Strategic Planning in Pharmacy
Operations
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Provide an overview of planning activities conducted by
pharmacy and health care organizations.
2. Describe the general process common to all types of planning.
3. Describe the purpose of strategic planning, and illustrate the
specific steps to develop a strategic plan.
4. Differentiate a vision statement from a mission statement.
5. Highlight examples of strategic planning in pharmacy
organizations.
6. Identify barriers and limitations to planning.
planning
 represents the purposeful efforts taken by an organization to
maximize its future success.
 Planning has been described as one of the four key functions of
managers (along with organizing, leading, and controlling).
 Many different types of planning activities occur within
pharmacy organizations. The most common types include
1. Business planning
2. Financial planning
3. Operational planning
4. Resource planning
5. Organizational
6. Planning
7. Strategic planning.
Steps in the Planning Process
1. Define or orient the planning process to a singular purpose or a
desired result (vision/ mission).
2. Assess the current situation.
3. Establish goals.
4. Identify strategies to reach those goals.
5. Establish objectives that support progress toward those goals.
6. Define responsibilities and timelines for each objective.
7. Write and communicate the plan.
8. Monitor progress toward meeting goals and objectives.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
 Strategic planning has been defined as the process of selecting an
organization’s goals, determining the policies and programs
(strategies) necessary to achieve specific objectives en route to
those goals, and establishing methods necessary to ensure that the
policies and strategic programs are implemented
 The purpose of strategic planning is to ensure that the
organization is doing the right things now and in the future.
 Strategic planning addresses what business the organization is in
or ought to be in and helps to determine long-term goals for the
organization.
Strategic planning can be either reactive or proactive.
Reactive strategic planning is not the ideal, but it is often necessary,
especially in industries that are changing rapidly (such as health
care).
proactive strategic planning enables an organization to control its
environment instead of vice versa.(create or recreate the business
environment)
 Strategic planning has also been called long-term planning.The
actual timeline used by organizations may vary or in some cases
may not be known
 The time horizon for strategic planning may be as long as 10 to
20 years or as short as 2 years
Problems with strategic planning
 goals that incorporate new paradoxes or visionary changes may
be difficult for employees to believe if the time period for
accomplishing those goals is too short
 it is not likely to result in any truly sustainable competitive
advantages or a significant organizational metamorphosis
Vision and Mission
 The vision is what the pharmacy organization wants to be at
some future time point
 The vision statement should make people think and should
motivate people to strive for something greater.
 The vision of the organization is used in the strategic
planning process as both the beginning point and the end
point
 The vision is also used to define the mission of the organization
 The mission is the purpose of the company.
 The mission statement defines what the company does or is. It is
a statement of the present going ahead into the near future.
 The mission statement should be short—usually no more than
two sentences.
 It focuses on the common purpose of the organization and may
draw from the values or beliefs held by the organization.
 The mission statement should help to differentiate the company
from others that provide the same products or services
 Elements suggested in developing a mission statement for a
community pharmacy
1. The intended (or target) customers,
2. The core values of the pharmacy (such as compassion,
respect, and confidentiality)
3. The key services and products provided by the pharmacy,
4. The benefits incurred by customers (such as improved
health and improved safety)
5. Desired public image of the pharmacy
 Companies use slogans to convey a message to customers about the
organization
 The company slogan generally is more marketing-driven than
is the mission statement, but in some cases the company
slogan serves a similar role.
Process of Strategic Planning
Preplanning Phase
 Preplanning can be defined as the steps necessary to organize the
strategic planning effort—or “planning for the planning.”
Strategic planning is a significant undertaking that consumes
much time and energy
 Preplanning should also define the objectives of the planning
efforts and the procedures that will be used to accomplish those
objectives
 Preplanning should define who should be involved, where the
planning process will occur, and how much time it will take.
 Preplanning should also consider any political purposes and
ramifications of the undertaking.
Planning Phase
 Ideas are actively generated for the pharmacy organization
(strategizing) started by establishing the destination (like traveling)
 In strategic planning, the “destination” is the vision of the organization in
the future.
 Situation analysis to identify where, what, and how the organization is in the
present
 Based on the vision (destination), along with the present situation
(starting point), planners next should identify the goals for the
organization
 determine objectives that will help to reach the goals
 A common method for conducting the situation analysis is to evaluate
the internal strengths and weakness of the organization and the external
opportunities and threats to the organization. This is known as a SWOT
(Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis.
 By comparing the results of the situation analysis with the desired future
state (vision), the extent and nature of the gap between the two begins to
become clear.
 The next steps in the planning phase attempt to bridge that gap
 The last part of the planning process deals with organizing to
operationalize the strategy
 Strategic plan contain the following key elements:
(1) The organization’s vision
(2) Strategies
(3) goals for each strategy
(4)objectives required to meet those goals
(5) tasks or action plans to compete the objectives
 Post planning Phase
 This phase includes three steps:
(1)communicating the plan
(2) Implementing the plan
(3)Monitoring progress once the plan is implemented.
BARRIERS AND LIMITATIONS TO
PLANNING
Limitations
1. planning is, to some degree, guesswork (but educated and
experienced guesswork, hopefully)
2. plans and predictions are only as good as the data and
information that go into them
3. Planning is not a substitute for action
4. Planning should be a continuous process
1.Select a specific pharmacy practice setting (i.e., hospital
practice, community practice, or managed
care). What barriers do you believe would limit the
ability of pharmacists and pharmacy managers to
conduct effective planning in that setting?
2. Write a vision statement for a hypothetical pharmacy
organization. Explain how you selected the
language and message of the statement.
3. Conduct an Internet search of vision and mission
statements of health care organizations. Identify and
compare the statements from at least three different
organizations. What are the strengths and weakness
of these statements?
4. What are the different activities that pharmacies
and health care organizations engage in when they
plan for the future?