Strategic Planning During Uncertain Times

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… Read More

The Art of Planning Strategically

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… Read More

Organization Strategic Planning

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.… Read More

Strategic Planning During Downsizing

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… Read More

How to Improve your Strategic Plan

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… Read More

Strategic Planning for IT Business

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… Read More

Importance of Strategic Planning in Supply Chains

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… Read More

Strategic Planning in Challenging Environment

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… Read More

Importance of Intelligent Strategic Planning

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… Read More

Role of Research and Development in Strategic Planning

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… Read More

Role of Mission Statement in Strategic Planning

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… Read More

How to Share Strategic Plan

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… Read More

PEST 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… Read More