Strategic Management

Limitations to Strategic Programming

 

  
   

Traditional Strategic Management model
for simple and stable business environment

 

  

 
 

In the new era of rapid change, organizations are limited as to how heavily they can rely on strategic programming as the cornerstone of their overall strategic management process.

Strategic programming is applicable only in certain stable conditions, and these conditions are becoming rare.

  

 
   

Interrelated and mutually supportive limitations to strategic programming

 

  

 
 

Required Conditions

In the Strategic Programming model, plan development and implementation takes place in a straightforward linear fashion.

Strategic programming is most appropriate in organizations facing stable and/or simple conditions.

Stability: businesses that operate in a predictably ongoing ways, free from major unexpected shocks, are defined as stable.

Simplicity: using strategic programming is most appropriate in businesses that are simple enough to know what the right strategy is before the fact.

Industry maturity: in mature markets, changes are gradual and managers have years of experience to draw on.

Capital intensity: Heavy investment in capital equipment provides managers an incentive to adhere closely to their intended strategy.

Tightly coupled operations: operators in a tightly linked network must adhere precisely to prespecified plans in order to avoid mass confusion.

Powerful external control: organizations under tight control by outside forces have a built-in motivation to adhere closely to intended strategies.

  

 
 

Problems with Strategic Planning

It may be useful in bringing about incremental change within your organization, but it does not promote radical changes in strategic direction or organizational transformation.

  

Strategic Planning

12 Elements

Ask Learning SWOT Questions

  

 
 

Diminishing Viability of Old Mechanistic Organizations and Command-and-Control Approaches

Externally, global competition is forcing agile competitors to adjust to fragmenting markets that require greater flexibility in adapting to emerging needs, and mechanistic organizations tend to adapt to such changes slowly.

  

 
 

Internally, knowledge workers empowered by advances in information technology encourage organizations to get more people involved in planning and decision making so that planning becomes intertwined with doing.

  

Strategy Implementation

Impediments to Strategy Implementation