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Evaluation of the Benefits and Challenges of Implementing Strategic Planning in Organizations Introduction by Christopher Shearer

Each organization whether big or small requires a strategic plan to enhance the achievement of its set objectives and goals. A strategic plan is a tactical approach that is allocated the necessary resources in order to help the company achieve competitive advantages. As businesses operate in very volatile and dynamic environments it is essential to embrace change and focus strategically. This requires a thorough evaluation of a company’s strategic plan using a dynamic strategic management process. Such a process should be geared towards adopting to the dynamic external and internal environments of any organization. The process should be devoted enough time and resources as appertains to the company’s unique milieu. Concentrating on the strategic management process should be an agenda that requires continuous reevaluation (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen, & Bryce, 2016).

Steps of the Strategic Planning Cycle

The strategic planning cycle is not a purely sequential process but rather a continuous and iterative process. Before embarking on the strategic planning cycle it is necessary to understand the organization’s mission. This is the organizations main purpose for existence which states which business the entity should purposely engage in. It helps set out the orientation which the company is going to pursue as well as the core values the entity is going to embrace along the way (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen, & Bryce, 2016). Thereafter, it becomes necessary to conduct an external evaluation of the company’s external environment. A very important tool for carrying out this process is the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats(SWOT). When conducting the external analysis the organization focusses on the industry, market, competitive forces and customers’ needs as well as wants. The evaluation is based on the opportunities and threats presented to the firm from without. This is important for the organization to understand how it is going to venture into its chosen industry of choice (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen, & Bryce, 2016). It is also important as it helps the company define how it is going to take advantage of the business opportunities presented. Additionally, the company will also craft strategies for mitigating or avoiding the external threats it is exposed to.

The second stage in the cycle is to conduct an internal analysis which looks into its strengths and weaknesses as a competitive entity. This is important as it helps an organization to evaluate the resources and capabilities it needs or should nurture in order to attain and sustain competitive advantages over others. The internal analysis relies on assessing the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization. A genuine and thorough internal analysis will help the company to craft strategies which are in sync with its external environment. However, this is not always easy given that different organizations have their unique constraints (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen, & Bryce, 2016).

Long-Term Business Benefits of Strategic Planning The goal of any strategic planning process is to develop and sustain competitive advantages both for the short term and the long term (Ali Mahdi, Abbas, Mazar, & George, 2015). Thus, the main advantage of strategic planning is competitive advantage which is hinged on four elements. The first element is the long term advantage of knowing in which industries, markets or products to operate in. knowing which area to operate in helps the organization to harness its resources and capabilities towards that area over the long term (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen, & Bryce, 2016).

The second long term benefit is helping a company to decide how it is going to offer its unique preposition. An organization can choose to package its unique value in differentiation or in being a low cost provider. A hybrid model of the two is also taking shape in recent years. As such, an organization will endeavor to concentrate on market research for differentiation or better production mechanisms for a low cost provider such as Walmart and Southwest Airlines. The third long term benefit arises in that the company will have a long term view of the resources and capabilities it is required to nurture and improve on. This is unlike in other firms without strategic plans who just accept the current resources and capabilities (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen, & Bryce, 2016).

Therefore, an entity develops an elaborate plan on how it is going to acquire its required resources and capabilities. For example, it can embark on a long term financing arrangement or a future oriented training program among others. Fourthly, the company will have the long term benefit of developing measures to sustain the acquired competitive advantages. For instance, it can come up with measures to make duplication of ideas difficult or having strategic alliances which are guided by agree upon policies (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen, & Bryce, 2016). Unique Hurdles that Companies face in Strategic Planning Implementation

When formulating strategic plans a number of challenges abound in various areas or units such as leadership, consensus, cultural context and commitment amongst others. When formulating strategic plans it is sometimes different to have a consensus since different leaders may not agree on some issues. Therefore, it is very important that all the top leaders in charge of the process are clear on what is required based on the organization’s mission. Second, it is also possible to have a lot of resistance from some leaders and employees due to uncertainty and poor communication. When employees are not sure what the new strategies will entail or how they will affect them resistance is highly likely to occur (Boohene & Williams, 2012).

It is important that all levels of management and employees are consulted when the strategies are being formulated and clear communications provided often during the strategic management process (Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen, & Bryce, 2016). Oti-Yeboah Complex Limited(OYCL) a Ghanaian company was met with employee resistance between 2008 and 2010 when it tried to change the organizational structure due to uncertainty and poor communication. The leadership style at the time was also not very elaborate in its communications and strategic agenda (Boohene & Williams, 2012).

The leadership could also be a problem as different leaders have different leadership styles and levels of understanding. A transformational leader is highly likely to lead a successful implementation of strategies of the leadership style. However, an autocratic leader may fail in such an attempt as the employees may feel the leader is imposing on them unfavorable strategies. Some leaders may also have poor communication skills combined with weak interpersonal relationships. This will hinder the leaders from clearly communicating the new strategies to the employees as alluded to by Dyer, Godfrey, Jensen and Bryce (2016). However, where leadership styles allows for employee inclusion and clear communication the organizations succeed as posited by Ali Mahdi, Abbas and Mazar (2015).

Conclusion

Based on my research and experience no organization can benefit from not having a strategic plan meted through a strategic management cycle. In fact, even having no strategic plan is still a strategy towards failure. This is because successful organizations need to plan in advance and strategically to survive in the highly competitive business world. Big corporations such as WorldCom and Enron failed because they failed to have feasible strategic plans for their businesses. Baroto, Abdullah and Wan (2012) assert that following a hybrid business strategy companies like Microsoft have become a success over the years. This is because they have always had strategic plans which they evaluate and change from time to time (Baroto, Abdullah, & Wan, 2012). References Ali Mahdi, H. A., Abbas, M., Mazar, T. I., & George, S. (2015). A comparative analysis of strategies and business models of Nike, Inc. and Adidas Group with special reference to competitive advantage in the context of a dynamic and competitive environment. International Journal of Business Management & Economic Research, 6(3), 167-177. Baroto, M., Abdullah, M. M., & Wan, H. L. (2012). Hybrid Strategy: A New Strategy for Competitive Advantage. International Journal of Business and Management, 7(20), 120-134. Boohene, R., & Williams, A. A. (2012). Resistance to Organisational Change: A Case Study of Oti Yeboah Complex Limited. International Business and Management, 4(1), 135-145. Dyer, J. H., Godfrey, P., Jensen, R., & Bryce, D. (2016). Strategic management: Concepts and tools for creating real world strategy.Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Christopher Shearer christophershearer@aol.com