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Implementing Plicy Change
Technical Notes
October 1991
A publication of USAID’s Implementing Policy Change Project
No.1
Strategic Planning and Strategic Management: What are they and how are they different?
By Benjamin L. Crosby
“We are tackling 20-year problems with five-year plans staffed with two-year personnel funded by one-year appropriations.” Harlan Cleveland
politics and negative economic growth, budgets are constantly revised, inputs are thoroughly unpredictable, and planning in the traditional sense is no longer possible. Despite the need for strategic planning and management, there is a certain degree of confusion regarding these terms. Purposefully or inadvertently, the two terms are often used interchangeably—which then leads to confusion regarding the appropriate usage of each. As shall be pointed out in this note, the distinction between strategic planning and strategic management rests primarily on where one ends the process or the emphasis one puts on particular parts of the process. As might be inferred, strategic planning places more emphasis on the development of the strategic plan and often “assumes” implementation. Strategic management specifically includes and emphasizes implementation. This, of course, does not mean that the planning element is any less important, rather, implementation is regarded as just as important. In the literature, there is little interest in this distinction, however, and quite often, when the term strategic planning is used, it also includes the “management” components of implementation. Likewise, when strategic management is used, it also implies the “planning” components as well. Contributing to the confusion is the overlap between the two concepts. In practice, it is certainly possible to develop a strategic plan without giving much thought to the actual management of that plan. However, it is
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Why Strategic Management?
This quotation sums up why today’s public sector decision-makers...