Strategic planning and management is a concept used in management concerned with organizational decision making in relation to growth, development and transformation of the company. Besides coming up with these decisions, strategic management and planning is also concerned with implementing and enforcing them.
This is usually conducted in two phases, that is the planning phase and the implementation phase. Strategic planning according to Thompson, Gamble and Strickland (2006) involves “determining the organization’s mission, formulating policies to guide the organization in establishing objectives, establishing long term and short term objectives and determining the strategies that are used in achieving the organization’s mission” (p. 86).
Strategic implementation on the other hand involves coming up with guideline to implement the strategy, identifying the resources required to achieve these objectives, organizing the activities in their respective order and monitoring the strategy’s performance in relation to the laid down objectives.
Event management is a kind of business that requires effective strategic management and planning. Events in this case include entertainment sprees, weddings, conferences and many other such like events. Strategic management plays a major role in the success of this business for a number of reasons.
First, it considers the future of the business and assists in laying down long term strategies. Strategic management ensures that future uncertainties in the industry have been taken care of and this includes changes in technology and the need to expand the market share.
The second importance of strategic management is that it results in a greater efficiency owing to the planning involved and this guarantees the success of the business. Third, it reduces instances of confusion since the procedures to be followed are clearly set. Besides this, strategic management catapults growth by discovering greater opportunities in the industry. When conducting strategic planning, the management has to do a thorough research in the industry, and in the process ends up discovering more opportunities.
Strategic management in the event organizing business also plays an important role in ensuring business continuity. The planning is done based on future parameters and this means that the company is protected from threatening competition. When conducting strategic planning, one of the most essential areas is the performance of competitors and the loopholes that they can take advantage of.
These are sealed and so the management is assured that they will remain on top of the market for as long as the strategies are still being implemented and improved. When running a business, there are many external threats that cannot be discovered without involving strategic management. This therefore forms the other advantage of conducting strategic management (Pearce & Robinson, 2009).
One of the parameters under scrutiny in this case is the external threats. When discovered, there are two options of dealing with them to ensure that they are not harmful to the company. They are either eliminated, or where this is not possible they are converted into opportunities. Finally, strategic management employs more focus on a proactive approach that empowers a company to be aware of the opportunities available and grasp them accordingly.
When developing and implementing strategic plans, there are four major roles played by the management of the company. The first role is conducting an analysis of the future business trends in the industry. Before making a plan the management needs to be certain on what they are planning for. “This involves coming up with an honest and unbiased analysis of the company’s weakness and strengths from a financial, operational, and staffing point of view” (Pearce & Robinson, 2009 p. 43).
They go on to explain other factors that should be considered by the management when conducting the analysis and these are “the technological, political, economic and environmental issues affecting the operations” (p.44). By identifying strengths and weaknesses, the management will be in a position to identify growth and improvement opportunities. The second role that the management plays in strategic management is planning.
This involves breaking down the mission and vision statements into short term portions and assigning a timeframe for the implementation of each step. In event management the most preferred parameter to be used when planning is revenue. For example, define the level of revenue that should be attained in six months and the strategies that will be employed to attain this.
These first two roles are mostly conducted in the boardroom, after which implementation has to be done. This brings about the third role of the strategic management team which is assigning responsibilities.
The responsibilities involved should be clearly defined alongside the people to handle them. This will ensure accountability, timely delivery especially where deadlines are involved. When assigning responsibilities, the management should be clear on the contributions each task makes to the success of the entire strategy (Thompson et al, 2006).
The final role is communication, which involves making decisions and ideas known to the parties concerned. Besides that, communication also involves having progress reports for different departments in a timely manner. This ensures that the people concerned with the strategic management process are up to date with the developments made. It also brings out the problems bound to come up along the way and these are dealt with before it is too late.
References
Pearce, J., & Robinson, R. (2009). Strategic management: Formulation, implementation, and control (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Thompson, A., Gamble, J., & Strickland, J. (2006). Strategy: Winning in the marketplace: Core concepts, analytical tools, cases (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.