Chapter 10
Planning and Strategic Management
Planning Overview
Importance of Goals: Goals provide a sense of direction
Goals focus our efforts
Goals guide our plans and decisions
Goals help us evaluate our progress
The importance of planning at organizations
The Hierarchy of Organization Plans
Strategic Plans – Plans designed to meet an organization’s board goals.
Operational Plans – Plans that contain details for carrying out, or implementing, those strategic plans in day-to-day activities.
How Strategic and Operational Plans Differ
Strategic Plans
Operational Plans
Time Horizons
Strategic plans tend to look ahead several years or even decades
For Operational plans, a year is often the relevant time period
Scope
It affects a wide range of organizational activities
It has a narrow and more limited scope
Degree of Detail
Strategic plans are stated in terms that look simplistic and generic
Operational plans are stated in relatively finer detail
The Evolution of the Concept of Strategy
Strategy: The board program for defining and achieving an organization’s objectives; the organization’s response to its environment over time.
Strategic Management:
The management process that involves an organization’s engaging in strategic planning and then acting on those plans.
Business historian Alfred D. Chandler stressed three key elements –
Course of action for attaining objectives
The process of seeking key ideas ( rather than routinely implementing existing policy); and
How strategy is formulated, not just what the strategy turns out to be
The Strategic Management Approach
Dan Schendel and Charles Hofer have suggested four key aspects of Strategic Management –
1) Goal Setting
2) Strategy Formulation
3) Administration
4) Strategic Control
The Strategic Management process
Strategic Planning – includes both the goal-setting and strategy-formulation processes.
Strategy