Management for Sustainable Organization

MBA905

Planning Process for Communities and

Organizations

Dr.
Dr. Mahmoud
Mahmoud AlZgool
AlZgool
Dean
Dean && Associate
Associate Professor
Professor
College
College of Administrative and
of Administrative and Financial
Financial Sciences
Sciences
[email protected]
[email protected]
+97333428956
+97333428956
 Topics

1 What is strategic planning

Why strategic planning is important for your

2 business

The seven steps of the strategic planning

3 process

4 Activity

Strategic planning frameworks

5
 Topics

Best practices supporting the strategic

6 planning process
 Note

All the sources of these materials are from many references

listed at the last slides.
 What is strategic planning
Strategic planning charts your business's course toward success. Using your organization’s vision,
mission statement, and values — with internal and external information — each step of the strategic
planning process helps you craft long-term objectives and attain your goals with strategic management.

The key elements of strategic planning includes a SWOT analysis, goal setting, stakeholder involvement,
plus developing actionable strategies, approaches, and tactics aligned with primary objectives.

In short, the strategic planning process bridges the gap between your organization’s current and desired
state, providing a clear and actionable framework that answers:
Where are you now?
Where do you want to be?
How will you get there?
 7 key elements of strategic planning

The following strategic planning components work together to create cohesive strategic plans for your
business goals. Let’s take a close look at each of these:

Vision: What your organization wants to achieve in the future, the long-term goal
Mission: The driving force behind why your company exists, who it serves, and how it creates value
Values: Fundamental beliefs guiding your company’s decision-making process
Goals: Measurable objectives in alignment with your business mission, vision, and values
Strategy: A long-term strategy map for achieving your objectives based on both internal and external
factors
Approach: How you execute strategy and achieve objectives using actions and initiatives
Tactics: Granular short-term actions, programs, and activities
Continued…
 Why strategic planning is important for your
business?
• Just as a chess player needs a gameplan to reach checkmate, a company needs a solid strategic plan
to achieve its goals.
• Without a strategic plan, your business will waste precious time, energy, and resources on endeavors
that won’t get your company closer to where it needs to be.
• Your ideal plan should cover all key strategic planning areas, while allowing you to stay present by
measuring success and course-correcting or redefining the strategic direction when necessary.
Ultimately, enabling your company to stay future-proof through the creation of an always-on
strategy that reflects your company's mission and vision.
• An always-on strategy involves continuous environmental scanning even after the strategic plan has
been devised, ensuring readiness to adapt in response to quick, drastic changes in the environment.

• Let’s dive deeper into the steps of the strategic planning process.
The seven steps of the strategic planning
process
 Clarify your vision, mission, and values

• The first step of the strategic planning process is understanding your organization’s core
elements: vision, mission, and values. Clarifying these will align your strategic plan with your
company’s definition of success. Once established, these are the foundation for the rest of the
strategic planning process.
• Questions to ask:
• What do we aspire to achieve in the long term?
• What is our purpose or ultimate goal?
• What do we do to fulfill our vision?
• What key activities or services do we provide?
• What are our organization's ethics?
• What qualities or behaviors do we expect from employees?
 Conduct an environmental scan

• Once everyone on the same page about vision, mission, and values, it's time to scan your internal
and external environment. This involves a long-term SWOT analysis, evaluating your
organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• Internal factors
• External factors

• Questions to ask:
• What are our organization's key strengths or competitive advantages?
• What areas or functions within our organization need improvement?
• What emerging trends or opportunities can we leverage?
• How do changes in technology, regulations, or consumer behavior impact us?
 Define Strategic Priorities

• Categories can help you rank your strategic priorities:

• Critical: Urgent tasks whose failure to complete will have severe consequences — financial
losses, reputation damage, or legal consequences
• Important: Significant tasks which support organizational achievements and require timely
completion
• Desirable: Valuable tasks not essential in the short-term, but can contribute to long-term success
and growth
• Questions to ask:
• How do these priorities align with our mission, vision, and values?
• Which tasks need to be completed quickly to ensure effective progress towards our desired
outcomes?
• What resources and capabilities do we need to pursue these priorities effectively?
 Develop Goals and Metrics
• Next, you establish goals and metrics to reflect your strategic priorities. Purpose-driven, long-term,
actionable strategic planning goals should flow down through the organization, with lower-level goals
contributing to higher-level ones.
• One approach that can help you set and measure your aligned goals is objectives and key results
(OKRs). OKRs consist of objectives, qualitative statements of what you want to achieve, and key
results, 3-5 supporting metrics that track progress toward your objective.
• OKRs ensure alignment at every level of the organization, with tracking and accountability built into
the framework to keep everyone engaged. With ambitious, intentional goals, OKRs can help you drive
the strategic plan forward.
• Questions to ask:
• What metrics can we use to track progress toward each objective?
• How can we ensure that lower-level goals and metrics support and contribute to higher-level ones?
• How will we track and measure progress towards key results?
• How will we ensure accountability?
 Derive a Strategic Plan
• The next step of the strategic planning process gets down to the nitty-gritty “how” — developing a clear,
practical strategic plan for bridging the gap between now and the future.
• To do this, you’ll need to brainstorm short- and long-term approaches to achieving the goals you’ve set,
answering a couple of key questions along the way. You must evaluate ideas based on factors like:
• Feasibility: How realistic and achievable is it?
• Impact: How conducive is it to goal attainment?
• Cost: Can we fund this approach, and is it worth the investment?
• Alignment: Does it support our mission, vision, and values?
From your approaches, you can devise a detailed action plan, which covers things like:
• Timelines: When will we take each step, and what are the deadlines?
• Milestones: What key achievements will ensure consistent progress?
• Resource requirements: What’s needed to achieve each step?
• Responsibilities: Who's accountable in each step?
• Risks and challenges: What can affect our ability to execute our plan? How will we address these?
 Write and Communicate your Strategic Plan

Writing and communicating

your strategic plan involves
everyone, ensuring each team
is on the same page. Here’s a
clear, concise structure you
can use to cover the most
important strategic planning
components:
 Continued…
• Executive summary: Highlights and priorities in your strategic overview
• Introduction: Background on your strategic plan
• Connection: How your strategic plan aligns with your organization’s mission, vision, and values
• Environmental scan: An overview of your SWOT analysis findings
• Strategic priorities and goals: Informed short and long-term organizational goals
• Strategic approach: An overview of your tactical plan
• Resource needs: How you'll deploy technology, funding, and employees
• Risk and challenges: How you’ll mitigate the unknowns if and when they arise
• Implementation plan: A step-by-step resource deployment plan for achieving your strategy
• Monitoring and evaluation: How you’ll keep your plan heading in the right direction
• Conclusion: A summary of the strategic plan and everything it entails
 Continued…
Questions to ask:
• What information or context do stakeholders need to understand the strategic plan?
• How can we emphasize the connection between the strategic plan and the overall purpose and
direction of the organization?
• What initiatives or strategies will we implement to drive progress?
• How will we mitigate or address risks?
• What are the specific steps and actions we need to take to implement the strategic plan?
• Any additional information or next steps we need to communicate?
 Implement, Monitor, and Revise Performance
Finally, it’s time to implement your strategic plan, making sure it's up to date, creating a persistent,
always-on strategy that doesn't lag behind. As you get the ball rolling, keep a close eye on your timelines,
milestones, and performance targets, and whether these align with your internal and external environment.

Internally, indicators like completions, issues, and delays provide visibility into your process. If any
bottlenecks, inefficiencies, or misalignment arises, take corrective action promptly — adjust the plan,
reallocate resources, or provide additional training to employees.
Externally, you should monitor changes such as customer preferences, competitive pressures, economic
shifts, and regulatory changes. These impact the success of your strategic action plan and may require
tweaks along the way.
Remember, implementing a strategic plan isn’t a one-time task — continual strategic evaluations are
essential for an Always-On Strategy. It involves extending beyond planning stages and contextualizing the
strategy in real-time, allowing for swift adaptations to changing circumstances to ensure your plan
remains relevant.
 Continued…

Questions to ask:
Are there any bottlenecks, inefficiencies, or misalignments we need to address?
Are we monitoring and analyzing external factors?
Are we prepared to make necessary tweaks or adaptations along the way?
Are we agile enough to promptly correct deviations from our strategic plan while maintaining an "always-
on" strategy for continual adjustments?
 Strategic planning frameworks

You can use several frameworks to guide you through the strategic planning process. Some of the most influential
ones include:
Balanced scorecard (BSC): Takes an overarching approach to strategic planning, covering financial, customer,
internal processes, and learning and growth, aligning short-term operational tasks with long-term strategic goals.

SWOT analysis: Highlights your business's internal strengths and weaknesses alongside external opportunities
and threats to enable informed decisions about your strategic direction.

OKRs: Structures goals as a set of measurable objectives and key results. They cascade down from top-level
organizational objectives to lower-level team goals, ensuring alignment across the entire organization.

Scenario planning: Involves envisioning and planning for various possible future scenarios, allowing you to
prepare for a range of potential outcomes. It's particularly useful in volatile environments rife with uncertainties.
 Continued…

Porter's five forces:

Evaluates the competitive
forces within your industry —
rivalry among existing
competitors, bargaining power
of buyers and suppliers, threat
of new entrants, and threat of
substitutes — to shape
strategies that position the
organization for success.
 Activity
1. Your Company (in 5 minutes):
1. Provide a brief case scenario of your company.
2. Students should quickly read through the scenario and identify key challenges the company faces (e.g.,
global competition, lack of innovation, sustainability issues).
2. SWOT Analysis (in 10 minutes):
1. Break students into small groups and ask each group to conduct a quick SWOT analysis for the
company.
2. Deliverable: A simplified SWOT analysis presented on a flipchart or whiteboard.
3. Strategic Objectives & Initiatives (in 10 minutes):
1. Based on the SWOT analysis, each group should identify 2-3 strategic objectives that the company
should prioritize (e.g., "Expand into new international markets," "Develop sustainable products").
2. Deliverable: A list of strategic objectives and initiatives to present to the class.
4. Presentation & Discussion (in 10 minutes):
5. Reflection (in 5 minutes): Each group to reflect on one key takeaway or challenge they faced in the
strategic planning process.
 Best practices during the strategic planning process

1. Keep the planning process flexible

2. Pull together a diverse group of stakeholders

3. Document the process

4. Make data-driven decisions

5. Align your company culture with the strategic plan

6. Leverage AI
 The strategic planning process in a nutshell

Careful strategy mapping is crucial for any organization looking to achieve its long-term goals while
staying true to its mission, vision, and values. The seven steps in the strategic planning process outlined
in this article provide a solid framework your organization can follow — from clarifying your
organization’s purpose and developing a strategic plan, to implementing, monitoring, and revising
performance. These steps will help your company meet goal measurements and create an always-on
strategy that's rooted in the present.

It’s important to remember that strategic planning is not a one-time event. To stay effective and
relevant, you must continuously monitor and adapt your strategy in response to changing
circumstances. This ongoing process of improvement keeps your organization competitive and
demonstrates your commitment to achieving your goals.
 Strategic Agility

Strategic agility is your organization's ability to quickly adapt to changes in business environment, whether
internal or external in order to mitigate issues and remain competitive in the marketplace. Companies that focus
on developing strategic agility can:
Spot changes as they are emerging
Anticipate and plan for various scenarios
Adapt execution quickly
Close the strategy-execution gap
Measure outcomes and make rapid decisions
 Strategic Agility
Why Is Strategic Agility Important?
As markets and customer expectations shift rapidly, a strategic agility framework isn't just nice to have—it's
essential. Here's why:
1. Survive and Thrive in Uncertainty
Markets shift, technologies emerge, and geopolitics can topple business models overnight. Strategic agility
helps you navigate these choppy waters.
2. Seize Opportunities Faster
When you're continuously keeping track of trends and market shifts, you're more likely to spot and capitalize
on new opportunities before your competitors do.
3. Minimize Risks
By anticipating potential challenges, you can develop contingency plans and pivot quickly when needed,
reducing the impact of market disruptions.
 Continued…
4. Foster Innovation
A culture of agility encourages experimentation and calculated risk-taking, empowering your staff to make the
right decisions and implement them when change is needed.
5. Attract and Retain Top Talent
Talent tends to gravitate toward dynamic, forward-thinking companies. Strategic agility makes you an
employer of choice.
While strategic agility is critical, it's often confused with a related concept: business agility. They’re not the
same.
 Continued…
Strategic Agility vs. Business Agility

Strategic agility: Focuses on high-level decision-making, long-term planning, strategic objectives, and
organizational direction.
Business agility: Encompasses the entire organization's ability to adapt, including operations, processes, and
culture.
How to Demonstrate and Implement Strategic Agility?
1. Create an "always-on" strategy process
2. Develop scenario planning capabilities
3. Build a data-driven decision-making culture
4. Foster cross-functional collaboration
5. Implement rapid prototyping and iteration:
Validate and then test ideas quickly
Learn from current and historical progress and adjust
 A Prime Example of Strategic Agility: Amazon
Amazon's journey from online bookstore to e-commerce giant to cloud computing leader embodies strategic
agility. They've consistently:

Anticipated market trends (e.g., cloud services).

Adapted their business model (e.g., Amazon Prime).
Executed quickly (e.g., acquiring Whole Foods).
Measured results and pivoted when necessary (e.g., Amazon Fire Phone).
 Challenges in Achieving Strategic Agility (And How to Overcome Them)
1. Resistance to change
Solution: Foster a culture that celebrates adaptation and learning
2. Siloed organizations
Solution: Implement cross-functional teams, leverage digital collaboration tools, promote transparency, offer
open communication channels
3. Short-term thinking
Solution: Align incentives and short-term team goals with long-term strategic goals. Equip staff with data to
measure progress. Provide full transparency on the organization’s target outcomes.
4. Analysis paralysis
Solution: Embrace a "fail fast, learn faster" mentality. Leverage artificial intelligence to empower staff to make
better strategic decisions faster.
5. Lack of real-time data
Solution: Invest in robust business analytics and reporting tools. Connect your business’ data to strategic
progress.
Resources and Handout
1. www.quantive.com.
2. Alibašić, H. (2022). Strategic Resilience and Sustainability Planning: Management
Strategies for Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Communities and Organizations. In
Sustainable Development Goals Series: Vol. Part F2708 (Issue February).
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91159-1
Blogs
• https://greenerideal.com/news/business/
Thank You