Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is planning of organization as a whole. For any business to be successful, a strategic plan, which is also a master plan and a roadmap of success, is needed. It swivels around the mission, vision, values and critical success factors of an organization. This plan explicitly describes the result to be accomplished and institutes a course of action for succeeding them. Olsen defines strategic management as "the ability of the management of the firm to properly align the firm with the forces driving change in the environment in which the firm competes" (Olsen et al., 2008). A strategic plan also helps various functional units within an organization to align themselves with mutual goals. Failure to have a planned course leaves a company drifting away from desired results.

Once a vision is established a tactical (operational) plan needs to be carved out. Implementation of the plan will face many formidable but surmountable challenges such as inadequate resources, inability to secure financial capital, resentment of current organization resources because of resistance to change. These challenges are further exacerbated with increasing globalization as new challenges add on such as cultural aspects, currency fluctuations, political disturbances etc. Other problem areas could include “coping with host nation demands and regulation, difficulties in global strategy execution, and difficulties in setting global human resources policies such as management development, global talent management, and global compensation and training policies” (GOEHLE, 1989). So, strategic route is even more critical to the success of any organization in a global market.

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Strategic planning is done on the basis of historic figures or experiences and on certain future assumptions. As experiences differ from person to person, it is very much possible that their views on agreed plan may also differ. Custom questionnaire is one of...