The Importance of Strategic planning in organizations in Modern Business and Non-Profit Organizations
Question
Task: Why is Strategic planning in organizations crucial for both businesses and non-profit organizations, and what challenges do they encounter during the development and implementation of effective strategies?
Answer
Introduction
Strategic planning in organizations is developed by individuals, groups, business, and organization for smooth operations, growth, and expansion of a business or process. With more people accessing the internet it is has become important for businesses and organizations to develop effective strategies to handle their operations (Sekhar, 2009). Failure to adopt or develop an effective business strategy will only result in the business failing to meet competitor specification resulting customers opting alternative brands.
What is Strategic planning in organizations and why is it important for businesses and not-for-profit organizations.
Strategy refers to a business’s action plan related to its product and service development and its production and market expansion. Every business must develop an action plan addressing continued product and service development as well as brand growth, diversification, and growth (Thompson, 2006). Five factors which must be included in a business or organizations strategic or action plan are listed below:
Planning Future Growth and Product Development
It is imperative that every business retains its future vision and growth and expansion plan. This allows the business to constantly evaluate the market and competitors allowing the business to review competitor products and services and identify features the products are offering. This allows for the brand to also include those features to their future designs thus allowing them to remain competitive (Kumar, 2012).
It also allows the brand to consider new innovative ideas by studying competitors in the market and combining their features to identify newer and more attractive features that can be infused to the brand's products or services to keep consumers interest interested in the brand's products and services. Failing to put together an innovation, development and growth planning team would result in the brand failing to deliver innovative products and services leading to self-destruct mode. This was experienced by Nokia which was once the best and most popular mobile phone brand but the brand failed to be investing in innovation resulting in the brand's sudden failure and loss.
Identification of Strengths and Weaknesses
Strategic planning in organizations also requires a business or organization to be able to undertake a strengths and weaknesses evolution. This is very important as it would allow the management identify areas the business is strong in but more importantly it would allow the business identify its weaknesses which can be reviewed to determine solutions (Hill & Jones, 2007). One of the major concerns linked to many businesses is the failure to analysis, identify and accept their weaknesses. This results in business owners turning a blind eye towards the weakness which gradually disrupts the businesses operations leading to a sudden and serious failure. Identifying and understanding the weaknesses allows the business to work on solutions which help overcome the weakness, in turn, making the business more stable and strong.
Skills & Knowledge development
Strategic development plans must put in place the organizations as well as its staff's development needs. Only focusing on the business or organizations needs and ignoring staff needs would result in losing employee confidence which in turn will result in a high employee e turnover rate. This makes it important for the business to take into business to develop strategic plans which focus on familiar growth for all stake holders as well as offer the opportunity to build and learn new skills and knowledge. Skill and knowledge development among the staff is very important as many may not only be motivated by financial income and may also desire additional learning and skill development (WBP, 2007). By acknowledging their interest a business can win their confidence which would help the business develop more stable strategic and growth plans.
Planned Resource allocation and utilization
Raw materials and Resource are the most crucial element of any business. Every business depends heavily on raw materials, energy, utilities or man power which is all classified as resources. This makes it critical for the business to carefully plan its resource allocations and usage to prevent over use and wastage which could compromise operational plans. Resources must be evenly allocated and utilization plans developed to ensure even distribution and use of the resources throughout the year or until the resources can be replenished. Lack of planning results in resource exhaustion between projects which result in the forced closure of operations till resources are replenished (Carlos, 2008).
The same applies to human resource making it important for businesses to educate and train the public and young professional regarding the profession or skills utilized by the business or organization so as to ensure a steady viability of skilled human resource to handle the businesses operations.
Internal and external Environmental influencing factors
The strategic plan must also be well aware regarding both the internal and external environmental factors influencing the business or organizations operations (Analoui & Karami, 2003).
Internal Environmental Factors
These are factors which can be controlled by the business are organization. These usually include employee well-being, satisfaction, and performance; Product development and innovation and business expansion (Fitzen, 2009). These are factors which the business can influence to improve its performance and growth.
External Environmental Factors
External environmental factors are an element which cannot be controlled by the business directly. Supplier commitment, customer preferences, and government policies among several other elements cannot be controlled by a business or organization (Canzer, 2006).
What challenges do organizations face in trying to develop and implement a strategy?
Successful strategy implementation requires for the business overcome some challenges related to their development and implementations approaches (Verweire, 2014). Below are some important factors which influence static plan success.
Development
Development of strategic plans involved having a vision related to the businesses development. This involves the development of plans and strategies which will help improve the businesses operations (Melton, 2011). Some challenges which hamper strategic plan development include:
Having the wrong people in leadership positions
A leader is responsible for managing their department as well as performing market research to identify competitor’s approaches. This makes it important for the leader to constantly review the market and competitors to determine new strategy development.
Developing plan simply for the sake
Business and Organization Strategy also face serious complications related to irate planning where the management does not follow up to implement developed plans. These results in the stake holders investing time towards strategy plan development but the plan are never implemented resulting in the loss of contributor interest towards future plan development. Before announcing the requirement for a strategic plan, it is important to outline the objectives of the plan, selection strategy, and implementation. Strategic planning in organizations should not be made just to have strategic plans on paper as this doesn’t help the business or organizations development.
Lack of understanding or focusing on result
Another major problem related to the effective development of strategic plans is the lack of understanding related to the benefits of the plan to the business. Without a vision of the intended result, the business or organization heads are likely to not understand the importance of strategy development planning. This would result in the business failing to adopt innovation which would result in the business failing to develop new products with the latest features resulting in the gradual loss of customer confidence towards the brand's products or services.
Implementation
Plan development is only useful if the business implemented the plans making plan implementation another important aspect linked to successful Strategic planning in organizations and development (Butuner, 2015). Some challenges related to planning implementation include:
Partial commitment to strategic plans
To execute a strategic plan successful it is critical for the stake holders to place their full attention towards the implementation of the plan. This is very important is it ensures full commitment towards strategic plan implementation and critical towards overcoming the complications related to the implementation of the plan. Partial commitment towards strategic plans will result in stakeholders failing to put their full focus towards the execution of the plan and this will result in missing important aspects. Being a new strategy, it is likely for the plan to experience major complications which require stakeholder’s full attention and focus to identify and result before they hamper the businesses operations.
Not having the right people involved on the project
It is also important to have the right people involved in a project so as to execute and follow up on strategic plan implementation. This requires having academically qualifying as well as experiencing and committed people involved on the project to ensure its success. One major problem associated with failed strategic plan implementation is hiring an only qualified professional who lacks experience and knowledge. Experience and knowledge play an important role towards plan implementation since there are high chances of the project encountering an unexpected complication which may not be resolvable using only academic qualifications. In many situations, the solution to the problem may require previous experience and knowledge which makes it important to have an even balance of stakes holders who are qualified, have experience and vast knowledge for successful strategic plan implementation.
Unwillingness or inability to adopt change
Changes don’t happen easily and most individuals, businesses, and organization will avoid change due to it disrupting the daily routine. This is clearly seen even at the individual levels where the staff does not accept changing their cabin or workstations easily and this is will most likely affect their performance for a short period before they get used to their surrounding again. The same applies at the business and organization level making it important that new strategic plans are carefully implemented to avoid them creating too many disruptions which will affect the business relatively.
Do you think the strategy is still a relevant concept in the modern competitive environment?
Modern competitive environment refers to the intensely competitive environment which businesses and organizations have experienced during the past 3 decades. The internet and moderns digital technologies have made improved businesses and organizations operations making it important for businesses to adopt new strategies so as to remain competitive in the global business environment (Stanley, 2012). This makes strategy a very important requirement for every business to adopt so as to remain competitive in the market. Developing effective strategic plans help businesses address the following concerns:
Strategic planning in organizations act as a guide
Having a strategic plan will act as a guide for the businesses or organization. The strategic plans will clearly define the businesses goals, objectives and timeline with which these plans require to be implemented. Having plans allows the business to follow set guidelines which are critical towards the businesses operations and growth
Identify trends and opportunities
Strategy plans also involved the review and contributions of all business or organization stakeholders which allow the business identify important trends in the market as well as identify opportunity. It is important to identify trends so as to understand what competitors are offering their customers after whom innovation can take hold of the process and propose new ideas to be utilized on the businesses which will help improve the businesses opportunities (Ebener & Smith, 2015). Innovation is critical towards any businesses success making it an important requirement for the business to review current trends and opportunities where the businesses or organization can expand their operations and improve success.
Strategic planning in organizations Creates vision
Strategic plans create vision towards the businesses or organization future development and growth. This allows all stake holders to focus their attention towards the businesses growth which is critical towards the businesses success. Vision allows the stake holders to set development and target milestones thus allowing the businesses achieve higher success rates as compared to businesses which do not have a strategic development plan. It also helps organize the staff and stakeholders who can develop long term plans for both their personal and well as business development.
Conclusion
Businesses and organizations must be able to develop effective strategic plans to address their future developmental needs. Every organization and stake holder must have a growth plan making it important for the business to develop the plans and also involve all stake holders to the Strategic planning in organizations process. This helps secure the best feedback and approaches linked to the plans which can be used towards development and growth of the projects.
Bibliography
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