Description of Organization
The process of strategic planning is crucial for any organization because it allows it to respond to external challenges and develop. According to Johnston and Bate (2013), the notion is defined as an act of setting goals and ensuring those are achieved. While there are many components to strategic planning, the crucial one is to ensure that stakeholders are satisfied with the outcomes. The primary step of the process is identifying directional statements that lead the establishment’s operations.
Those objectives provide insight into goals the company strives to achieve and its approaches to business. General Motors (GM) is among the biggest and most well-known companies in the US, thus researching the approaches it takes to its strategic planning can be valuable. This paper aims to examine GM, its mission, vision, and value statements in regards to the strategy of the firm.
Background Information
The headquarters of GM is located in Detroit, Michigan; however, there are many branches across the US. The overall number of employees exceeds 180,000 on five continents across the world (“About GM,” n.d.). GM has existed for over a hundred years; thus, it has a long history and experience in the car production business. The company’s primary focus of operational activity is in the automobile industry. Therefore, the main products are various cars that GM sells both in the US and overseas. The customers of GM are varied, depending on the specific vehicle, as the firm offers a wide range of choices in regards to pricing options. The services that GM offers are aimed at repairing cars.
The company has identified the primary objectives that guide its actions. Firstly, its vision is “zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion” (“About GM,” n.d., para 1). The statement implicates that GM strives to ensure that its cars are safe through improving the current measures and approaches applied to vehicles. Additionally, it is evident that the business cares about the community as it aims at developing products that do not contaminate the environment. The congestion goal may indicate an innovative approach that GM takes in regards to human transportation by changing it towards an easier-to-use model. By modifying the envisionment, one can say that GM is focused on minimizing the adverse impact its products have on the surroundings.
The mission statement of an organization is essential as it reflects the culture within it. GM states that its goals are in “creating an environment where everyone feels welcomed and valued for who they are” (“About GM,” n.d., para. 3). Thus, the business wants to lead its employees in friendly and accepting surroundings, to promote the worth of individuals. The claim reflects the guidelines that GM uses regarding the managerial approach. By modifying the mission statement of GM, one can state that the firm emphasizes both the internal and external culture of the relationships between people and the company’s products and strives to improve it.
Therefore, the statements provide an understanding of the goals the business aims to achieve. According to Dibrell, Craig, and Neubaum (2013), positive outcomes are created by an ability to leverage resources and create a competitive advantage. Additionally, the authors emphasize the importance of innovation and flexibility in strategic planning. The two are indirectly reflected in the vision of GM as zero harm to the environment can be achieved by developing new technological solutions. The examined statements by GM can present a strategy which the company executes to ensure such an advantage.
The Importance of Mission, Vision, and Values
Proper strategic planning should include a variety of components that influence a business. Johnston and Bate (2013) state that the three statements are among the internal sources of information that provide insight into operations. The vision should reflect the primary objective and a success indicator to measure the effectiveness of the efforts. Values are the critical factors that GM focuses on in its daily activities.
The firm states they strive to “addressing societal and environmental challenges while transforming the future of mobility” (“GM’s vision drives value for the company,” 2018, para.1). The aim is reflected in the statements and offers an understanding of the goal to both employees and customers. The three are a part of GM’s organizational culture because they reflect its vision regarding business and industry.
Therefore, the three statements aid a company in reaching its strategic goals by providing it with a clear purpose and success measure, as well as by defining the internal culture of the firm. The components of the strategic management process that should be analyzed in light of the new strategy are the mission, vision, and values. In addition, the current approach and measures utilized to identify successful outcomes and current organizational structure can be helpful in creating a new development plan.
Outcomes of the New Strategy
Due to the fact that the new strategy would influence the culture of the establishment directly by modifying the essential statements and providing new goals, the company’s leadership should consider the importance of these components. According to Arayesh, Golmohammadi, Nekooeezadeh, and Mansouri (2017), “organizational culture is a factor that can result in the development of strategic thinking in organizations” (p. 261). Therefore, the two factors are connected and depend on one another. In addition, the two help identify possible challenges presented by the external environment and affect them through proper planning.
Having a proper culture can determine the success or failure of businesses’ endeavors. As a mission, vision, and value statement, it is part of the internal environment that defines the ways in which an organization operates. Additionally, “culture forms the foundation of strategies and affects the elements of the communication process and strategic relationships” (Arayesh et al., 2017, p. 261).
Thus, the stakeholders would be affected by a change in a company’s strategy as well. The primary stakeholders in the case of GM are the employees and its customers. In case GM chooses a different direction for strategic development, the person would have to adjust their daily activities and adhere to new objectives. Arayesh et al. (2017) state that the notion creates a specific identity among staff members. The consumers would receive a different product or service from GM with such alterations. Therefore, the culture of a firm should consider the primary stakeholders and their interests.
Conclusion
Overall, GN was chosen for this research, as it is a large company with many divisions across the world. Examining its operations and components of strategic planning is valuable in understanding the goals that the firm wants to achieve. The vision of GM indicates that current activities are aimed at reducing environmental harm and possible adverse outcomes of vehicle usage. The vision reflects GM’s striving to create an excellent organizational culture GM. The statements depict a corporate culture that exists in the GM.
References
About GM. (n.d.). Web.
Arayesh, M. B., Golmohammadi, E., Nekooeezadeh, M., & Mansouri, A. (2017). The effects of organizational culture on the development of strategic thinking at the organizational level. International Journal of Organizational Leadership, 6(2), 261-275.
Dibrell, C., Craig, J. B., & Neubaum, D. O. (2014). Linking the formal strategic planning process, planning flexibility, and innovativeness to firm performance. Journal of Business Research, 67(9), 2000-2007. Web.
GM’s vision drives value for the company, communities and future mobility. (2018). Web.
Johnston, R. E., & Bate, J. D. (2013). The power of strategy innovation: A new way of linking creativity and strategic planning to discover great business opportunities. New York, NY: AMA.