Strategic Planning Cycle

Strategic planning is delineated as an organization's practice of outlining its strategy or direction to be undertaken and making decisions on apportioning its resources to carry out the strategy. Strategic planning is largely beneficial to the organization in that it outlines the short-term benefits sought after and where the company seeks to get to. The strategic planning cycle exemplified in a sequence of formal planning procedures, makes certain that managers evaluate key strategic issues being faced by the organization. This is imperative to get through the common preoccupation with operational problems in the short run. In addition, it offers a sensible structure to help managers to deal with their strategic problems in a systematic manner, and also make certain that no key problems are left unaddressed (David and David, 2016).

The strategic planning cycle involves four steps. The first phase of the strategic planning cycle encompasses initiating and formulating the plan itself. This deciphers the organizational mission and vision with regard to the general goals and objectives of the business. This institutes the aims, context, suppositions, risks, and environmental features from which all other planning will be undertaken. The main advantage of the strategic planning with respect to this phase is that it examines comprehensive approaches and objectives adequate to offer sufficient guiding principles to employees in lower positions that will set out underlying plans, ventures, and schemes. In overall, it delineates what ought to be done and what ought not to be done (National Child Welfare Resource Center, 2016).

The second phase of the strategic planning process encompasses developing the plan. For an organization to develop its strategic plan, it has to set out priorities by taking into consideration the necessities, strong suits, and resources of the organization. The benefit of this particular phase is that there are key elements that are taken into account. This includes what the organization wishes to accomplish, what it will undertake and carry out to get there and how the organization can ascertain if it is making progress to achievement. In this second phase, the organization sets the framework of its ultimate destination, the routes undertaken to get there and whether it is taking the right routes along the way (National Child Welfare Resource Center,... Evaluations between actual outcomes and plans are prized to test the quality of suppositions and the plans. This stage of the cycle encompasses communicating the strategic plan, managing the execution of the plan, supervising the actual undertaking and finally monitoring and reporting any kind of progress being made on the plan set out initially. In this phase, all the ideas that had been put into place are implemented in accordance to the precise decisions that were initially made (National Child Welfare Resource Center, 2016). In addition, in this phase, the organizational performance is monitored on a regular basis and any risks that hinder attaining organizational objectives are highlighted and pointed out. Counteractive measures are set in place in order to ascertain that the objectives being carried out are aligned with the initially set targets.
The last phase of the strategic planning cycle is the reviewing phase. This phase commences the cycle all over again, permitting the strategic plan to be incessantly updated. The main benefit of this particular phase is that it keeps the plan current and also significant to the business. The organization should undertake appraisals of its performance by collecting and evaluating information. Thereafter, it should convene the planning group to assess performance and reevaluate objectives, results, strategies and actions steps, and to make recommendations for alterations. From then on, the organization revises the plan. The revision includes putting into place the counteractive measures to remove the risks that can hinder the organization from attaining its set targets on the objectives. In particular, the magnitude to which the strategic plan is transformed and updated, it will continue to be up to date, pertinent and significant to the organization (National Child Welfare Resource Center, 2016).

Long-term Business Benefits of Strategic Planning

Strategic planning not only benefits the business in the short run, but also in the long run. One of the longstanding benefits of strategic planning for an organization encompasses spreading costs or expenses. Long-term strategic planning allows an organization to budget over a lengthier time period for new ingenuities and initiatives. Attempting to finance a new product line or unit with cash may not…