Environmental Scan: Comsubpac Operations

COMSUBPAC Operations: Environmental Scan and Strategy Selection

MBA580

University of Phoenix

Introduction

Strategic planning is the process by which an organization determines exactly why it exists, and then sets about focusing all of its efforts toward the fulfillment of that raison d’etre. This is a simplification of a very lengthy and detailed process that Pearce & Robinson define as “the set of decisions and actions that result in the formulation and implementation of plans designed to achieve a company’s objectives” (2004, p.3). They furthermore break those decisions and actions down into nine critical tasks:

1. Formulate the company’s mission, including broad statements about its purpose, philosophy, and goals.

2. Conduct an analysis that reflects the company’s internal conditions and capabilities.

3. Assess the company’s external environment, including both the competitive and the general contextual factors.

4. Analyze the company’s options by matching its resources with the external environment.

5. Identify the most desirable options by evaluating each option in light of the company’s mission.

6. Select a set of long-term objectives and grand strategies that will achieve the most desirable options.

7. Develop annual objectives and short-term strategies that are compatible with the selected set of long-term objectives and grand strategies.

8. Implement the strategic choices by means of budgeted resource allocations in which the matching of tasks, people, structures, technologies, and reward systems is emphasized.

9. Evaluate the success of the strategic process as an input for future decision making. (Pearce & Robinson, 2004, p.3)

The first task was completed in a previous paper. Over the course of time, all of these tasks will be accomplished in the development of a strategic plan for COMSUBPAC Operations, but this paper will focus on the bolded steps 2-6 above. In addition, since the strategic planning process is iterative, the first...