The Four Phases Of Small Business Strategy Planning

Strategy is a set of complicated tactics formulated by the executives of a company directed towards the achievement of company’s goal (Salmela, 2002). It is about all the path ways that a company would follow to reach its ultimate goal. It is a company’s strategy which helps to identify what it does better than the other companies in the industries, which may be different from what it does best. For successful strategy formulation and implementation, a company should know the needs of customers and should have knowledge of its competitors. Through a good strategy a company would identify that opportunity which makes it different from the others (Thompson, 2005).

Strategy refers to the plan or action taken to achieve organizational goals. When Ellen took over Tufts-NEMC, the hospital was struggling with payroll and scale. Ellen had to focus on meeting payroll, a short-term strategy, and could not focus entirely on the longer term. She took some immediate measures to help cut cost

It is the execution of strategies and policies through programs, budgets and procedures to reach its goals. In this process plans are assigned, costs are allocated to tasks for better measurement of return on investment. The firm’s resources are used and a detailed system is given on how to perform specific jobs. This strategy turns strategies into concrete results and helps implement changes that are documented for future references. It also provides good measurements of projects with a time frame. It gives employees a clear step by step on how to perform their day-to-day tasks that will improve overall efficiency and sets the tone for quality work in all levels of management.

Strategy: an organizations long term course of action designed to deliver a unique customer experience while achieving its goals.

No one can achieve any goals without a strategic plan. When setting a goal a person has to think of ways to accomplish the goal. Having a goal without a plan is like having a class with no books. A goal is the big idea and the strategy contain the steps to the achievement of that objective. Many businesses would go bankrupt if they did not have a strategic plan to achieve profit goals. For instance, Walmart has a goal to meet their set revenue for the month, so the company has to set tactical ideas to reach that revenue goal. There is no way to set a goal and not have an operational plan to attain

First, I should set my vision and mission towards the company’s profile to set the future goal. Objectives are set to reach the destination by achieving or successfully completing all the strategies by following through an action plan.

The strategic planning process begins by reviewing the organizations mission, vision and values. Clarifying the mission, vision, and goals at the beginning strategic planning process can help align fragmented entities (2 p. 293). The mission statement identifies the organizations reason for existing and how it is unique in comparison to other organizations (A p. 294). It is a short, concise and clear statement that serves as a rallying point for the organization (4 p. 752). The mission provides clues about the types of services that can be expected from the organization (A). Failing to check new projects against the mission can cause an organization to get into trouble (A p. 294).

Not involving those responsible for execution in the planning process threatens knowledge transfer, commitment to sought-after outcomes, and the entire implementation process (Hrebiniak, 2010). In his interviews with a number of chief executive officers (CEOs), Sterling (2010) concluded that involving people directly in strategy development paid off. However, Sterling and other researchers have not expounded on the relationship that might exist between strategy formulation and implementation. To that point, more research in this field is required and needed so that the link between the two will prove this relationship exists.

Corporate Strategy has been defined by numerous authors. Grant (1995) claims corporate strategy deals with the way a corporation manages a number of different businesses. Lynch, R, in both his third and fourth edition books on corporate strategy refers to Penrose (1959) definition of corporate strategy as “the pattern of major objectives, purposes or goals and essential polices or plans for achieving those goals, stated in such a way as to define what business the company is in or to be in and the kind of company it is or to be”

Alfred Chandler(1963) defines strategy as ‘ the determination of the long-run goals and objectives of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals’. And Michael porter(1996) sees it as ‘Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value’.

There is no exact definition for Strategy because it is defined in different ways as some people think that make a plan to get success in future is a strategy while others think that future is hard to predict. Exceptionally, some Japanese companies have no strategies though these companies have a good cost and continuous improvement. The definition for strategy is to explain the direction and scope of any company for the long term to achieve advantage for the company or to fulfill the needs and expectations. Strategy is different from Operational effectiveness and they work in different manner in the companies. Michael Porter, who is a professor at Harvard Business School and a strategy expert, says that it should determine how organizational resources and skills should create advantage. Accordingly, Strategy can also be defined as an organizational change during actions in the organizations for better and advantageous results or to determine how we win and get success in the future period. It is a needful developed plan with respect to market to compete the world. Organizations should be responsible for competitive changes according to the market. It is the main goal for any Organizations. Business/IT strategy is very important to know the success rate of your business. Apart from Business Strategy, the other two main types of strategy are Corporate Strategy and Team Strategy. These strategies give competitive advantage of cost leadership, differentiation and focus. The

A strategy is said to be a plan that is made for the long term success of a product or brand. It is extremely important to have a strategy in order to figure out a direction towards which any company is able to focus all its resources efficiently and achieve desired outcomes. Formulating effective strategies is a considerably long process in itself that combines analysing several factors, situations and issues that are already present in a company and looking to improve on them alongside trying to implement various innovations and ideas to collectively create a direction towards which they can move and direct the resources available to them.

Johnson, Wittington, Scholes, Angwin and Regnér (2014, p. 3) defines strategy as ‘the long-term direction of an organisation’.

Action PlanningFirst, organizations successful at implementing strategy develop detailed action plans... chronological lists of action steps (tactics) which add the necessary detail to their strategies. And assign responsibility to a specific individual for accomplishing each of those action steps. Also, they set a due date and estimate the resources required to accomplish each of their

Strategic planning is associate structure management activity that is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, establish agreement around intended outcomes or results, strengthen operations, guarantee that employees and other stakeholders are operating toward common goals, regulate the organization's direction in response to a changing atmosphere. It is a disciplined effort that produces basic actions and decisions that form and guide what a corporation is, who it serves, what it does, and why it does it, with a spotlight on the longer term.