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Benefits and limitations of strategic planning
Meaning of the word strategy
What is Strategy? Michael E. Porter
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Literature Review
Introduction
The theories on strategy development and associated concepts of strategic thinking and strategic leadership are becoming more and more popular in today’s business environment. Leaders possessing strategic skills could turn to be the best strategy of their own as well as for their respective organizations.
Meaning of Strategy
Today the word ‘strategy’ is so prevalent that there are hardly any people who know nothing about it. Conversely, with this prevailing feature of the word, there is incredible disarray on its meaning. Analysis of literature showed that there are innumerable definitions, many of which have certain common features.
Johnson et al. (2005) define strategy as “the direction and scope of an organization over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations” (p.7). While Liddell Hart brings a brutal aspect to strategy when he concludes that it is "the art of distributing military means to fulfill the ends of policy."
Mintzberg (1998) reasoned a more pride and extended approach definitions of strategy doesn’t show the whole scope of the word (p.9). In this context Mintzberg (1998) refers to strategy as a plan. Apart from this, strategy is a pattern, which means consistency in actions and behavior over time. He opines that it is possible to subdivide strategies into intended and realized. Those intentions that are realized are deliberate strategies, while those that are not are unrealized strategies. The third definition of strategy offered by Mintzberg (1998, p. 12) is the one as a position. It means locating of certain products in certain markets. The fourth de...
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...about How to Improve Strategic Processes within the Organization
The implementation of strategy should be organized by selection of specific strategic objectives, on which attention of the staff should be focused. They should be separated from the rest of the current activities.
It is also recommended for GE to consider the six silent killers of strategy implementation defined by Beer and Eisenstat’s (2000).
These barriers create a backbiting power to strategy execution despite that top executives assented to it. To reinvigorate the agents of change and make sure that strategy is successfully executed, GE plans to build capabilities required to counter these killers.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, strategic thinking and strategic planning processes are complex and require close attention on the part of management aspiring to be successful in its respective field.
Whittington, R. 1993. What is Strategy - and Does It Matter. Routledge Series in Analytical Management. Routledge, London.
Arthur, A., Thompson, Margaret, A., Peteraf, John, E. Gamble, A., J., Strickland III. (2014). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage 19e: Concepts & Cases. C6-C25.
Wit, BD & Meyer, R 2010, Strategy: process, content, context : an international perspective, Cengage Learning EMEA, London.
On the other hand we have the explanation of strategic leadership: Strategic leadership is the process of using well considered tactics to interconnect a vision for a group or one of its parts. Strategic leadership typically manages, motivates and persuades staff to share that same vision, and can be an important tool for implementing change or creating organizational structure within a
In the book, “Good Strategy/Bad Strategy the Difference and Why it Matters,” by Richard P. Rumelt describes the difference between the two strategies by providing different examples. The book is divided in three different parts the first part consists of “Good and Bad Strategy,” followed by the “sources of power,” and the last part consists of “Thinking like a Strategist.” In the introduction chapter Rumelt describes how good strategy looks simple and obvious not requiring much to explain. He furthermore says that such strategies do not come from some tool or chart it is however identified by a talented leader who highlights one or two critical situations. The author says the most important responsibility of a leader is to identify the biggest challenges in order to progress further and find ways to overcoming those challenges. The book is driven by lifetime experience as consultant of organizations, personal adviser, teacher and a researcher. Good strategy is concentrates on solving the problem. However, bad strategies skip problems and focus on multiple conflict demands and interest.
Numerous definitions of strategy exist, in most circumstances strategy can loosely be explained as an overall plan of deployment of resources to ascertain a favourable position within a market (Zablah, Bellenger and Johnston 2004; Grant 1994, p 14). Further, imbedded in many successful organisations are strategies, the importance of which is to remain relevant in the market, and successful in the various attributes of business; profiteering, employee motivation, maintaining sustainable core competencies, effectiveness in operation, or efficiency in the conduction of operations. Therefore challenges involved in the formulation and implementation of a strategy can revolve around the overall external market, as well as internal
Thompson, A. A., Strickland, A. J., & Gamble, J. E. (2008). Crafting & executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage (16th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Gamble, J. E., Peteraf, M. A., Strickland III, A. J., & Thompson A. A. (2012). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
The first portion of the novel is centered on understanding the essence of strategy. The understanding strategy, according to the author, is derived from truly comprehending what strategy
Throughout the global economic environment the desire to out-perform the competition is always present. In every situation, the companies who do better are the ones with superior strategy (Rothaermel, 2013). Strategic management is therefore important in every company, no matter what industry or market they operate in; and as stated by M. Carpenter and G. Sanders, 2013, is described as "The process by which a firm manages the formulation and implementation of its strategy". Strategic management is a constant topic under discussion with different schools of theorists with different beliefs and attitudes which is described as "A tense array of disagreement" (Rees, 2012).
First, the organisation must set up clear directional strategies, which identifies its mission, vision, values, and goals.
Thompson, A.A., Strickland, A.J., & Gamble, J. E. (2010). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and cases: 2009 custom edition (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill-Irwin
John G. S., 2008: Strategically thinking about the subject of Strategy [e-journal] 9(4) p.2 Available through:
If asked what strategic planning is one could interpret it as simply a road map that can guide the organization in the right direction. It is very unlikely that an organization would know which direction to take without a sense of direction. Managers are faced every day with decisions that have a major impact on the direction the organization must take, therefore, strategic planning can play an important role in guiding managers in the right direction. In other words strategic planning is a tool that management can use to give them a sense of direction that will guide them in doing a better job and to ensure that all the members of the organization are working toward the same goals
There is no doubt strategy development is a tough and timely process, however, the strategy implementation across the organisation is considered even more problematic and challenging. No business strategy can be succeeded without effective execution. In the real market, the majority of managers are more informed and experienced for the strategy development other than strategy execution. This essay addresses some of the key challenges and barriers of strategy implementation.