Strategic Planning: Definition and Techniques Essay

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Strategic planning refers to a company’s or organization’s plan or practice of developing its strategy in carrying out its plan and making decisive undertakings on how to allocate its resources. The organization basically embarks on a process of allocating resources with the aim of pursuing its strategy with respect to capital and human resource. There are various techniques applied in strategic planning as listed below.

  • SWOT – This strategic planning involves evaluating Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and threats.
  • PEST – PEST analysis technique focuses on Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis.
  • EPISTELS – This analysis technique involves Environment, Political, Informatics, Social, Technological, Economic, Legal, and Finally Spiritual.

Strategic planning is an undertaking aimed at preparing a formal or written deliberation on a firm’s present and future plan. It is involved in answering some important organization’s queries like what an organization does, for whom it does what it does and how it succeeds, or why it does. One of the most important questions that an organization’s strategic plan should answer is how it will manage to keep away from competition or defeat it all the same. Organizations prepare their strategic plans to cover about four to six years but some prepare long-term business strategic plans that cover up to thirty years. Mainly the length of time of strategic planning gets longer as the size of and scope of the organization grows bigger. Strategic planning basically points out the direction that an organization is going to take in its years to come and the nature it will take. It however does not automatically predict how the organization will fair in its success since the future is fairly unpredictable. For instance, major companies such as General Motors and Sony and small businesses as well could not predict the current global financial crisis that is threatening their very existence. They however try their level best to keep their strategic plans as intact as possible amidst a tumultuous business climate.

Strategic planning has three key components namely vision, mission, and values. The vision part involves outlining the aspired or proposed future state of a firm or business in relation to its major aims and goals and the direction it takes. The mission part describes the major purpose of a company or business and answers the question of why the organization is in existence. Values deal with the beliefs that the owners of a company hold and what guides its culture and priorities. When strategic planning has exhaustively dealt with all the above things then it can be deemed to be complete. Strategic planning is at the heart of any organization and even the government as a key component of planning for success. Where strategic planning does not exist on paper or formally, it does so informally. It outlines the company’s fundamental objectives and clearly and in detail describes how these aims and objectives shall be attained. Strategic planning does not only outline the organization’s objectives but also gives a timeframe on which these objectives will be met. Strategic planning outlines short-term goals as well as long-term ones in a manner that will enable goal congruency. This is done to ensure that goals combine well since the absence of this may lead to unhealthy pressure on the organization’s resources and human resources. Strategic planning describes how short-term goals will be attained and how they will help facilitate the attainment of mid and long-term goals. This compatibility is fundamental if the organization is to realize its goals and objectives.

The SMART is easy to remember as a project management technique with a focus on Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound ways of achieving an organization’s goals and objectives. The Sony Company has been in existence for more than sixty years and deals mainly with electronics and other fields such as games, service, and financial among others. In its mission statement, the company says it seeks to benefit society by means of innovation, quality, growth as well as human development. It plans to produce continued surpluses, always yearn for success, do everything within legality, and let the truth be its guiding principle. It yearns to be the number one in every field that it sets foot in, empower people, and ultimately bring happiness to its shareholders. It plans include:

  • Manufacture the best products especially in the electronic field that it specializes in. Some of its products include digital music players, Blu-ray discs, and HDV. (Benson)
  • Become the leading organization and player in its field. It has in many ways achieved this through the many mergers and acquisitions it has been involved in. Some of this includes the acquisition of Gracenote, Bertelsmann, and Morvessa.
  • Take part in a big way in averting global warming and environmental degradation. Their Sony building has for instance is expected to be operating on solar energy. It also launched the ‘green TV’ in Japan. (Benson)

Virtually all companies have strategic planning and many personalities involved in it. Strategic planning is also important at a personal level since it lays out a person’s aspirations and objectives and how one achieves them. It will be almost unethical for a company or an organization to operate without strategic planning.

Works Cited

Benson, M. (2006), “Has the sun set on Sony? Web.

Strategic Planning. Web.

Sony Mission Statement. Web.

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