STRATEGIC PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

1. Develop and/or identify potential alternative strategies for pursuing

organizational mission and vision and for working with diverse
communities of stakeholders to achieve shared goals.

Workplace diversity is crucial for organizations to thrive in today’s global and

interconnected world. As the organization thrives to pursue its mission and vision,
here are several alternative strategies to promote diversity in the workplace:

 Enhances creativity and innovation. When individuals with different

backgrounds and perspectives come together, they bring a wide range of
ideas, experiences, and approaches to problem-solving. This diversity of
thought fosters a culture of innovation, leading to the generation of unique
and creative solutions to challenges.
 Improves problem-solving. Diverse teams are more likely to consider
multiple perspectives and approaches when addressing complex
problems. This broadens the range of potential solutions and increases
the likelihood of finding the best one. Different backgrounds and
experiences bring fresh insights and alternative viewpoints, enabling
teams to think outside the box and make well-informed decisions.
 Boosts employee engagement. When employees feel valued and
included, they are more likely to be engaged and committed to their work.
In a diverse and inclusive environment, employees feel a sense of
belonging, leading to higher job satisfaction, productivity, and retention.
 Reflects a global customer base. As businesses expand their reach
globally, it is essential to have employees who understand and can relate
to diverse markets and cultures. A diverse workforce can provide valuable
insights into different customer preferences, needs, and expectations,
enabling companies to effectively serve a diverse customer base.
 Strengthens a company’s reputation. Organizations that prioritize
diversity and inclusion are seen as progressive, forward-thinking, and
socially responsible. This positive image attracts top talent, enhances
brand perception, and can lead to increased customer loyalty.

2. Assess the implications of strategic options, including potential for

achieving advantages and for effective implementation, for satisfying the
values and needs of a variety of stakeholders (e.g. community, clients, etc.)

To explore these questions, we embarked on a systematic examination of the

relation between formal planning and strategic performance across a broad
spectrum of companies (see the sidebar). We looked for common patterns in the
development of planning systems over time. In particular, we examined their
evolution in those giant companies where formal planning and strategic decision-
making appeared to be most closely and effectively interwoven.

It is noted that formal strategic planning does indeed evolve along similar lines in
different companies, albeit at varying rates of progress. This progression can be
segmented into four sequential phases, each marked by clear advances over its
predecessor in terms of explicit formulation of issues and alternatives, quality of
preparatory staff work, readiness of top management to participate in and guide
the strategic decision process, and effectiveness of implementation.

The four-phase model evolution we shall be describing has already proved useful
in evaluating corporate planning systems and processes and for indicating ways
of improving their effectiveness.

Phase I: Basic Financial Planning

Companies in Phase I often display powerful business strategies, but they are
rarely formalized. Instead, they exist. The only concrete indication that a
business strategy exists may be a projected earnings growth rate, occasionally
qualified by certain debt/equity targets or other explicit financial objectives.

Phase II: Forecast-Based Planning

Phase II improves the effectiveness of strategic decision-making. It forces
management to confront the long-term implications of decisions and to give
thought to the potential business impact of discernible current trends, well before
the effects are visible in current income statements. The issues that forecast-
based plans address—e.g., the impact of inflation on future capital needs or the
inroads foreign manufacturers may make in domestic markets—often lead to
timely business decisions that strengthen the company’s long-term competitive
position. One of the most fruitful by-products of Phase II is effective resource
allocation. Under the pressure of long-term resource constraints, planners learn
how to set up a circulatory flow of capital and other resources among business
units. A principal tool is portfolio analysis, a device for graphically arranging a
diversified company’s businesses along two dimensions: competitive strength
and market attractiveness.

Phase III: Externally Oriented Planning

In an environment of rapid change, events can render market forecasts obsolete
almost overnight. Having repeatedly experienced such frustrations, planners
begin to lose their faith in forecasting and instead try to understand the basic
marketplace phenomena driving change. In this phase, resource allocation is
both dynamic and creative. The Phase III planners now look for opportunities to
“shift the dot” of a business on a portfolio matrix into a more attractive sector,
either by developing new business capabilities or by redefining the market to
 better fit their companies’ strengths. A Japanese conglomerate with an
underutilized steel-fabricating capacity in its shipyard and a faltering high-rise
concrete smokestack business combined them into a successful pollution-control
venture.

Phase IV: Strategic Management

Phase IV joins strategic planning and management in a single process. Only a
few companies that we studied are clearly managed strategically, and all of them
are multinational, diversified manufacturing corporations. The challenge of
planning for the needs of hundreds of different and rapidly evolving businesses,
serving thousands of products/markets in dozens of distinct national
environments, has pushed them to generate sophisticated, uniquely effective
planning techniques. However, it is not so much planning technique that sets
these organizations apart, but rather the thoroughness with which management
links strategic planning to operational decision-making.

3. Prepare plans for executing strategies successfully within realistic

economic, social, and temporal parameters and within clearly articulated
values and ethical standards.

Implementing a strategy in a fast-changing environment can be challenging, but

not impossible. You need to be agile, adaptable, and aware of the trends and
opportunities that emerge in your market. In this article, you will learn some
practical tips on how to design and execute a strategy that can cope with
uncertainty and disruption.

1. Understand your context

The first step to implement a strategy in a fast-changing environment is to
understand your context. This means analyzing the external and internal factors
that affect your business, such as competitors, customers, regulations,
technologies, resources, and capabilities. You can use tools like SWOT,
PESTEL, or Porter's Five Forces to conduct a comprehensive environmental
scan and identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that you
face.

2. Define your vision and goals

The next step is to define your vision and goals. Your vision is your long-term
aspiration, your purpose, and your direction. Your goals are the specific,
measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives that you want to
accomplish in the short and medium term. Your vision and goals should be
aligned with your context and reflect your competitive advantage and value
proposition. You can use tools like SMART, OKR, or BHAG to set clear and
ambitious goals that motivate and inspire your team.

3. Develop your Strategy

The third step is to develop your strategy. Your strategy is your plan of action,
your roadmap, and your framework. It describes how you will achieve your goals
and vision, what resources and capabilities you will need, and what actions and
initiatives you will take. Your strategy should be flexible, adaptable, and
responsive to the changes in your environment. You can use tools like Canvas,
Lean Startup, or Agile to design and test your strategy iteratively and
incrementally.

4. Communicate your strategy

The fourth step is to communicate your strategy. Your strategy is only as good as
your ability to communicate it effectively to your stakeholders, such as
employees, customers, partners, investors, and regulators. You need to articulate
your vision, goals, and strategy in a clear, concise, and compelling way that
engages and persuades your audience. You can use tools like Storytelling,
Pitching, or Visualization to craft and deliver your strategic message.

5. Execute your strategy

The fifth step is to execute your strategy. Your strategy is only as good as your
ability to execute it successfully and deliver the desired results. You need to
monitor, measure, and evaluate your progress and performance, and adjust your
strategy accordingly. You also need to manage the risks, uncertainties, and
challenges that you may encounter along the way. You can use tools like KPIs,
Dashboards, or Feedback Loops to track and improve your strategic execution.

6. Learn from your strategy

The sixth and final step is to learn from your strategy. Your strategy is only as
good as your ability to learn from it and improve it continuously. You need to
reflect on your successes and failures, identify the lessons learned and best
practices, and incorporate them into your future strategy. You also need to
celebrate your achievements and recognize your team's efforts. You can use
tools like After Action Reviews, Retrospectives, or Appreciative Inquiry to foster a
culture of learning and innovation.

In developing the strategy, create cross-functional teams of people from different

departments (marketing, finance, and product development, etc) to ensure you
have a full view of strategic objectives. Something that is often overlooked when
forming and implementing a strategy is what to avoid to achieve your goals.
Michael Porter once wrote "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do"
and that is something I always bear with me to keep focus. Choosing and sticking
to the choices of what not to do is surprisingly difficult but probably one of the
most effective ways to focus your time on activities that actually aims for your
vision of the future and not just 'a' future.