Social Issues
Johnson and Scholes (2002) p10 define strategy as “the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a changing environment and to fulfil stakeholder expectations.” A strategic plan is therefore large scale future oriented activities that allow interaction with the competitive environment in order to achieve company objectives. It follows that strategic management is the process whereby a strategy is formulated, evaluated, and continuously improved. Strategic planning flows from the definition of an organisation’s vision, mission and objectives and subsequent environmental scanning, to understand the organisation’s strategic position with respect to the macro external environment, its industry, competitors, internal resources, competencies and expectations and influence of stakeholders. (Stoner, Freeman and Gilbert, 1995) This initial process establishes a basis for strategic choice by means of a match of identified strengths to opportunities. The translation of strategic choice into action is then implemented across all levels of the organisation through programmes, resources, technologies, and performance management structures. (Johnson and Scholes, 2002 and Davis, 2005) This essay focuses on the strategic position of the organisation in the context of its environment, its strategic capability, and stakeholder expectations.
The purpose of an environmental scan is to develop a list of diverse variables from an uncertain and complex world to offer actionable responses and in so doing allow a structured framework for defensive or offensive actions. There are a variety of available analysis tools such as a PESTEL framework from a macro-environmental level, Porter’s Five Forces framework at an industry level, strategic groupings within an industry and individual market analysis. The results can then be applied in a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and...
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