STRATEGIC PLANNING:

According to Stoner, strategic plan is not only planning activity, of an

organisation.However, it is one of the top management's role is the most
crucial.Planning at lower levels is called operational planning. It focuses on
present operations and its prime concern is efficiency rather than effectiveness.
In a sense that, strategic planning provides guidance and boundaries for
operational management. Effective management must have a strategy and must operate
on the day to day level to achieve goals.

Strategic Planning Process:

1. Establishing verifiable goals or set of goals to be achieved.
2. Establishing planning premises.
a)Internal and external premises.
b)Tangible and intangible premises.
c)Controllable and non-controllable premises.
3. Deciding the planning period.
4. Finding alternative courses of action.
5. Evaluating the alternative plan and selecting a course of action.
6. Developing derivative plans.
7. Implementation of the business plan.
8. Measuring and controlling.

Corporate Level Strategies/Kinds of grant strategy:

a) Stability Strategy
-Maintenance of status Quo
-Sustainable growth.

b) Growth Strategy
-Internal Growth
-Concentration strategy
-Merger
-Takeover or acquisition
-Horizontal integration
-Conglomerate diversification
-Vertical Integration
-Joint ventures

c) Retrenchment Strategy
-Turn around
-Captive company
-Transformation
-Liquidation
-Divestment

d) Restructuring Strategy
-Portfolio restructuring