Strategic Planning is vital to an organization

Strategic Planning is vital to an organization as it enables them to reach their mission and objectives. Strategic Planning helps an organization put all these plans into action by coordinating the necessary resources and materials to facilitate the actualization of these plans, and objectives. Strategic planning helps us identify, define and justify where an organization is headed, and how it will add value to the company (Kaufman, 2016). Furthermore, once the necessary resources are allocated, and in order to meet the objectives and goals of the organization, measures of how a company will achieve those objectives and goals are clearly identified.

I do not agree with your statement about an international business strategy needing “top executives” to actively define the strategic direction. According to Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, and Strickland (2018) this is a collaborative effort by all members of the organization with management and leadership roles that include not only senior/top executives, but also “heads of major business divisions, functional area managers, and operating managers” that are actively in the frontlines making sure that these plans come to fruition. I do however agree that top executives need to be involved in all facets of strategic planning, whether it is at home or in international markets. Strategic planning as I see it involves everyone within an organization, as there are those tasked with planning and setting objectives, and those that actually executing them, without each other a strategic plan would just be a plan and would not succeed without all the members of an organization, again, this is either at home or abroad.

Strategic Planning is where objectives and goals are set for an organization. However, your first sentence is a little misleading in my opinion,  as strategic planning does not involve “determining” a company’s image, in contrast, strategic planning is the blueprint in which organizations carefully craft a plan in which the vision, mission, and objectives are clearly identified, and where all resources are allocated, goals and measures of how a company will achieve its objectives are set. More importantly, how will this add value to the organization (Kauffman, 2016). In addition, it focuses on how a company will ensure that everyone within the organization adheres and executes the plan not only now, but in the future, what the expectations are, what resources are needed, where they will obtain such resources, and what measures will be set in place to ensure that they are on the right track to achieving the objectives set.

I enjoyed reading your analysis of how executing a strategic plan may seem an easy feat but it is very intricate and an organization must take the necessary steps to not only set their objectives, but also to ensure that there is room for trial and error. As we learned from this unit’s assigned readings, executing a strategy plan is demanding and time consuming, it takes more time to implement than to develop it. The execution entails not only finding the necessary resources, but also finding staff with the required skills and expertise that will help the organization reach its goals, as having the right managers as well as great leadership to motivate the whole organization to achieve performance objectives (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, and Strickland, 2018).

References:

Kaufman, R. (2016). Strategic planning: getting from here to there. TD: Talent Development, 70(3), 54. Retrieved from http://www.freemanagementresources.com

Thompson, A., Peteraf, M., Gamble, J., and Strickland, A. J. (2018). Crafting & executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage, concepts and cases (21st ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education.
Retrieved from http://www.freemanagementresources.com