How do you go about planning your organization’s future? Do you take the necessary steps? Do you research enough? Do you employ the right personnel? Or do you just carry on and tirelessly hope to reach that profit margin by the end of the financial year?

These are just a few questions and sometimes even concerns that needs to be addressed regularly.

Strategic planning is vital to any organization’s survival irrespective the category of trade, it is the process of formulating and implementing decisions about an organization’s future direction in order to adapt to its ever-changing environment.

The formulation process is the process by which you decide where you want your organization to go to, what decisions must be made and when these decisions must be made in order to get there. In other words, it is the process of defining and understanding the business that you are in and can be summed up as follows:

• Formulation process scans the external environment and industry environment for changing conditions;
• It interprets the changing environment in terms of opportunities or threats;
• It analyses the organisation’s resource base for asset strengths and weaknesses;
• Defines the mission of the organisation by matching environmental opportunities and threats with resource strengths and weaknesses; and
• It sets goals for pursuing the mission based on top management values and sense of responsibility.

The outcome of this process results in the organization doing the right thing by producing goods and or services for which there is a clear and defined demand and or need in the external environment (market). When this occurs, we say that the organisation has been effective as measured by market responses such as sales, market share, customer satisfaction and repeat business.

The implementation process, on the other hand, translates the formulated plan into policies and procedures for ultimately achieving the grand decision of the organisation. Effective implementation results in stated objectives, action plans, timetables, policies and procedures and subsequently results in the organisation moving efficiently towards its mission and because this process involves all levels of the organisation, it results in the integration of all aspects of the organisation.

Now ask yourself, how do you go about planning your organisation’s future? Does it include the formulation and implementation processes and do you involve top, middle and lower-level management in these processes?

JJR Inc. can assist you. Arrange a consultation today to discuss.

This article is a general information sheet and should not be used or relied on as legal or other professional advice. No liability can be accepted for any errors or omissions nor for any loss or damage arising from reliance upon any information herein. Always contact your legal adviser for specific and detailed advice.