Introduction
Organizations’ short-term and long-term sustainability relies on strategic planning to ensure that operations management meets the organizational set standards and policies. In this context, effective strategic planning overlooks several factors. One of the factors is a clear definition of the organization’s visions which is an essential aspect of forecasting. Having a clear vision, the organization requires a clear illustration of its mission to ensure that the workforce meets the set standards of the organization. After a clear description of the organization’s vision and mission statement, the next point is setting objectives to guide the organizational activities. It requires the organization to develop a concise strategy based on research results on the market dynamics. Additionally, this step involves an outline of the approaches that will enable the organization to realize its goals and objectives. From this perspective, this discussion illustrates strategic planning and the potential gaps prevalent during execution.
The Benefits of Strategic Planning in Organizations
Strategic planning determines the success of any organization since it entails an illustration of organizational goals and objectives together with the approaches that will ensure the organization’s ability to meet these standards (Sood, 2023). In this perspective, one of the benefits of strategic planning is helping set goals and objectives to align with the organization’s vision and mission. Although setting goals and objectives in organizations majorly happens in executive departments, involving the entire workforce in the procedure necessitates teamwork. In this context, strategic planning requires professional managerial practices to involve team members in making meaningful decisions. On the contrary, strategic planning entails identifying the necessary resources to run an organization. In this context, the benefit of strategic planning concerning resource management is that it ensures the availability of resources. Additionally, it projects efficient ways of utilizing and managing available resources, minimizing wastage.
Another benefit of strategic planning in organizations is analyzing the concurrent environment, which is a significant factor in realizing organizational goals and objectives. In this perspective, the environment includes internal and external factors affecting operational activities inside and outside the organization (Zaki, 2023). Arguably, strategic planning is essential for organizations to make informed decisions. On the contrary, strategic planning benefits an organization by overlooking the interrelationships between organizational members. It helps create rules and regulations that proffer alignment between team members, ensuring they work toward realizing the set goals and objectives. Another benefit of strategic planning in organizations is providing statistical data on operational activities. From this perspective, it enables the organization to evaluate performance measures, hence regularly planning the approaches that will facilitate the organization’s sustainability.
The Importance of Identifying Potential Gaps
Common potential gaps in strategic planning include policy, knowledge, delivery, customer, and communication (Al Armoti et al., 2023). A policy gap results from the analytical measures on the effectiveness of current organizational policies compared to newly formed policies. It determines the corporate social responsibility of organizations, thereby affecting the internal and external environment of the organization. A knowledge gap is prevalent when comparing what the employees of an organization know and what the organization wants them to know. A delivery gap is eminent when human resource management policies in organizational settings need to align with employees’ expectations regarding their freedom and rights.
The delivery gap is also prevalent when employees need quality training and induction, affecting customer service quality. A customer gap is prevalent where there is a difference between customer expectations and the actual quality during the delivery of services. A communication gap is eminent where the recipient of information needs to understand the point of view of the speaker together with their intent.
Identifying potential gaps in strategic planning provides useful information regarding the performance measure. From this perspective, it enables organizations to assess statistical data regarding an organization’s operations. By identifying potential gaps, organizations can develop new approaches that will eliminate the negative aspects resulting from misinformed decisions (Al Armoti et al., 2023). The process overlooks different factors such as the availability of resources, the efficiency of processes, required knowledge and skills, and equal focus on all aspects of the organization. In this perspective, potential gaps in organizations’ strategic planning act as a mirror that reflects on the performance measure.
Conclusion
As a result of globalization, large organizations face stiff competition from rival organizations in their quest for market share. In this perspective, the analogy behind strategic planning continuously transforms to suit the market requirements. Successful organizations focus on strategic planning by forecasting the organization’s short-term and long-term sustainability terms. Additionally, strategic standardization entails how organizational leaders leverage specific standards to sustain their competitive advantage. In this context, organizations require strategic planning to ensure they meet their set goals and objectives, gaining a competitive advantage in diverse market dynamics.
References
Al Armoti, A., Al Ameri, S., & Al Hammadi, J. (2023). The impact of strategic human resource development on organizational growth. Journal of Asian Business Strategy, 13(1), 1-13.
Sood, T. (2023). An Investigation of the Relationship Between Agile Transformation and Organizational Performance (Doctoral dissertation, Drexel University).
Zaki, B. L. (2023). New development: Strategic planning in interesting times—From inter-crisis to intra-crisis responses. Public Money & Management, pp. 1–4.
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