Strategic Planning and Organizational Restructuring

Week 2 Discussion

“Strategic Planning and Organizational Restructuring” Please respond to the following:

Assess the merits of this statement by incorporating a specific personal project, formal or informal. “Strategic planning is critical in the overall effectiveness of project management.”

Strategic Planning – this is the process of an organization defining its strategy and making decisions on how it will allocate its resources to pursue to outlined strategy. At times strategic planning extends to control mechanisms for guiding the implementation of the strategy. This type of planning become more prominent in corporations during the 1960s and is now considered one of the most important aspects of strategic management.

Taking that into consideration, it is safe to say that they statement is accurate. At my current employer we have several processes that needed to be streamlined due to missed tasks that ultimately effective the overall productivity of the organization. After months of writing down the adversities versus the benefits of this implementation to the organization we were able to safely conclude that we needed to automate our processes by utilizing a CRM. At first glance it sounded like a project that we would be able to just call up a company that hosted a CRM platform, sign a contract and “voila”! Unfortunately, after the first demo call I realized that it would take strategic planning if we wanted this process to be a smooth transition. I put in countless hours to clearly outline the objective and overall desired solution from this implementation. Without understanding exactly what strategic planning meant I would not have been able to effectively outline the desired solutions, implementation steps and calculate the overall cost. Strategic planning is absolutely critical to the overall effectiveness of any project.

Imagine you are the CEO of a growing international manufacturing organization in need of corporate restructuring. Select an organizational structure, (functional, matrix, or projectized) and assess the influence on project roles and decisions made in both your home country and overseas.

The matrix organizational structure is suitable for an international organizations undergoing restructuring. A matrix organization structure is defined as one that has multiple reporting lines, meaning that subordinates on the project will have more than one formal boss. Notably, such firms, such as those in the manufacturing industries, have a more dynamic operating environment than local organizations, which requires free and fast flow of information. It is important to understand that when you are restructuring a company, especially in a different geographic location that information is a vital tool. In a matrix organization resolutions made in one part of the organization should be readily available to other parts to enable integration, especially because there are different managers assigned geographically. Cross-functional cohesion is also vital, and thus the speed at which critical decisions are made across the organization is a significant factor. The two-fold reporting nature of the matrix structure, both horizontally and vertically, enables faster flow of information and ensures the overall effectiveness of the project.

References

Hall, K. (n.d.). What is a matrix organization structure? A definition. Retrieved October 15, 2016, from http://www.global-integration.com/matrix-management/matrix-structure/matrix-organization-structure/

Rollinson, B. R. (n.d.). The Basics of Strategic Planning, Strategic Management and Strategy Execution. Retrieved October 15, 2016, from http://balancedscorecard.org/Resources/Strategic-Planning-Basics