Οrganizations, whether they are for-profit or not-for-profit, must surely desire two very important goals. The first goal is survival, that is to continue to exist for many years to come. It can be supposed that there would be few administrators that would knowingly and purposefully allow an organization to fall into decline, and even disappear. The second goal is prosperity, that is the future of the organization would be better than the present. It would also be supposed that with each passing year, those who manage and administrate organizations would want their efforts to result in improve facilities, programs, events, coaching and membership.
However, organizations do indeed fall into decline and disappear and in fact it is not so simple to achieve survival and prosperity. The management activity that gives the organization the best chance to achieve these goals is strategic planning.
In any situation, for an organization or an individual, the basic purpose of strategic planning is determine where you want to go and how you are going to get there. An individual, for example, might desire a particular career at some distant time in the future. They have to consider what steps they must take over the next few years to obtain the qualifications and experience needed to be successful. Organizations, like individuals, must also determine what sort of future is desirable, and then determine how this is to be achieved. Whenever an organization or an individual sets a course of action to be taken to achieve longer-term goals, they are engaging in strategic planning.
There's a lot of terminology in strategic planning, and it is often misused. However, there are two terms that are relatively simple to understand and very pertinent to the activity of strategic planning. These two terms are as follows:
- GOAL - Something that is desired to be achieved.
- STRATEGY - The basic methodology that will be used to bring about achievement of the goal.
Returning therefore to the above statement that the basic purpose of strategic planning is determine where you want to go and how you are going to get there, then:
- GOAL - Where you want to go.
- STRATEGY - How you are going to get there.
Therefore the activity of strategic planning is also about keeping in touch with the real world. It helps those who manage organizations to:
- take stock of the organization’s current situation in terms of strengths and weaknesses,
- examine the harmful forces that cause organizations to go backwards, and
- consider the opportunities that may lie ahead to improve the organization and what it offers its customers or members.