Introduction
Leadership is all about influencing others. An organizational leader should possess the best leadership quality when executing his or her duties in the organization. A leader should be able to define the strategy for the organization and offer the best direction for the execution of the planned strategy using decision making skills.
Strategic planning in any organization involves the process of defining strategic goals and laying out a plan to see them being implemented in the organization. An organization strategy can be defined as the art of doing things in the firm, or other means of achieving the goals and objectives of the organization.
An organization’s strategic vision outlines how an organization would want to be or how it wants its operation to be undertaken. A strategic vision outlines the future of the organization’s operations to suit its current and future needs.
Need for strategic visions
Many businesses are devising new strategies to cater for this change in order to remain in business profitably. This is due to the ever changing economic trends in the world. Over the last few years, the economic recession has had a great influence on individuals and businesses. Individuals and businesses have had to redraft how to redraft means of avoiding the economic meltdown, which may lead to collapse of businesses.
Strategic planning is a useful tool that many leaders apply to manage and execute the best policies that will help the organization to achieve success. Strategizing on the best course of action to take is very crucial in the management of organizations. Having a well defined strategic condition is useful in improving the processes in the organizations as it needs to keep up with changing economic environment (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble & Strickland, 2012).
The economic environment keeps changing, and this has led to the need for proper leadership in the organization to take into account changing business environment around the world. New inventions are coming up, and that is why there is a need to recognize how diverse business are growing over the years. Leadership in an organization matters a lot when it comes to planning and executing these plans and operations.
A company can achieve success by managing its resources well. The company should also follow a given culture that defines how it operates and runs the organization with the best management team. For better crafting and executing strategic plans in an organization, the leaders need to gain a broad cross-section of the market environment and manage better ways to lower their operational cost than their competitors.
An extensive research of the existing market condition will help the organization’s management to plan for the future and lay strategies for the best operation to help the organization meet its goals (Lussier & Achua, 2010). Good leadership is about recognition of any changes in the business world and how to manage that change and incorporate the best strategy to accommodate the change.
Organizations need visionary leaders who can manage and lead the organization to better performance. Having a strategic vision in the organization will set out a clear picture of the future, as well as how any deviation from the desired change can be handled (Ledlow & Coppola, 2011). The recent economic meltdown and the high fuel prices have put most airline organizations back to the drawing board.
They have been forced to come up with ways on how to curb the rising fuel prices. For example, the Jet Blue Airline in the United States was quick to manage this economic meltdown by proper execution of the strategies. The company realized that the rising fuel prices were reducing their profit margin. This threatened to drive them out of business, and that is why they came up with a management strategy that would put them way ahead of their competitors.
The company had to review its environment combined with the resources at hand. It also considered how to combine the new strategy to suit both customers and the organization at large. In a move to compensate for higher fuel prices, the company had to lower its expenses by introducing a paid meal instead of the free meal on the flights.
The airline also sought strategic partnership with other firms to reduce costs that accrued when serving the customers. They improved the customer loyalty by introducing the early check off boarding benefits in a move to attract customers (United States, 1997).
Conclusion
The world business keeps changing and thus proper leadership should give a guideline of how to manage this change. Leaders should have a clear vision for the organization they are leading. They should also be able to inspire loyalty and care for the organization employees. Leaders should set organizational direction and purpose clearly.
Strategic plans should be well communicated and shared among employees. The leaders should be committed to achieving these objectives set out in the strategic plan. A strategic vision in an organization helps to attract commitment and energize people to perform what is required of them.
A strategic plan helps establish standards of excellence through bridging the present and the future of the organization. For the organization leaders to accomplish the desired goals and objectives, they should incorporate the organization employees in the strategic vision as they will play a critical role in the implementation of these plans.
References
Ledlow, G. R., & Coppola, M.N. (2011). Leadership for health professionals: Theory, skills, and applications. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett.
Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2010). Leadership: Theory, application, skill development. Australia: SouthWestern/Cengage Learning.
Thompson, A., Peteraf, M., Gamble, J., & Strickland, A.J. (2012). Crafting and executing strategy: concepts and readings. (18 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
United States. (1997). Strategic vision. Fort Belvoir, Va.: US Army Corps of Engineers.