1. Environmental Scanning It is the first basic element in strategic planning. It is a process of cautious monitoring of external and internal factors that can affect the future and survival of a firm. It is done through the SWOT analysis where data are gathered, evaluated and analyzed by specific people in the organization. This strategy gives a lot of advantages such as helping the company to assess its outside environment for scientific, social, technical, political and economic changes that can affect its position in the world. It forces management to perform a self-analysis to establish areas of strength and areas that need improvement within the corporation in order to guaranty performance and success. It also helps with forecasting new strategies and promoting new position and vision of the company for the future. In order words, this approach helps corporation gain competitive advantages.
2. Strategy Formulation After defining the corporation’s internal strengths and weaknesses, external opportunities and threats, the next step is to develop a broad plan to help the organization efficiently reach its goals while monitoring the environment with strategy formulation. It this process the company will determine its mission, vision, objectives, strategies and policies. This strategy helps the organization to determine and understand their purpose, their reason
Bibliography: Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D. (2012). Strategic management and business policy: Toward global sustainability (13th ed.). New York : Prentice Hall, pp. 3-86.