Planning for Long-term Success

Planning for Long-term Success

BUS435

Planning for Long-term Success

For an organization to be successful and have long-term success they must have a very well-planned strategic plan. There are six key steps that the organization should follow. “These six key steps are (1) complete the environmental scan, (2) complete the organizational assessment, (3) resolve key strategic issues, (4) develop the strategic plan, (5) develop the budget (to support the strategic plan), and (6) conduct plan reviews on at least a quarterly basis” (Flamholtz & Randle, 2016). Having a strategic plan will help guide an organization to success. These steps are considered the organizations play book and in order to win they must follow the plays.

During the first step, the environmental scan, will help the organization determine the market they will be competing in, who the competition is and what environmental trends that will affect the business. A lot of companies used to us SWOT analysis to help with success. The letters in SWOT stand for things a companies can use to evaluate their company; strengthens, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Well this first step takes over the opportunities and threats part.

As far as the second step, the organizational assessment, will cover the other part of SWOT analysis, the strengths and weaknesses. But instead of finding the strengths and weakness of the organization they will look at each level of the Organizational Development Pyramid. There are different stages in the pyramid which includes market, products and services, resources, operational systems, management systems, and corporate culture. There are two different ways for an organization to perform this assessment. One way is using the qualitative and quantitative analysis or using a survey such as, the Growing Pains Survey.

The third step would be to resolve any issues that the company may be facing. During this step it is important that the organization asks these seven questions:

What business are we in?

What are our competitive strengths and limitations?

Do we have or can we develop a true market niche?

What do we want to become in the long term?

What is our strategy for competing effectively in our chosen markets and for achieving our long-term mission?

What are the critical factors that will make us successful or unsuccessful in achieving our long-term mission?

What goals shall we set to improve our competitive effectiveness and organizational capabilities in each of these critical success areas? (Flamholtz & Randle, 2016)

Step four is to create the strategic plan. In this plan should state how the organization will move forward in the future. The plan will also focus on how the leadership team will drive their team to success. The leadership team will also come up with operational and tactical plans. All of this will come together into a written plan so that all leadership and employees can refer too.

Once a strategic plan is in place the next thing a company would need to do is go over there budgets. Budgeting will also be referred to the financial plan. While organizations are finding what budget, they need to stay in they might have to adjust some things around until they find out what’s best for the company.

Lastly, reviewing all these steps. The company will want to make sure that everything is correct and will lead them to success. As the company grows the plan may need to be adjusted and therefore it is important to always review the plan. There are different stages in an organizations growth which the strategic planning can differ.

A New Venture is the first stage in organizations growth. During this stage an entrepreneur will come up with a product or service that they believe the market will want/need. When coming up with a new business the entrepreneur will either come up with something that no one has offered or make something better that someone is already offering. Typically, there is no formal strategic planning. Basically, they will come up with a plan and just go with it. The second stage in the organization growth would be how it will expand. This is where a company will expand their products. A company that started a new venture with many products is Apple. Not only did they start a new venture with computers but also, iPad, iPod, iPhone, and cell phone accessories. So far, all their products have been a success and they keep coming up with new ways and products to keep the customers wanting more.

Stages one and two are all about creating your business and what products you would like to sell. During the first two stages they are trying to figure out what market they should be in and what other products will they be able to sell that will tie into the original product/service. Stage three if the growth process focuses more on the management. This is where the management will focus on the roles of each department. The management will also come up with the formal strategic plan for the future of the business.
The keys to success for the third stage are for management to devote at least one full week per year to just strategic planning. The reason for this is because they want to make sure the company is staying on track for the future growth of the company. The reason it is super important for a company to have a formal strategic plan and to review it every year is because things change and sometimes it needs to be looked over. Overall its important to follow these steps in order to be successful.

Reference

Flamholtz, E. G., & Randle, Y. (2016). Growing Pains: Building Sustainably Successful Organizations (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..