning starts with evaluation of the current business situation of an organization. The most common tool for conducting situation analysis is SWOT. It entails evaluating the strategic factors that are internal to an organization as well as those that an organization does not have control. The next step is to develop an ideal state. This entails defining the goals and objective that will help an organization achieve its ideal state. The last step of strategic planning is proposal development. This entails ‘drawing’ a road map, which will enable an organization achieve the set goals and objectives (The Strategic Planning Process, 2010).

Practice of strategic planning can sometimes be difficult. According to Wittlake (2011), one of the barriers of strategic planning in modern organizations is lack of adequate time and resources. Wittlake states, “Strategic planning is time intensive and requires people who are already in high demand in your organization” (2011). This implies that for an organization to be successful in strategic planning, it must have adequate time and human resources. Strategic planning is a continuous process thus, requires constant supply of these valuable resources. This makes many organizations to feel that strategic planning is too expensive and may sometimes abandon it.

Alignment of strategies can sometimes be a barrier to strategic planning. Usually, there are no specific strategies for specific business organizations. What may work in one organization may fail to work in another organization. Besides, an organization needs to formulate and implement more than one strategy for it to succeed in the market. In fact, sometimes, an organization may be forced to change its strategies in order to succeed in the market. This can be a challenge if an organization fails to align its members as well as resources around the proposed strategic plan (Wittlake, 2011).  

Knowledge is yet another barrier to strategic planning (Wittlake, 2011). Practice of strategic planning requires thorough knowledge of its concepts and process. Not all members of an organization have thorough knowledge about strategic planning. Furthermore, in small organizations, there exist large knowledge gaps. Despite its value, strategic planning can be a struggle where members of an organization do not have adequate knowledge about strategic planning.

Nonetheless, Robinson (2005) states that barriers of strategic planning can be overcome, especially when the barriers are already known and there is good understanding of an organization. According to Robinson (2005), one of the ways of overcoming the barriers of strategic planning is communication. Organizational members need to have adequate information about strategic planning. They should know every aspect of strategic planning. This entails communicating to them what the organization plan to do, why it what to do it, how it will do it (how organizational members will participate in the process), the expected timelines, and what it plans to achieve. Robinson maintains that communication about strategic planning should be regular (2005). This is to provide information such as the progress as well as what has been achieved so far. Constant communication helps in keeping the organizational members updated about the progress of strategic planning, thus maintaining their enthusiasm towards the entire practice.

Effective leadership is also another method of overcoming barriers of strategic planning. Bradford and Duncan (2000) state that the zeal to practice strategic planning in an organization must be driven by the organizational leadership. When the organizational leadership is enthusiastic about the entire process, other organizational members are able to see the importance of the process. This usually results into increased acceptance and participation in strategic planning among the organizational members.

Barriers of strategic planning can be defeated by managing the strategic planning process effectively. According to Bradford and Duncan, proper management of the strategic planning process entails ensuring that adequate resources are availed for the entire process (2000). It also entails making sure that the organizational members are well prepared for the process and the knowledge gaps that may exist about strategic planning are eliminated. Furthermore, an organization’s management can overcome the barriers of strategic planning by rewarding supportive behavior (Bradford & Duncan, 2000). Although it is not enough to overcome the barriers completely, it helps in encouraging organizational members to refrain from engaging in behaviors, which interfere with strategic planning and instead, engage in supportive behaviors.