Strategic Planning Alternatives - How To Know When to Use What

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There are five strategic planning alternatives that an organization can choose from depending on the factors that composes their firm. These five alternatives are Basic Strategy Planning, Issue or Global-based Planning, Alignment Model, Scenario Planning and Organic Planning. Check additional information about Strategic planning alternatives.

There are a lot of strategic planning alternatives that brand new and even existing organizations can use in order to formulate a strategy. Strategic planning may sound too complicated and with all honesty, it is true that it takes some time but that is only because in this process, you will take a very close look to everything, and I mean, everything that has to do with your organization, both internal and external in order to achieve your goal. That goal is profitability. That goal is customer satisfaction. That goal is to set a mark and a trend within your target industry.

Strategic planning alternatives are not exactly alternatives. They are more like "basis" types of strategic planning. This is because different companies have different compositions like leadership nature, environmental complexity, approaches and the likes. The strategic planning alternatives that we are talking about are more known as "models".

When talking about strategic planning alternatives, there are usually five models that defines what a strategic planning should be like on a case-to-case basis (and sometimes by personal preference). These five models are:

1.Basic strategy planning

-This type of strategy formulation process is often used by extremely small companies that haven't done any kind of strategic planning before. This is considered as a "beginner's strategic planning method".

2.Issue or Goal-based planning

-Organizations that have used the Basic Strategy Planning before often evolve into using an Issue or Global-based planning. In this model, the organization may start using different kinds of analysis, such as the SWOT analysis to determine internal and external conditions.

3.Alignment model

-This is another type of the five strategic planning alternatives that can be said as the "next level planning method" for organizations. Usually, this model is used by companies that want to fine tune their plans and figure out why some of them are not working as planned.

4.Scenario planning

-In identifying strategic issues and goals, this is perhaps the most useful model. Usually, this is integrated among with other models in order to create a holistic method of strategic planning.

5.Organic planning

-This is called organic planning for a reason. In this model, the organization focuses more on learning rather than methods. Among all the strategic planning alternatives, this is considered as the type that brings more focus to common values and continued shared reflection process.

Some people choose to manage from the guts. That is what they call an "intuitive-based" planning, and yes, it is considered as one of the strategic planning alternatives. But then again, it usually creates inconsistency, something that a precise and thought-through strategic planning brings one of its focuses on in the first place. With inconsistency, panic and hysteria arises which leads into bad decision-making. And with bad decision-making, the actions will either be rushed or just plain horrible and it will ultimately lead to downfall of the organization.

No, this is not a statement just to down an intuition based planning. In fact, some organizations manage to get through using this, but there is a reason why strategic planning was developed. There is also a reason why experts recommend it. Each and every company can still use an intuition based planning, but it will be wise to integrate other strategic planning alternatives into it and just let it co-exist and interlock. By using a variety of strategic planning alternatives, the concept of a stand-alone project planning will be erased and the support of facts will create an unbiased and realistic strategy.

If you are interested in Strategic planning alternatives, check this link to find out more about alternative models strategic planning. Also, you can check other articles in Strategic Planning category.

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