Strategic planning research

Rapid technological changes and thorough competition are making business management more complex in today's unpredictable business environment. To add to it, traditional planning is proving ineffective and good financial control alone is not enough to ensure the success of the business. The time has come for the companies to consider implement strategic planning.

The origin of strategic planning is in the military. The concept was used in military in a large scale to direct forces into the most advantageous position before actual engagement with the enemy. In this type of military model strategic planning, planning function was undertaken at the top of the organization by analyzing the situation and deciding the course of action that supports the implementation of the plan. In the year 1950s, corporate world made its first serious attempt to deal systematically with the future. As a result, the concept of strategic planning came into the forefront in many organizations.

During this period, SWOT analysis model was the primary strategic planning model used by many managers in various organizations. Between 1960s and mid 1970s, corporate leaders hold strategic planning as the one best way to implement strategies that would enhance the competitiveness of business. Qualitative and quantitative models of strategy dominated the strategic planning model in this decade. The share holder value model and the Porter model became the standard model for strategic planning in the early 1980s.

Developing a strategic planning requires an extensive look at growth, globalization, and competition in the market, and a number of other strategic and tactical concerns that may arise. The strategic planning process begins with an analysis of the vision, mission, objectives and goals of the organization. This assessment gives a clear idea of the purpose of the organization and it provides a point of reference for all planning decision during the implementation of the plan.

The next step in strategic planning is strategic analysis, analyzing the current business environment. In this step, the organization is compelled to take a hard, objective look at itself, its external environment, its competitors, and the threats and opportunities. To conclude the SWOT analysis, strategic planners need to identify the most critical issues to the future of the organization and the causes of it. The third step in strategic planning is strategic formulation. In this stage, the focus should be on where the organization should be going and how it should get there.

The strategic planners need to identify the key strategic areas related to the critical issues and prioritize each area based on its effect on the organization's ability to fulfill its mission. Once it is completed, all the strategies formulated have to be documented in a strategy statement for communicating to the stakeholders. The next step is to check the planned activities are in consistent with the mission statement. During the implementation stage, the next step, the planners have to identify the changes to existing strategy, and examine the allocation of resources, organization structure, information systems, and people responsible and reward systems. Finally, along with monitoring the results of the implemented plan, short-term objectives have to be set based on the long-term objectives.

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