Strategic Planning Model

A strategic planning model  of an organization is unique to its own internal and external environment. If you read management textbooks, you will realize there are various types of models that can be used to an organizations’ advantage.  It  serves as a blueprint enabling an organization to make sound decisions that can guide them to attain its mission and vision.

There is no one perfect strategic planning model for an organization. Each organization chooses, modifies, or integrates a model to create a process that compliments its needs and outlook.  Any recommended strategic planning model by management consultants should not be adopted wholly and need to be adapted by seniiro management to suit the business requirements of an organization in aspects of its people’s skills, organization culture, internal resources , competitors and external marketplace.

Strategic planning is a continuous chain of activities in setting the long-term direction of the organization and the undertaking of constructive actions to promote and reach its strategic goals and objectives. The process of strategic planning begins with setting down the desired results, identifying the resources needed to achieve the results and creating an appropriate strategic planning model that serves as the foundation for all actions that directs all organizational resources towards attaining the desired results. An essential part of strategic planning is that it must be flexible and practical without impeding the creativity of its workforce in its implementation of methods to achieve goals and objectives.

Strategic planning creates many benefits to organizations.

• It promotes systematic growth.
• Employee motivation is increased as there is a clarity on the vision and mission of the organization.
• It forces planning and setting of objectives in business units.
• It provides a platform to review and measure current and actual performance against the desired results.
• It assists in efficient and effective allocation of scarce resources to productive business units.
• It stimulates the organization to be more responsive to the external marketplace and customer needs and satisfaction.

It can be safely stated that the various types of strategic planning models adopted by each organizations varies due to diversity of business circumstances, needs and outlooks. Depending on different issues abd problems  faced, an organization out of neccessity may follow either basic strategic planning, issue based planning, scenario planning, alignment planning or self-organizing planning in their strategic planning model.