Strategy

Strategy refers to the determination of the purpose or mission and the

basic long term objectives of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of
action and allocation of resources necessary to achieve these aims.
Strategic planning seems to be a simple exercise; it analyses the current and expected future
situation, decides the firm’s direction, and develops the means for achieving the goal.
In reality, strategic planning is a very complicated process that demands a systematic
approach to identify and analyse external factors to the organization and matching them with
the firm’s capabilities.
Features of Strategic plans

The following are some of the most important characteristics of strategic plans:

1. They are long-term in nature and place an organization within its external
environment.
2. They are comprehensive and cover a wide range of organizational activities.
3. They integrate, guide, and control organizational activities for the immediate and
longrange future.
4. They set the boundaries for managerial decision-making. Since strategic plans are
the primary documents of an organization, all managerial decisions are required to
be consistent with its goals. Strategic plans, thus, set forth the long-term objectives,
intermediate objectives, and main purpose or the basic role of an organization.

 Strategy-making involves identifying the ways an organization can

undertake to achieve performance targets, weaken competitors, achieve a
competitive advantage, and ensure the organization’s long-term survival.
 In a diversified company with different lines of business under one umbrella,
strategies are initiated at four levels.
 The strategies at each level of the organization are known by the name of the
level.

Corporate-level strategy

Corporate strategy defines the markets and businesses in which a company will operate.

Corporate strategy is formulated at the top level by the top management of a diversified
company (in our country, a diversified company is popularly known, as a group of
companies, such as Alphabet Inc.). Such a strategy describes the company’s overall
direction regarding its various businesses and product lines.
Corporate strategy defines the long-term objectives and generally affects all the business
units under its umbrella.

A corporate strategy, for example, of P&G may be acquiring the major tissue paper
companies in Canada to become the unquestionable market leader.

The corporate-level strategy is the set of strategic alternatives from which an organization
chooses as it manages its operations simultaneously across several industries and several
markets.

Business-level strategy

Business strategy defines the basis on which firm wilt compete.

It is a business-unit-level strategy formulated by the senior managers of the unit. This

strategy emphasizes strengthening a company’s competitive position in products or services.

Business strategies are composed of competitive and cooperative strategies.

The business strategy encompasses all the actions and approaches for competing against the
competitors and the ways management addresses various strategic issues.

As Hitt and Jones have remarked, the business strategy consists of plans of action that
strategic managers adopt to use a company’s resources and distinctive competencies to gain
a competitive advantage over its rivals in a market.

Business strategy is usually formulated in line with corporate strategy. The main focus of the
business strategy is on product development, innovation, integration (vertical, horizontal),
market development, diversification, and the like.

The competitive strategy aims at gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace against
competitors.

And competitive advantage comes from strategies that lead to some uniqueness in the
marketplace. Winning competitive strategies are grounded in sustainable competitive
advantage.

Examples of competitive strategy include differentiation strategy, low-cost strategy, and

focus or market-niche strategy.

Business strategy is concerned with actions that managers undertake to improve the market
position of the company by satisfying the customers. Improving market position implies
undertaking actions against competitors in the industry.

Thus, the concept of competitive strategy (as opposed to cooperative strategy) has a
competitor orientation. The objective of competitive strategy is to win the customers’ hearts
by satisfying their needs and, finally, to outcompete the competitors (or rival companies)
and attain competitive advantages.
The success of a competitive strategy depends on the company’s capabilities, strengths, and
weaknesses in its competitors’ capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

In doing business, companies confront a lot of strategic issues. Management has to address
all these issues effectively to survive in the marketplace. Business strategy deals with these
issues, in addition to how to compete.

A business-level strategy is the set of strategic alternatives an organization chooses as it

conducts business in a particular industry or market.

Such alternatives help the organization focus on each industry or market in a targeted
fashion.

Functional strategy

A functional strategy is, in reality, the departmental/division strategy designed for each
organizational function.

Thus, there may be a production strategy, marketing strategy, advertisement strategy, sales
strategy, human resource strategy, inventory strategy, financial strategy, training strategy,
etc.

A functional strategy refers to a strategy that emphasizes a particular functional area of an

organization. It is formulated to achieve some objectives of a business unit by maximizing
resource productivity.

Sometimes functional strategy is called departmental strategy since each business function is
usually vested with a department.

For example, the production department of a manufacturing company develops a production

strategy’ as the departmental strategy, or the training department formulates ‘a training
strategy’ for providing training to the employees.

A functional strategy is concerned with developing a distinctive competence to provide a

business unit with a competitive advantage.

Each business unit or company has its own set of departments, and every department has a
functional strategy. Functional strategies are adopted to support a competitive strategy.

For example, a company following a low-cost competitive strategy needs a production

strategy that emphasizes reducing the cost of operations and a human resource strategy that
emphasizes retaining the lowest possible number of highly qualified employees.

Other functional strategies, such as marketing strategy, advertising strategy, and financial
strategy, are also to be formulated appropriately to support the business-level competitive
strategy.
Operating strategy

Operating strategy is formulated at the operating units of an organization. A company may

develop an operating strategy for its factory, sales territory, or small sections within a
department.

Usually, the operating managers/field-level managers develop an operating strategy to

achieve immediate objectives. In large organizations, the operating managers normally take
assistance from the mid-level managers while developing the operating strategy.

In some companies, managers “develop an operating strategy for each set of annual
objectives in the departments or divisions.

Conclusion

Companies today compete in a variety of industries and markets.

So, as they develop business-level strategies for each industry or market, they also develop
an overall strategy that helps define the mix of industries and markets that are of interest to
the firm.

These levels provide businesses with a rich combination of strategic alternatives.

In another context it can be classified in different way

these are as follows below: - Corporate level strategies
The Top Management of a company is entrusted with defining its corporates profiles
describing the company’s overall direction and the attitude towards growth along with the
management of its resources at the grand levels. The management has to identify the areas in
which the company is or should be operating.
 Corporate level strategies are the strategies that are formulated by the top
management for the entire organization.
 Corporate level strategies are meant to serve the company with providing the
direction in which it should employ its resources, be it the case of small business
firms involved in single business or a large diversified conglomerate.
 In other words, Corporate level strategies are decisions related to allocation of
resources among the different business of a firm, transforming resources from one
set of businesses to others and managing and nurturing a portfolio of business.
 Corporate strategies help to exercise the choice of direction that an organization
adopts.
 In small firms, corporate strategy would mean the adoption of courses of action that
yield better profitability for the firm.
 In large, Multi business, Firms the corporate strategy would mean also be about
managing the various business definitions.

These strategies are also known as Grand /Master strategies.

These strategies present an organization with the strategic alternatives that are available.

Corporate level strategy Grand Strategies

1. Expansion /Growth: - When an organization aims at high growth by substantially
broadening the scope of one of more of its businesses in terms of their respective
customer groups, customer functions and alternatives technologies singly or jointly,
in order to improve its overall performance.
a) Concentration: - A Growth Strategy adopted by the company to concentrate by
investing more resources in marketing and production of only one primary product
or market in such a manner that growth results. The benefit of the strategy is to
build a strong reputation within a market and generate loyalty among the
customer.
b) Integration: - Integration means combing activities related to the present activity
of a firm, results in a widening of scope of the business definition of a firm.
Horizontal integration (Same type of products)
Vertical integration (New Products for own needs)
• Backward integration
• Forward integration
c) Diversification: - Substantial change in business definition, singly or jointly in
terms of customer function, customer groups or alternatives technologies of one or
more firm’s businesses.
Concentric/Related diversification
Conglomerate/ Unrelated diversification
d) Strategic Alliance
2. Stability: - The corporate strategy of stability is adopted by an organization when it
attempts at incremental improvement of its performance by marginally changing one or
more of its business it terms of their respective customer functions and alternatives
technologies a) No change
b) Caution
c) Profit
3. Retrenchment: - The corporate strategy of retrenchment is followed when an
organization aims at contraction of its activities through a substantial reduction of
elimination of the scope of one or more of its business in terms of their respective customer
group, customer fractions or alternative technologies in order to improve its overall
performance.
a) Turnover

b) Divestment
c) Liquidation
4. Combination: - When an organization adopts a mixture of stability expansion and
retrenchment strategies, either at the same time in its different business or at different times
in one of its business, with the aim of improving its performance. a) Simultaneous
b) Sequential
c) Simultaneous & Sequential

Business level strategy

These strategies are employed at business unit or product level and emphasizes the
competitiveness of the company’s product or services in the specific segment.
A business level strategy is the strategy opted by a firm for each of its business separately, to
serve the identified customer groups by providing value to these customers by satisfaction of
their needs.
In the process, the manager craft competitive strategies for each business unit to create,
sustain and enhance competitive advantage using its competencies.
There are three types of Generic Business strategies:
1. Cost leadership Business Strategy (Value chain related matters)
2. Differentiation Business strategy (how your strategy is different)
3. Focus Business Strategy (particular market segment)

Functional Level strategy

After the strategies have been developed at corporate and business level, strategies should be
formulated at functional unit level as well
For entire organization to move in the overall direction that has been pursued by the
formulation of corporate strategy with the aid of the business level strategy, the strategy
should be formulated at the functional level as well to support the implementation of the
overall strategy at the ground level.
Functional strategies deal with a relatively restricted plan designed to achieve objective in a
specific functional area, allocation of resources among different operation within the
functional area and coordination among different functional areas for accomplishment of the
business and corporate level objectives.
These strategies are derived from business level and corporate level strategies and are
implemented through functional and operational implementation.
Parts of Functional Level strategy

a) Marketing
b) Operations
c) Finance
d) Human Resources
e) Information System
 f) R&D

Strategic Evaluation & Control

It is said that strategic management without evaluation and control is like playing football
without any goal posts. Evaluation and control is one of the most important stages in the
strategic management process of an organization. It is one of the most difficult task perform
and is the final stage in the strategic management process. Evaluation and control process
ensures that a company is achieving when it set out to accomplish.
Through evaluation and control, strategies can decide whether their chosen strategy in in
conformity with the environment and whether the performance of tasks will lead to the
achievement of objectives. Thus strategic evaluation and control could be effectiveness of a
given strategy in achieving the organizational objectives and taking corrective action
wherever required.

Strategic Evaluation & Control process:

1. The management set performance targets, standards and tolerance limits.
2. They measure actual performance with the standard set at a point of time.
3. Next step is to identify the deviation from the expected standards.
4. After identifying the deviation, next is to measure or analyze deviations from the
standards.
5. The final step is to incorporate modification revise standards, strategy and the
implementation process.
Importance of Evaluation and Control
1. Direction
2. Guidance
3. Confidence
4. Information
5. Check on validity
6. Successful completion of strategic management process.

Question: - What are the steps of Strategic Planning Process `

Strategic planning process steps

1. Determine your strategic position.
2. Prioritize your objectives.
3. Develop a strategic plan.
4. Execute and manage your plan.
5. Review and revise the plan.

Every business should have a strategic plan—but the number of businesses that try to
operate without a defined plan (or at least a clearly communicated one) might surprise you.
Research from On Strategy shows that 86% of executive teams spend less than one hour per
month discussing strategy, and 95% of a typical workforce doesn’t understand its
organization’s strategy.

Because so many businesses lack in these regards, you can get ahead of the game by using
strategic planning. In this article, we will explain what the strategic planning process looks
like and the steps involved.
What is the strategic planning process?

In the simplest terms, the strategic planning process is the method that organizations use to
develop plans to achieve overall, long-term goals.

This process differs from the project planning process, which is used to scope and assign
tasks for individual projects, or strategy mapping, which helps you determine your mission,
vision, and goals.
The strategic planning process is broad—it helps you create a roadmap for which strategic
objectives you should put effort into achieving and which initiatives would be less helpful to
the business.

Strategic planning process steps

Before you begin the strategic planning process, it is important to review some steps to set
you and your organization up for success.

1. Determine your strategic position

This preparation phase sets the foundation for all work going forward. You need to know
where you are to determine where you need to go and how you will get there.

Involve the right stakeholders from the start, considering both internal and external sources.
Identify key strategic issues by talking with executives at your company, pulling in customer
insights, and collecting industry and market data. This will give you a clear picture of your
position in the market and customer insight.

It can also be helpful to review—or create if you don’t have them already—your company’s
mission and vision statements to give yourself and your team a clear image of what success
looks like for your business. In addition, review your company’s core values to remind
yourself about how your company plans to achieve these objectives.

To get started, use industry and market data, including customer insights and current/future
demands, to identify the issues that need to be addressed. Document your organization's
internal strengths and weaknesses, along with external opportunities (ways your
organization can grow in order to fill needs that the market does not currently fill) and
threats (your competition).
 As a framework for your initial analysis, use a SWOT diagram. With input from executives,
customers, and external market data, you can quickly categorize your findings as Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) to clarify your current position. An

alternative to a SWOT is PEST analysis. Standing for Political, Economic, Socio-cultural,

and Technological, PEST is a strategic tool used to clarify threats and opportunities for your
business.

As you synthesize this information, your unique strategic position in the market will become
clear, and you can start solidifying a few key strategic objectives. Often, these objectives are
set with a three- to five-year horizon in mind.

2. Prioritize your objectives

Once you have identified your current position in the market, it is time to determine
objectives that will help you achieve your goals. Your objectives should align with your
company mission and vision.

Prioritize your objectives by asking important questions such as:

• Which of these initiatives will have the greatest impact on achieving our company
mission/vision and improving our position in the market?
• What types of impact are most important (e.g. customer acquisition vs. revenue)?
• How will the competition react?
• Which initiatives are most urgent?
• What will we need to do to accomplish our goals?
• How will we measure our progress and determine whether we achieved our goals?
Objectives should be distinct and measurable to help you reach your long-term strategic goals
and initiatives outlined in step one. Potential objectives can be updating website content,
improving email open rates, and generating new leads in the pipeline.
3. Develop a plan

Now it's time to create a strategic plan to reach your goals successfully. This step requires
determining the tactics necessary to attain your objectives and designating a timeline and
clearly communicating responsibilities.

Strategy mapping is an effective tool to visualize your entire plan. Working from the
topdown, strategy maps make it simple to view business processes and identify gaps for
improvement.

Truly strategic choices usually involve a trade-off in opportunity cost. For example, your
company may decide not to put as much funding behind customer support, so that it can put
more funding into creating an intuitive user experience.

Be prepared to use your values, mission statement, and established priorities to say “no” to
initiatives that won’t enhance your long-term strategic position.
4. Execute and manage the plan

Once you have the plan, you’re ready to implement it. First, communicate the plan to the
organization by sharing relevant documentation. Then, the actual work begins.

Turn your broader strategy into a concrete plan by mapping your processes. Use key
performance indicator (KPI) dashboards to communicate team responsibilities clearly. This
granular approach illustrates the completion process and ownership for each step of the way.

Set up regular reviews with individual contributors and their managers and determine
checkin points to ensure you’re on track.

5. Review and revise the plan

The final stage of the plan—to review and revise—gives you an opportunity to re-evaluate
your priorities and course-correct based on past successes or failures.

On a quarterly basis, determine which KPIs your team has met and how you can continue to
meet them, adapting your plan as necessary. On an annual basis, it’s important to re-evaluate
your priorities and strategic position to ensure that you stay on track for success in the long
run.

Track your progress using balanced scorecards to comprehensively understand of your

business's performance and execute strategic goals.
Over time you may find that your mission and vision need to change — an annual evaluation
is a good time to consider those changes, prepare a new plan, and implement again.

Master the strategic planning process steps

As you continue to implement the strategic planning process, repeating each step regularly,
you will start to make measurable progress toward achieving your company’s vision.

Instead of constantly putting out fires, reacting to the competition, or focusing on the latest
hot-button initiative, you’ll be able to maintain a long-term perspective and make decisions
that will keep you on the path to success for years to come.
Question: - what is management and operation and what the differences between
management and operation. Management: -

Management is the art of controlling and directing things and people. It is found in every
functional area irrespective of the department of the company, it is even found outside the
business world like in a house, a mother is commonly managing everything related to her
house and family members.

Just like a house, school, or any university, etc. needs to manage its people, students,
employees, or a team, in the same manner, a company needs to do the same to reach or fulfil
their objectives.

The following are the features of management:

1. Management is associated with group efforts.

2. It is purposeful and universal.
3. Management is accomplished only through the efforts of employees.
4. It is goal-oriented.
5. Management ensures better working conditions.
6. It is intangible as well as indispensable.
7. It is universal, which means it can be applied to every department, every level, even
outside a company or firm.

Operations: -

The operational function of the company or operations, is the management of procedures or

processes that take place in a company or an organization regarding the manufacturing of
goods and services.

Along with the procedure, it also involves raw materials, equipment, labour, and everything
related to operations.

The following are the characteristics of operations:

 It ensures effectiveness and coordination.

 It ensures flexibility.
 It evaluates to check if the workings are going as per the plan or not.
 It is goal-oriented.
 It ensures productivity
 It analyses the workings of production.  It focuses on efficiency.
 Operation’s aims are always measurable.
 It has a fast speed of execution, which makes it effective to a large extent.
It consists of structural organizational flexibility.
  Unlike management, operations are restricted to just production which makes it
concentrate on production which cuts down many other time-consuming tasks
which might have lowered the effectiveness of production.’

Main differences between Management and operations

in Differences Between Management anderations

Management is defined as all the activities that are undertaken for achieving goals by
continuous activities like planning, directing, and controlling, whereas, on the other hand,
the operation is itself is a management of activities relating to production.

 The main aim of management is to reach the company’s goal effectively and
efficiently, whereas, the operations aim to reduce cost and save time for the
company, or a firm.
 Where on one hand, the management is applied to every functional department, in
other words, to the entire company. On the other hand, operations are related only to
production activities.
 In management, there is a specific role assigned to each manager of each department
like operations manager, accounting manager, sales manager, quality control
manager, whereas in the case of operation, there are only two key positions that are
offered such as chief operating officer, and operations manager.
 Management is the act of directing or conducting whereas operations are the act of
producing or operating.

Question: - Differentiate between strategic, operational, and tactical controls.

Answer: -

Strategic Control

Managers want to know if the company is headed in the right direction and if current
company trends and changes are keeping them on that right path. To answer this question
requires the implementation of strategic control. Strategic control involves monitoring a
strategy as it is being implemented, evaluating deviations, and making necessary
adjustments.

Strategic control may involve the reassessment of a strategy due to an immediate,

unforeseen event. For example, if a company’s main product is becoming obsolete, the
company must immediately reassess its strategy.
Implementing a strategy often involves a series of activities that occur over a period.
Managers can effectively monitor the progress of a strategy at various milestones, or
intervals, during the period. During this time, managers may be provided information that
helps them determine whether the overall strategy is unfolding as planned.

Strategic control also involves monitoring internal and external events. Multiple sources of
information are needed to monitor events. These sources include conversations with
customers, articles in trade magazines and journals, activity at trade conferences, and
observations of your own or another company’s operations. For example, Toyota gives tours
of its plants and shares the “Toyota Way” even with competitors.

The errors associated with strategic control are usually major, such as failing to anticipate
customers’ reaction to a competitor’s new product. BlackBerry had a strong position in the
business cell phone market and did not quickly see that its business customers were
switching to the iPhone. BlackBerry could not recover.

Operational Control

Operational control involves control over intermediate-term operations and processes but not
business strategies. Operational control systems ensure that activities are consistent with
established plans. Mid-level management uses operational controls for intermediate-term
decisions, typically over one to two years. When performance does not meet standards,
managers enforce corrective actions, which may include training, discipline, motivation, or
termination.

Unlike strategic control, operational control focuses more on internal sources of information
and affects smaller units or aspects of the organization, such as production levels or the
choice of equipment. Errors in operational control might mean failing to complete projects
on time. For example, if salespeople are not trained on time, sales revenue may fall.

Tactical Control

A tactic is a method that meets a specific objective of an overall plan. Tactical control
emphasizes the current operations of an organization. Managers determine what the various
parts of the organization must do for the organization to be successful in the near future (one
year or less).

For example, a marketing strategy for a wholesale bakery might be an e-commerce solution
for targeted customers, such as restaurants. Tactical control may involve regularly meeting
with the marketing team to review results and would involve creating the steps needed to
complete agreed-upon processes. Tactics for the bakery strategy may include the following:

• building a list of local restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores

• outlining how the bakery website can be used to receive orders
• personally visiting local executive chefs for follow-up
• monitoring the response to determine whether the sales target is met
Strategic control always comes first, followed by operations, and then tactics. For example,
a strategy to be environmentally responsible could lead to an operations decision to seek
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. This is a program
that awards points toward certification for initiatives in energy efficiency, such as installing
timed thermostats, using occupant sensors to control lighting use, and using green cleaning
products. The tactical decision is deciding which energy-efficient equipment to purchase. At
each level, controls ask if the decisions serve the purpose: actual energy savings, the LEED
certification, and acting responsibly for the environment.

Top-Down Controls

Top-down controls are also known as bureaucratic controls. Top-down control means the
use of rules, regulations, and formal authority to guide performance. It includes things such
as budgets, statistical reports, and performance appraisals to regulate behaviour and results.
Topdown control is the most common process, where senior executives make decisions and
establish policies and procedures that implement the decisions. Lower-level managers may
make recommendations for their departments, but they follow the lead of senior managers.

Advantages: With top-down control, employees can spend their time performing their job
duties instead of discussing the direction of the company and offering input into the
development of new policies. Senior executives save time by not explaining why some ideas
are used and not others. Heavily regulated businesses may find this approach to be most
beneficial.

Disadvantages: The top-down approach has its drawbacks. The lower levels of a company
are in touch with customers and recognize new trends or new competition earlier than senior
management. A heavy-handed top-down approach may discourage employees from sharing
information or ideas up the chain of command.

Objective and Normative Control

Objective control is based on facts that can be measured and tested. Rather than create a rule
that may be ambiguous, objective controls measure observable behaviour or output. As an
example of a behavioural control, let’s say that a store wants employees to be friendly to
customers. It could make that a rule as stated, but it may not be clear what that means and is
not measurable. To make that goal into an objective control, it might specify, “Smile and
greet anyone within 10 feet. Answer customer questions.”

Output control is another form of objective control. Some companies, such as Yahoo, have
relaxed rules about work hours and focus on output. Because programmers’ output can be
measured, this has worked well, whether an employee works the traditional 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
or starts at noon and works until 8 p.m.

Normative controls govern behaviour through accepted patterns of action rather than written
policies and procedures. Normative control uses values and beliefs called norms, which are
established standards. For example, within a team, informal rules make team members
aware of their responsibilities. The ways in which team members interact are developed over
time. Team members come to an informal agreement as to how responsibilities will be
divided, often based on the perceived strengths of each team member. These unwritten rules
are normative controls and can powerfully influence behaviour.

Normative control reflects the organization’s culture, the shared values among the members
of the organization. Every organization has norms of behaviour that workers need to learn.
One company may expect employees to take the initiative to solve problems. Another may
require a manager’s approval before employees discuss changes outside the department.
Some topics may be off-base, while others are freely discussed. Companies will have a mix
of controls—top-down, objective, and normative.

Advantages of Strategic Planning

Many organizations understand the importance of strategic planning, and they’ll invest a
great deal of time and money coming up with the strategic plan itself. But once the strategic
planning process is complete, it’s really common for that plan to just… well, sit there.
Maybe it gets reviewed once a year–an obligatory thing your company or organization
simply “has to do.” Or worse, it becomes a glossy (and expensive) document that sits
gathering dust on the shelf.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you are certain to end up somewhere else.” – Yogi
Berra
A strategic plan is so much more than words on a page (or a shelf!)
If you have a strategic plan that you (and your employees) reference regularly, then it
becomes a living document, a dynamic process that guides, responds to, and helps actualize
large-scale dreams.
Here are five advantages of strategic planning.

1. It makes your organization proactive rather than reactive Why

is strategic planning important?
A strategic plan allows organizations to anticipate things that are most likely to happen and
prepare accordingly. Through strategic planning, companies can anticipate certain
unfavourable scenarios before they happen and take necessary precautions to avoid them.
And, if something unfortunate–whether a small scale mishap, or a full blown crisis–does
happen, then you already have something in place to ensure you’re able to get back on track.
When a crisis hits, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, having a strategic plan versus not
having one can make a huge difference. For example, instead of having to halt construction
plans, further disrupt learning, and be stuck in a pattern of only reacting during the
pandemic, White Bear Lake Area Schools, MN, leaned on their strategic plan:

“We’ve completed projects already. Construction continued throughout the pandemic,

which was really exciting for us. And through it all, our strategic plan has continued to
inform our decisions about what type of learning environment we’re building for our
students. That’s been invaluable. We’ve had to make decisions on learning models, remote
work, distance learning… we’ve been able to root those decisions in asking what does our
strategic plan compel us to do, and what opportunities have emerged along the way?” – Dr.
Alison Gillespie, the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning with WBLAS.
Of course, the importance of strategic planning and being proactive is not just for
catastrophe prevention, or mitigating poor outcomes. Another benefit of a strategic plan is it
also gives you a competitive edge.
When you make being engaged with your strategic plan a habit, an integral part of how your
organization operates, it means your overall vision, and the steps required to be there, are
front of mind. This will keep your team alert, attentive, and able to keep up with changing
trends. While other strategic plans for other organizations may sit on the shelf, excellent
strategic planning is enough to maintain a competitive edge. Staying one step ahead of what
everyone else is doing requires a clear idea of what exactly you are doing. Rather than just
always reacting to the trends, you want to be anticipatory. Better yet, be the trendsetter.
A strategic plan gives you this ability to be truly proactive – and, therefore, flexible – in
your vision.

2. It instills a shared sense of responsibility

A strategic plan helps to define the direction in which an organization must travel, and aids
in establishing realistic objectives and goals that are in line with the vision and mission
charted out for it. But it also creates a sense of collaboration and collective
responsibility.
The key to successful strategic planning is to engage everyone with the plan as early as
possible in the planning process, and build in measures and implementation steps that allow
you to monitor the results at regular intervals. When you do this, goals become stepping
stones to even greater goals, and everyone becomes familiar with the aspirations and pain-
points of your overall vision, and their contribution to it.
When everybody has a sense of purpose in their role within the greater organization, they are
going to care about the outcomes. Everybody wants to feel important, needed, valued, and
heard. One benefit of a strategic plan is that it formalizes this process. It’s really
important to make sure everyone implementing a plan feels responsible for their part in it;
when people are intrinsically motivated to complete their tasks, this creates energy and
momentum on all organizational levels.
For the people involved in the actual strategic planning process itself, it creates a sense of
democratic engagement. People are able to bring their own perspectives, thoughts, and ideas
to the table, and will be encouraged when they see their strategies and actions come to life.
For people carrying out those actions, they will feel more encouraged to be responsible for
those outcomes when the goals are attainable and clear. A strategic plan makes those actions
clear.
A strategic plan offers both the much-needed foundation from which an organization can
grow, but also helps establish the roles and boundaries for everyone, thus improving
efficient decision making and creating a greater sense of overall momentum and direction.
Ensuring employees feel engaged and responsible is one of the most important strategic
planning benefits.

3. It increases operational efficiency among leadership

When discussing the importance of strategic planning in an organization, we need to
consider leadership. One way that an organizational vision can fall short in its
implementation is when there isn’t a clear enough idea of what change is needed where, and
how complex that level of change needs to be. That’s where we can really see the value of
strategic planning. In terms of strategic management, a plan provides leaders with the
roadmap to align the organization’s functional activities to achieve set goals.
At Envision, we aren’t afraid of complex plans. In fact, we love them. Because we
exclusively work with publicly accountable organizations, such as local governments, our
clients frequently have really complex plans that can span years (sometimes even decades)!
What we’ve learned is that there is no need to shy away from a grand vision; what matters is
making sure the strategy to get there is clear.
People in leadership roles are often juggling many different priorities and ideas, and they are
overseeing the entire operation. Management discussions, meetings, and decision making
can sometimes suffer from not being able to see the forest from the trees–meaning, everyone
is capable of losing perspective.
A strategic management plan helps carry some of that load for leadership.
A strategic plan also increases operational efficiency in that it helps determine those
important, practical, company-wide leadership considerations, such as budget requirements
to accomplish set objectives. These practical, operational considerations illustrate why
strategic planning is important.

4. It improves staff satisfaction and retention

Research has shown that over the course of COVID-19, local government employees are
feeling as though they lack autonomy in their jobs, are feeling burnt out, and are
experiencing disconnection from their work and colleagues.
As previously mentioned, a strategic plan can help empower your employees to feel
responsible and engaged with their work, but it can also be used to plan initiatives like
improved career advancement, perks and benefits, and improving workplace culture. The
reality is that public sector workplaces (local government and beyond) need to find ways to
empower and support employees, otherwise these sectors will experience high turnover.
Incorporating improved on boarding processes, feedback processes, and building in a
process for positive recognition are all things that can be formalized in a strategic plan.
Having a strategic plan can also reduce the experience of being “micro-managed,” which
can increase senses of autonomy, and therefore satisfaction, in the workplace.

5. It manages expectations and bolsters trust

A strategic plan increases transparency, which helps build trust and eliminate ambiguity–
both inside the organization and among key stakeholders. Strategic planning done well is
beneficial because it creates more opportunities for collaboration across teams. Working
together to see what each department is doing, rather than having disjointed groups,
improves trust in the overall direction of the organization. Because so much of strategic
planning refers to determining organizational goals, this helps set expectations across the
different areas of your organization, and improves the overall functioning of the company.
Public sector work requires a lot of passion and care; it tends to attract value-driven people.
Ensuring that the values of the organization are built into the strategic plan communicates to
staff a sense of openness, and helps assure them (and remind them) about the overall
mission. One of the other benefits of having a strategy is it shows how information is being
managed, in a modernized, quantifiable, secure manner. Being able to back up decisions
using data, for example, is an objective, non-partisan way to communicate the rationale
behind the moves your organization is making. All of this goes a long way in improving
trust – both internally, and externally, to the community being served.