Strategic planning
B.V.L.NARAYANA
SPTM
Defining Strategy
• Strategy is the determinator of the basic longterm goals of an enterprise, and the adoption of
courses of action and the allocation of resources
necessary for carrying out these goals.
–
Chandler, 1962, Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of American
Industrial Enterprise [p. 13]
• Strategy is the pattern of objectives, purposes, or
goals and major policies and plans for achieving
these goals, stated in such away as to define
what business the company is in or is to be in…
–
Learned, Christenson, Andrews, & Guth, 1969, Business Policy: Text and Cases [p. 151]
Chronological evolution
Adapted from Pettigrew et al (2002),
Whittington (2002), Gould and Campbell
(1993)
Descriptor
1950’s and 1960’s
1970’s
1980’s
1990’s
21st century
Environment
Stable
Dynamic complex
Dynamic complex
Highly
dynamic
Hyper
competitive
Focus
Content
Top management
Content
Top management
Content
Top management
Process,
Organisation
Process
Organisation
Decision making
Rational,
synoptic
Rational synoptic
Rational,
participative
Context
dependent
Context
depende
nt
View
of
Implementati
on
Distinct
Given
Distinct
Given
Distinct
Given
Integrated
Integrated
Research
Processual
,
longitudinal
Cross sectional
Processual
Longitudinal
Processual
Longitudinal
Dominant school
Design
Planning
Positioning
Cultural
Learning
Learning,
Organic
Strategy
paradigm
Static, exploit
Opportunities,
Static,
detailed
planning
Static,
position
defense
Static,
adaptive
Dynamic
adaptive
Cross sectional
Definitions
• Strategy +planning
• Strategy – defined as
– Strategy is a mediating force between the
organization and its environment: consistent patterns
in streams of organizational decisions to deal with
the environment. Mintzberg, 1979, The Structuring of Organizations [P. 251]
– Long range planning ( Drucker 1970, Ansoff 1965) Consists of
• Objectives or goals
• Methods, procedures, means to realize goals
• Apply to most segments of business
• Contain auditing and control mechanisms
Strategy Hierarchy
© Prentice Hall, 2006
Strategic planning in government
• Strategic planning has been defined as
“a disciplined effort to produce fundamental
decisions and actions that shape and guide what
an organization is, what it does, and why it does
it” (Bryson 1995).
• It provides a systematic process for gathering
information about the big picture and using it to
establish a long-term direction and then translate
that direction into specific goals, objectives, and
actions. It blends futuristic thinking, objective
analysis, and subjective evaluation of goals and
priorities to chart a future course of action that will
ensure the organization’s vitality and
effectiveness in the long run. “
Strategic planning
• Debate on
– Scope
– Content
– Involvement and participation
– Approach
– Converting plan into actions
Strategic planning vs management
( Poister
and streib 2005)
• “Strategic planning is the primary element
but not the essence of strategic
management. The other components …
include implementation and evaluation”
• Vinzant and Vinzant (1996) identified
performance measures derived directly
from strategic goals and objectives, and
links between strategic plans and budgets,
as critical elements of the strategic
management process.
Levels of strategic management capacity
Strategic planning
• Strategic planning enables you to answer
the following questions:
• Who are we?
• What capacity do we have/what can we
do?
• What problems are we addressing?
• What difference do we want to make?
• Which critical issues must we respond to?
• Where should we allocate our
resources?/what should our priorities be?
Strategic planning—exercise
• What has happened in the past three years in the
external environment that could affect our work as
an organisation/project?
• What are the challenges and threats facing us as
an organisation/project in our external
environment?
• What are the opportunities we should be taking
advantage of in the environment in order to:
– a Make us more sustainable as a project/organisation?
– b Help us achieve our vision
• What information do you have that you think is
important to share with others in the strategic
planning process?
Strategic planning –exercise
• What are the important strengths of our
organisation/project?
• What weaknesses are preventing our
organisation/project from achieving its vision?
• Do you think we are clear about our vision, values
and mission?
• What challenges have we failed to meet in the
past two to three years and why have we failed to
meet them?
• What challenges have we met well in the past two
to three years and what helped us to meet them?
• What is the most important outcome that you
would like to see emerging from this strategic
planning process? Why do you think it is so
important?
Strategic planning –exercise 2
• Identify critical internal and external issues
which need to be addressed
• A critical issue is one that meets most or
all of the following criteria:
– Is related to a core problem
– Affects the lives of a significant number of
people either directly or indirectly
Strategic planning –exercise 2
• Critical issues
– Can be addressed through the competencies
and resources of the organisation or project
– Needs to be addressed if the organisation or
project is to be able to progress in its work
– Builds on the strengths of the organisation or
project and/or the opportunities available to it
– Addresses weaknesses in the organisation
and/or assists the organisation to deal with
threats to its work or existence.
Strategic planning
• What is planning? (Mintzberg 1981)
• It has been indicated as
–
–
–
–
–
Future thinking
Integrated decision making
Formalized procedures and articulated results
Programming– process driven by vision
Formal procedure to force future thinking
• Drucker (1985)
– Identify changes which have happened– future
which has happened
Thank you