Featuring an excerpt from one of my latest contributions that will be published in my latest edited textbook, “Strategic Corporate Communication in the Digital Age”
The Strategic Management Processes
| Strategic Planning Stage | Targets | Narrative | Key questions |
| 1. Mission, vision and values | Identify the main purpose and goals of the organization. | The goals are overarching principles which guide marketers in their decision making. Businesses can plan ahead for their future (if they generate goals). | Why does the organization exist? What are its overall goals and objectives? What kind of product or service does it provide? Who are its primary customers and market? Where is the geographical region of operation? |
| 2. Strategic objectives | Define the organization’s financial and non-financial objectives (including its strategic targets). Establish the economic model that will be used throughout the strategic management process. | Objectives are the specific steps which are required to achieve goals. The objectives ought to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and may have an associated timeline. Objectives can be motivating to both management and employees (when they meet their employers’ objectives). | Where is the organization going? How can the organization’s strategies contribute toward achieving its goals? What are the organization’s short-term, medium-term and long-term objectives? |
| 3. Strategic analysis | Identify the organization’s internal strengths and external opportunities that can create long term value. Identify the competences, resources and capabilities that can impact and modify organizational strategies. | Once an organization has decided ‘where it wants to be’, the next step is to identify the possible courses of action or strategies that might enable the organisation to get there. The organisation must carry out an information gathering exercise to ensure that it has a full understanding of where it is now. This strategic analysis involves looking inwards and outwards. | What are the strengths and weaknesses within the organization? What are the opportunities and threats from the external environment? How are the political, economic, social, technological, ethical and legal issues affecting the organization? |
| 4. Strategy formulation | Evaluate strategies. Choose alternative courses of action. Implement the long-term plan. | Having carried out a strategic analysis, alternative strategies can be identified. The strategies must then be evaluated in terms of suitability, feasibility and acceptability. | Which strategies have the greatest potential to achieve the organization’s objectives? Should the organization pursue cost leadership / differentiation leadership / cost focus / differentiation focus strategies? |
| 5. Measuring the effectiveness of the strategic plan | Measure actual results and compare with the plan | Actual results are recorded and analyzed. The information about actual and planned results is fed back to the management and is often in the form of reports. | How can the organization respond to the divergences from the plan? What has gone well? What has gone wrong? What corrective action should be taken? |
References
Camilleri, M.A. (2018). Travel Marketing, Tourism Economics and the Airline Product: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. ISBN 978-3-319-49849 2 http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319498485
Oliveira, C., Martins, A., Camilleri, M.A. & Jayantilal, S. (2021). Using the Balanced Scorecard for strategic communication and performance management. In Camilleri, M.A. (Ed.) Strategic Corporate Communication in the Digital Age, Emerald, Bingley, UK. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344883011_Using_the_Balanced_Scorecard_for_strategic_communication_and_performance_management (Free downloadable pre-publication version)
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