Strategic planning is the organizational activity to focus on the available resources, to set the priorities and motivating the employees to perform well to achieve the goals of the organization. Strategic planning is the disciplined efforts made by the organizations to take the best decisions and to give the directions to the company with regard to its main focus on the future, how to achieve the goals, why it wants to achieve these objectives, what will company do to achieve these goals in the future. Moreover, strategic planning is not only about the directions and actions to get the success, but also focus on how to determine the results.
Different frameworks and methodologies are used for the strategic management and planning. The problem is that there is no one single right framework found by the organizations and mostly following the same patterns and having common attributes. The different attributes of the strategic framework are divided into different categories and these are:
Strategic Analysis: – The industry analysis is important before formulating the strategies.
Strategy formulation: – Strategy formulation is the process to develop the strategies to achieve the long term goals of the organization. as compared to other stages, it is very easy task. The strong and serious relationship should be there to achieve the long term objectives and making a new strategic design. The review of the policy is very important after the strategy formulation is very important (Fisher, 2010).
Evaluation of the Strategies: – The evaluation of the strategies is essential after the formulation of strategy to reach the tarhets and to achieve the long term goal of the company. For the growth of the business, the selection of best strategy among all the alternatives is very essential.
Strategy Execution: – The last stage of the process is the Strategy implementation and exevuting all the strategies into practice. The main goal of the organization is to build the brand image. It is very important gather the required information to execute the strategies. The objectives of the organization can be achieved if there is a proper communication takes place between the personnel and management (Gates, 2010).
Planning in simple terms is defined as the thinking process before taking any actions. Planning is the term used to decide prior like what, when, how the task is to be achieved and it is different in nature from the strategic planning. A strategy is nothing but a comprehensive plan that uses some tricks and strategies to achieve the growth and success of the organization. Any professional plan has been categorized into many stages like described as follows-
Thinking: – The first step of building a plan is to think about the possibilities and plans and discuss all them with the managers or experts of the organization. The successful planning of the company is done by discussing the problem with the management team. Being a manager, it is the responsibility to inform and take suggestions from the other workers or the students or faculty members to take the best decisions and to generate development plans.
Doing: – After Planning the new structure for the organization, the next step is to analyze the impact of that plan on the organizational performance. This step involves the day to day work of the company (McKay, 2001).
Reviewing: – The professional development plan is reviewed by the managers by looking into the feedbacks. The feedback of the employees as well as the clients of the company plays a crucial role to review the plans.
Reflecting: – The last step is to communicate the plans to the employees for its successful implementation to get better results from that planning
Strategic planning and planning are the two different terms used differently and also have the different meanings. The differences between the strategic planning and Planning are given below: –
Planning is the process of thinking in advance to handle the future uncertain events And strategy is the comprehensive plan that chosen from the number of alternatives to achieve the strategic goals of the organization.
Planning is assumed as a map that show the directions, whereas the Strategy is the proper path to be follow that takes the organization towards its goals.
Planning results into the programs and on the other hand Strategy leads to planning.
Planning is focused on the future and the Strategic planning is basically an action oriented approach (Nickols, 2008).
Planning can be done on the basis of the assumptions, own experience and own perceptions. But strategy is based on the actual s and practical experiences and not based on any assumptions (Baldwin, 2009).
Planning is the short term as well as the long term planning depending upon the type of problem or situation whereas strategy is the long term process.
Planning is the process of the managerial activities and strategy is the part of the decision making process.
Communication: – Communication is the process of sharing the ideas and important information between the two people. The communication plays a very important role in the strategic planning. The communication makes it clear all about the doubts and queries of the employees working in the organization. The decisions of the organization are highly dependant on the good communication. The decisions taken in the organization and to do the strategic planning for the involve the participation of the people. The bad communication or zero communication may lead to the failing of strategic planning and negative results for the organizational performance (Brunings, 2017).
Leadership: – The strategic planning is successful only if the organization has that leader who can use its skills and capabilities and has the ability to motivate the employees to perform well towards the goal of the organization. A good leader is always important for the successful implementation of the strategies. The supervision is very important while the strategies put into actions. The actions performed by all the employees should be thoroughly analyzed and assessed by the leaders or the managers in the organizations.
Decision Making: – The decision making is crucial part of the strategic planning. The achievement of the strategic goals is highly dependent on the good decisions. The strategic planning refers to choosing the best alternative among the various strategies. The decision with regard to choosing the best strategy is significant. One bad decision in the organization has the negative impact on the performance of the organization.
Political factors: – The political factors involve into the interference of the government in the operations of the organization. The political factors need to be analyzed in the case of the those organizations which operates in the political and legal environment. There are many possibilities in some cases or in the business operations of organizations that all the activities are regulated and controlled by the political environment for example in the case of Aviation industry. In the case of Aviation industry, the interference of government in the operations is important for safety purposes as well protecting the interests of the passengers (Verardo, 1998).
Technological Factors: – Changes in technology have posed a great challenge to the companies which need to be considered significant by the organization. Since the competition in the market is so high. The advancement in the technologies has a great impact on the working practices in the organization.
Job design: – The strategic planning is successful if all the employees are aware of their duties and responsibilities. The delegation of the work is also important to get good results of the strategic planning. It is very important to decide regarding the fact that which task is going to be performed by the each individual. As a result, the task is to be assigned according to the skills and capabilities of the employees.
There are many tools of the strategic management that used by the organization to achieve the goals and objectives. The first tool used by the organization is the BCG Matrix. This matrix is basically Describes the four aspects and these – Cash Cows, Starts, question mark and Dogs (Anna, 2015).
BCG Stands for Boston consulting group that helps to analyze the different situations of growth rate and the market share of the product in the market. This matrix is helpful in understanding the impact of the low growth rate and market share as well as high growth rate and market share of the economy in total. Also, the addition to the GDP (gross domestic product) by the contributions and efforts made by the different markets is also analyzed. The individual or business will be able to analyze by this Matrix about how to make the proper utilization of the capital and what the different areas that lagging behind. The business will get to understand the areas that need to be improved in order to remove the all the weaknesses which affects the growth of the business in a way. This tool has proven very successful as there are many companies or industries a which are struggling to achieve the success as well as growth to build its brand image as well as to compete in the market. There are various strategies formulated by the organizations to stay in the market and grow in the dynamic environment. The strategies that are developed helpful in meeting the changing demands of the consumers with the change in time. The consumer satisfaction is must as the consumers are the king of the industry.
Cash Cow: – This is the situation of an industry that involves the a huge amount of investment in the different sections and can generate a lot of cash.it is the situation of the low market growth but high market share. In this field, the country needs to work on the success and growth.
Stars: – The stars are the countries that need high market share and high growth rate to stay in the market. For example- UK is considered to be the star in the market and the export countries which performs phenomenally well is also considered to be a star in the market as it also has both market share and growth rate high (Inn, 2012).
Question Mark: – The term question mark involves high market growth rate and low market share. The economy of the country is impacted positively due to the contribution made by both the companies and adds to the gross domestic product.
Dog- The term dog involves low market growth rate and low market share, and none of the company is considered to be a dog as no company is having a low market share and these are adding to the economy. Hence, these companies are not dogs.
Example: The main features of Swiss Arabian Perfume Group in terms of their business and environment are that the company evaluates all the factors that affect the business or highly influenced by the government.
All the factors that influence the business operations for the long term need to be analyzed. For example, the increase i8n the rate of the inflation has a great impact on the prices set by the company for its products.Morever to save the company from losses, it is very important to identify the economic trends in the export countries. The purchasing power of the people of different countries may be adversely affected by these changes in economic trends. (Debrecht & Levas, 2014). Economic factors that may have great impact are like interest rates, growth patterns of economy, foreign exchange rates etc.
Product life cycle is the concept used to analyze the life cycle of the products in the international as well domestic ,markets. The product life cycle as the four different stages as shown in the diagram. Every stage in this product life cycle has its own characteristics. These stages are explained as below-
Introduction Stage: – This stage of the cycle is assumed to be the most expensive stage as it involves the introduction of the new product and it involves huge amount of investment . The sales of the product are low in this stage as the size of the market is small. The sales can be improved in the next stages. On the other hand, the cost of research and development, manufacturing cost,
consumer testing, etc, is high to launch the new product in the market.
Growth stage: – The second stage is the growth stage comes after the introduction stage. This stage shows the typical growth of the product in the terms of the sales and profits. The chances of growth are high in this stage as the companies start to benefit the economies of the scale (Gardner, 2011). This stage of the PLC encourages the industries to promote its product more for the potential growth and make use of the marketing tools and techniques for promotional activities.
Maturity stage: – This stage of the PLC involves into the establishment of the product. The main focus of the manufacturers is to now maintain the image of the product and maintain that market share that build up by the products. This is the competitive time faced by the companies as there are many substitutes are available in the market for the new products and the company need to develop some strategies to handle the competitive environment.
Decline Stage: – In the stage the graph will show the downfall as the market of the product will start to shrink. The reason of the decline of the growth or shrinkage of the market is that the market is saturated either there is possibility that customers already buy the product or the customers of the product shifted towards the other competitors (Woyzbun, 2012).
The examples can be better describe the product life cycle and its all the stages with the help of the graph. Talking about the first product, Cisco flip camera is the product which is used and accepted by the few entrepreneurs in San Francisco in the year of 2007 and that product dominate the Camcorder market very quickly.
At the growth stage of the company, the company sold out the 2 million flip cameras in two years and suddenly the decline stage takes place as the Cisco announced that it was shutting down the business of flip cameras . The Product life cycle of the Cisco flip cameras also shown the upward growth and then the downfall in the business. Talking about the life cycle of the tech world, it is very fast.
Electric Jug: – The electric jug is the product used to heat the water and the introduction of these types of products in the market needs a lot of research and the electric kettle or the jug at the stage of usage needs electricity. The power of the electric kettle is 1900 W. The electric jug has been used 3 times in a day to boil the water in the jug which takes 4 minutes of time in total. The electric kettle was firstly used in the country of Poland and the electricity units consumed by the electric need to analyze in Polish situation. This is required because this process was then linked to the life cycle of the electric jug (Grzesik & Guca, 2011).
The life cycle of the electric jug contains the below mentioned stages-
The next management tool that is used by the many organizations is the SWOT analysis . The company analysis is done by using the SWOT analysis with the help of which the company can identify its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT analysis can be explained with the help of the example that is Australian company Woolworths.
Strengths: – This part of the SWOT analysis depicts the strength of the company and the strategies that make the company to become a strong are helpful the country to grow. The low prices for the necessity products as compared to the other companies is the strength of the company. As a result, it is said that the Woolworth is the inexpensive retailers in the market. Moreover, the quality of products offered by the supermarkets of Woolworths is the strength and positive point to attract new customers. Also the company has great market share in the industry of the retail business (Bllomberg, 2015).
Weaknesses: – This part represents the weak points of the company and work according in order to overcome the weaknesses. The poor decision making process at Woolworths group is the weak point of the company. Moving further, it also fails in the adaptation of the new technology as compared to the competitors of the Woolworths. Sometimes the positive point for all become the negative for the company. As the company is providing low cost products with the superior quality, which is good for all the customers, on the same side it also creates the negative thoughts in the customer’s mind.
Opportunities: – The Company has the greatest opportunity of expanding the business in the overseas countries to attract the customers with the strategy of low pricing and the overseas countries are like Vietnam, Indonesia and South Africa. The other opportunity for the Woolworth is to deal with the electrical items also and can make a proper use of the new technologies. This part of SWOT analysis helps to understand the level of opportunities available in the market (Downey, 2007).
Threats: – Discussing about the threats to the company, the first threat to Woolworths is the changing tastes, preferences and habits of the customers with time and also the change in technology. There is high competition available in the market in the retail sectors.
Except Swot analysis, there is the other concepts related to stretch and leverage of the management tool has also been explained in the report. Talking about the both the strategies, then these are the innovation in the systems that helps the organization in many ways. Talking about the company like Marks and Spenser, when that company is failed to meet the changing demands of the customers in the changing environment, then it is said that it is falied to find out its fit. Because of this company may suffer from losses in the future. Strategy is defined as the discipline, that is involve into the applications of the fit and stretch in the organizations, also helps to increase the trust and confidence from the top management and it also involves the deep study of the academics that strengthens the various concepts of the strategic management.
Strategy as Stretch: – This is the strategy used by the enterprises to improve its performance. Stretch is basically a gap between the knowledge , capability, resources available to the organization and the aspirations of the enterprise or the extent to which the leadership desires to be more creative, Inventive and the productive in a way to carry out the activities of the organization. The degree of the stretch is identified by the two main factors- one is the intent of the strategies and the second one is the challenges found in the organizations and their nature it is not compulsion to take care of all the activities in the organization. The challenges that are found in enterprise established as the future forecasts and scenarios and by comparing internal as well external environments to meet the benchmarks (Ritson, 2011).
Strategy as Leverage: – The strategy as Leverage is the concept explained by the Hamel and Prahalad for the management of the enterprise. According to their views, the company’s management need to close the gap between the resources and the aspirations which is opened by the stretch or strategic intent. This closure of the gap is only possible by leveraging the resources The goal of this strategy is to challenge the managers to perform more ingenious by multiplying the resource impact and enlarging these things. According to Hamed and Prahalad, the stretch and leverage are the two different concepts of the one enterprise. Stretch is related to the aspirations or the gap between the resources and aspirations, whereas on the other hand the leverage relates to use of the capabilities to reach the level of the aspirations and to close that gap between the resources and the aspirations (David, 2011).
The five forces model is the another tool used by the companies to manage the strategies and this model was introduced by the Porter’s to identify the competitive environment in which the company operates. The following diagrajm is very well explained about the fie forces of Porter’s and this is very helpful tool in the strategic management.
Rivalry: – When there is large demand of the product and services are found then the existing organizations become rivals. For example talking about the Heallth sector, it is the organizations which continuosly growing and developing. There are manty demands for the services of the hospitals or organizations. The aim of the every organization is to providing the best services and offer the services at lower rates to attract the customers. this is the first factor of the porter’s five forces model which tells that there is the high rivalry in the organizations because of the high demand of products and services in the market. This rtype of rivalry is greatly affect the business of heathcare sector in positive or in negative way. The positive impact of the rivalry is that there is possibility that the number of the organization providing the medical facilities may increase and this will lead to cut down the prices as every one want to do its best as compared to others. The negative impact of the rivalry can be that quality of services may decrease which as a result is harmful for the patients that taking all the services of the health care.
Moving further, the growth of the industry in a country is very fast and performing well to attract the new investors as well as new competitors. There is always a threat to the company or organization with regard to the new entrants in the same field. The rivalry becomes higher than before which affects the business in a positive as well negative way as it is already explained earlier. Talking about the new entries, then there is the possibility that they come up with the new technology which may be beneficial for the business of the organization. On the other hand it also may have the negative impact as they are threatened the existing organisations to lose thir business. As a result it is found that it is not possible for the new organization to replace the new one and to establish the same brand image as the existing
Organisation have. It will take a time for the new entrants to to build its brand image.most importantly, people are not sure about the new entries as they are afraid to trust them because people are unaware of the new organisations and will not make up their mind to trust on the new technologies that the new companies are using. The usage of the new technology obviously involoves the high cost and need more funds. There is automatically increase in the spending of the people if people will interested in using these types of technologies offered by the new companies. However, the overall revenue of the company or health sector will increase with the increase in the spending of the people.
As a result, the development of the substitute products will take place because of the high rivalry and new entrants and these substitute products also have the positive as well as negative impact on the society as whole. The price of these products may or may be not lower than that of products already existing.
Hence if the prices of the substitute products are high and more expensive than it will be very difficult to attract or convince the people to invest in these products as the people are already getting the same product at less price in the market. On the other side, if all these products are of less cost and cheaper then the people will readily accept all these products. It is very important to keep in the mind that the quality of the substitute products should be the same that people are getting before.
Talking about the medical sector, it is a field that needs new developments in order to solve all kind of problems as well as diseases and to make the patients happy with the quality services all over the world. Therefore success of the organisation is mainly dependent on the the development of new products and introduction of the substitution products. The introduction of substitute products is important to attract the middle income people and people living in the weaker part of the society.
The medical field is an ever growing sector and never will there be a time when there is a fall in the demand in the use of medical facilities and services. The bargaining power in the healthcare sector is in the hands of the buyers and the consumers. The buyers that are the organizations have a constant demand for medical services and products including technologies, therefore in order to receive such facilities they have to buy the products so required and the bargaining power lies in their hands as there are a large number of organizations who require the same and at the same time there are a large number of sellers. This is a flourishing market and any business investment in any such organization would lead to a business lead of a lot of money. On the other hand people need medical facilities and for these they have a lot options, therefore the organizations have t keep this in mind that their organization is chosen or otherwise the consumers can avail the same services from another organization (Lindsey, 2014).
Conclusion
Strategic planning is the crucial part to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. Strategy development involves the long term goal of the organization and formulates strategies to achieve the goals. This strategy formulation is an easy task as compared to the other stages like implementation, evaluation and monitoring. This report explained about the Strategy formulation which is the process to develop the strategies to achieve the long term goals of the organization. as compared to other stages, it is very easy task. The strong and serious relationship should be there to achieve the long term objectives and making a new strategic design. The review of the policy is very important after the strategy formulation is very important.
All the tools explained in the report are helps in analyzing the different situations and strategies to understand the impact of all of the performance of the organization.
It is concluded that the management plays the important role in managing the change that occurs in the company and helps to evaluate the position of the organization as compared to the past. The various reliable and efficient channels are used to promote the different products. The company has a great potential of expanding itself in the market, but for that, the company needs to adopt different strategies which are different from the other rivals in the market so that customers can differentiate between the products of this company and the other competitors. There are enormous opportunities for this company in the market and the company needs to embrace all those opportunities smartly and need to make full use of them by establishing itself in the market with much more conviction. The report talks about the main difference in the planning and strategic planning and what are the main factors that affecting the strategic planning. The report also focused on the various tools like BCG Matrix, SWOT analysis, Product life Cycle and the Porter’s model of competitive advantage. All these tools are very well explained in this report. The purpose of this report is to distinguish the meaning of the planning and the strategic planning and to determine the factors influencing the strategic planning. In the end, it is clear that the report is very useful to identify the tools that are useful to analyze the strategic management.
References
Anna, A., 2015. Strategic Management Tools and Techniques and Organizational Performance: Findings from the Czech Republic. Journal of Competitiveness , 7(3), pp. 19 – 36.
Baldwin, M., 2009. What is the Difference Between a Business Plan and a Strategic Plan?, Available at: https://www.cssp.com/strategicplanning/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-a-business-plan-and-a-strategic-plan/
Bloomberg, 2015. SWOT, PESTEL, Porter’s 5 Forces and Value Chain, Available at: https://n8vur1qcezm2nh4r535p3ne5.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Bloomberg-Business-sample1.pdf
Brunings, J., 2017. What is the Difference Between a Business Plan and a Strategic Plan?, Available at: https://onstrategyhq.com/resources/what-is-the-difference-between-a-business-plan-and-a-strategic-plan/
David, F., 2011. Strategic Management: concepts and cases, Available at: https://202.28.25.105/e-learning/courses/703309/document/StrategicManagementDavid.pdf?cidReq=703309
Debrecht, D. & Levas, M., 2014. Using the Boston Consulting Group Portfolio Matrix to Analyze Management of a Business Undergraduate Student Program at a Small Liberal Arts University, Available at: https://www.na-businesspress.com/JHETP/DebrechtD_Web14_3_.pdf
Downey, J., 2007. Strategic Analysis Tools: CIMA, Available at: https://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/cid_tg_strategic_analysis_tools_nov07.pdf.pdf
Drucker, P., 2013. Strategic Management, Available at: https://164.100.133.129:81/eCONTENT/Uploads/Strategic_Management.pdf
Fisher, 2010. The process of strategic planning, Available at: https://fisher.osu.edu/supplements/10/1470/All_Articles.pdf
Gardner, D., 2011. The Product Life Cycle: It’s Role in Marketing Strategy/ Some Evolving Observations About the Life Cycle, Available at: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/28557/productlifecycle1304gard.pdf?sequence=1
Gates, L., 2010. Strategic Planning with Critical Success Factors and Future Scenarios: An Integrated Strategic Planning Framework, Available at: https://www.sei.cmu.edu/reports/10tr037.pdf
Grzesik, K. & Guca, K., 2011. Screening Study of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the Electric Kettle with SimaPro Software. Geomatics and environmental engineering, 5(3), pp. 1-12, Available at: https://journals.bg.agh.edu.pl/GEOMATICS/2011-03/Geomatics_2011_3_05.pdf
Inn, E., 2012. Portfolio Management based on Market Share and Market Growth. Explanation of BCG Matrix, Available at: https://eco-inn.vn/vi/system/files/BCG_Matrix.pdf
Lindsey, D., 2014. Strategic management for senior leaders, Available at: https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/initiati/mfr/managebk.pdf
McKay, E., 2001. Strategic planning- A 10 step guide, Available at: https://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRREGTOPTEIA/Resources/mosaica_10_steps.pdf
Nickols, F., 2008. Strategy, strategic management, strategic planning and strategic thinking, Available at: https://www.nickols.us/strategy_etc.pdf
Ritson, N., 2011. Strategic management, Available at: https://www.kau.edu.sa/Files/0057862/Subjects/Strategic%20Management%20Book.pdf
Verardo, D., 1998. Strategic Planning: Organizational development, Available at: https://www2.pathfinder.org/site/DocServer/Strategic_Planning.pdf
Woyzbun, R., 2012. The Evolution of Strategic Planning, Available at: https://www.the-marketing-works.com/pdf/planning.pdf
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download