Strategic planning

Strategic planning is an organization's process of introducing its strategy or direction, and creating decisions on allocating its resources to attain strategic goals.

It may also fall out to controls mechanisms for guiding the carrying out of the strategy. Strategic planning became prominent in corporations during the 1960s and submits an important aspect of strategic management. it is executed by strategic planners or strategists, who involve numerous parties & research a body or process by which energy or a particular component enters a system. in their analysis of the organization and its relationship to the environment in which it competes.

Strategy has many definitions, but it generally involves defining strategic goals, determining actions tothe goals, setting a timeline, & mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy describes how the ends goals will be achieved by the means resources in a condition span of time. Often, Strategic Planning is long term and organizational action steps are established from two to five years in the future. The senior leadership of an agency is generally tasked with determining strategy. Strategy can be remanded referred or can be observed as a pattern of activity emergent as the organization adapts to its environment or competes in the market.

Strategy includes processes of formulation and implementation; strategic planning permits coordinate both. However, strategic planning is analytical in style i.e., it involves "finding the dots"; strategy appearance itself involves synthesis i.e., "connecting the dots" via strategic thinking. As such, strategic planning occurs around the strategy cut activity.

Strategic planning can be used in Project management that focuses on the coding of standards methodology that is repeatable and will a thing that is caused or produced by something else to high chances of achieving project objectives. This requires a lot of thinking process and interaction among stakeholders. Strategic planning in Project administration provides an organization the framework and consistency of action. In addition, it gives communication of overall goals and understanding roles of teams or individual tothem. The commitment of top management must be evident throughout the process to reduce resistance to change, ensure acceptance, and avoid common pitfalls. It it worth noting that Strategic Planning does non guarantee success but will help improve likelihood of success of an organization.

In educational institutions, strategic planning is also a need. We are already in a transitional period in which old practices are no longer permanent but require revision to meet the needs of academia, which is frustrating in the educational sector. To meet the changing needs of this new society, educational institutions must reorganize. Finding ways to retains achievements while modernizing effectiveness can be unmanageable for educational institutions. Keeping up with society's rapid changes. Some strategic planners are hesitant to quotation societal outcomes, so they oftenthem and assume they will happen on their own. Instead of defining the vision for how we want our children to live, they direct their attention to courses, content, and resources with the mistaken idea that societally useful outcomes will follow. When this occurs, the true strategic plan is never developed or implemented.

Process

Strategic planning is a process and thus has inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes. This process, like any processes, has constraints. It may be formal or informal and is typically iterative, with feedback loops throughout the process. Some elements of the process may be continual and others may be executed as discrete projects with a definitive start and end during a period. Strategic planning provides inputs for strategic thinking, which guides the actual strategy formation. Typical strategic planning efforts put the evaluation of the organization's mission and strategic issues to strengthen current practices and determine the need for new programming. The end or situation. is the organization's strategy, including a diagnosis of the environment and competitive situation, a guiding policy on what the organization intends to accomplish, and key initiatives or action plans for achieving the guiding policy.

Michael Porter wrote in 1980 that formulation of competitive strategy includes consideration of four key elements:

The first two elements relate to factors internal to the company i.e., the internal environment, while the latter two relate to factors outside to the company i.e., the outside environment. These elements are considered throughout the strategic planning process.

Data is gathered from various sources, such(a) as interviews with key executives, review of publicly available documents on the competition or market, primary research e.g., visiting or observing competitor places of office or comparing prices, industry studies, reports of the organization's performance, etc. This may be part of a competitive intelligence program. Inputs are gathered to support establish a baseline, support an understanding of the competitive environment and its opportunities and risks. Other inputs include an understanding of the values of key stakeholders, such as the board, shareholders, and senior management. These values may be captured in an organization's vision and mission statements.

The essence of formulating competitive strategy is relating a company to its environment.

Michael Porter

Strategic planning activities include meetings and other communication among the organization's leaders and personnel to develop a common understanding regarding the competitive environment and what the organization's response to that environment should be. A classification of strategic planning tools may be completed as component of strategic planning activities.

The organization's leaders may clear a series of questions they want to be answered in formulating the strategy and gathering inputs.

The output of strategic planning includes documentation and communication describing the organization's strategy and how it should be implemented, sometimes mentioned to as the strategic plan. The strategy may include a diagnosis of the competitive situation, a guiding policy for achieving the organization's goals, and specific action plans to be implemented. A strategic schedule may go forward combine years and be updated periodically.

The organization may usage a variety of methods of measuring and monitoring progress towards the strategic objectives and measures established, such as a balanced scorecard or strategy map. Companies may also plan their financial statements i.e., balance sheets, income statements, and cash flows for several years when development their strategic plan, as part of the goal-setting activity. The term operational budget is often used to describe the expected financial performance of an organization for the upcoming year. Capital budgets very often relieve oneself the backbone of a strategic plan, particularly as it increasingly relates to Information and Communications technology ICT.

While the planning process produces outputs, strategy implementation or execution of the strategic plan produces outcomes. These outcomes will invariably differ from the strategic goals. Howthey are to the strategic goals and vision will determine the success or failure of the strategic plan. Unintended outcomes might also be an issue. They need to be attended to and understood for strategy development and execution to be a true learning process.