Strategic planning and application, Essays (university) of Leadership and Team Management

Download Strategic planning and application and more Essays (university) Leadership and Team Management in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Strategic planning Determines where an organization is going over the next year or more and how it's going to get there. Typically, the process is organization-wide, or focused on a major function such as a division, department or other major function. Benefits of Strategic Planning Strategic planning serves a variety of purposes in organizations, including to: Clearly define the purpose of the organization and to establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time frame within the organization’s capacity for implementation. Communicate those goals and objectives to the organization’s constituents. Develop a sense of ownership of the plan. Ensure the most effective use is made of the organization’s resources by focusing the resources on the key priorities. Provide a base from which progress can be measured and establish a mechanism for informed change when needed. Listen to everyone’s opinions in order to build consensus about where the organization is going. Mission statements are brief written descriptions of the purpose of the organization. Mission statements vary in nature from very brief to quite comprehensive, and including having a specific purpose statement that is part of the overall mission statement. Vision statements are usually a compelling description of how the organization will or should operate at some point in the future and of how customers or clients are benefiting from the organization's products and services. Values statements list the overall priorities in how the organization will operate. Some people focus the values statement on moral values. Moral values are values that suggest overall priorities in how people ought to act in the world, for example, integrity, honesty, respect, etc. Other people include operational values which suggest overall priorities for the organization, for example, to expand marketshare, increase efficiency, etc. Strategic Analysis This activity can include conducting some sort of scan, or review, of the organization's environment (for example, of the political, social, economic and technical environment). Planners carefully consider various driving forces in the environment, for example, increasing competition, changing demographics, etc. Planners also look at the various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (an acronym for this activity is SWOT) regarding the organization. SWOT Analysis is a powerful tool for looking at your business. Let’s take a look at how it works. Then, you just might utilize it more. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The goal is to examine internal (Strengths & Weaknesses) and external (Opportunities and Threats) elements of a business. If