Dear Remi,

Thank you for your response.

I pose another question - What then is the desired outcome when public sector organizations undertake strategic planning?

 For a business strategic planning is important . In fact it cascade down form leadership. However modern researchers are of the view that the way to look at these concepts should be revolutionised. What is the winning formula for enterprises. Winning formula does not mean only profits but sustainability of the enterprises in the immediate,short and long term. Strategic planning cannot aim only at the long term, it has to survive in the short term also otherwise it will die for good and not see the long run.

As mentioned above Leadership has a bearing on Strategic Planning. In my research I am proving that the leader should have  both human and spiritual values which would be translated s into the vision and mission of the enterprise which would then cascade down on Strategic Planning. these human and spiritual values will enable the Leadership to develop a successful model  by harnessing in a sustainable way the critical factors that will guarantee the success of the enterprise. Peters and Waterman (1982),Talwar (2011) already gave hints about these winning formula.

you should look at the strategic planning of companies like MS, Google and Samsung. All the three companies apparently are technology giants but if we look closely they have different core competencies. 

Whether an organization is public or private, effective strategic planning is an exercise of aligning organizational capabilities with desired outcomes.  I was once in a meeting with Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi who used a photography analogy to describe the process.  She described strategic planning as “zooming out, before zooming in.”  Strategic planning involved looking at the big picture, and making deliberate decisions about how the organization is positioned, and how it will move forward, before diving into the specific tactics of implementation planning.  Strategic planning then improves operational performance by better optimizing the use of organizational resources.

The concept of "planning" is misleading since we got planning in operational management and it is based mostly on known resources and known activities which means deterministic thinking. Strategic thinking is done for future, which does not exists except in our minds. Strategic thinking deals with incomplete information and a high level of uncertainty. Strategic thinking is used in conceiving and implementing strategies aiming at achieving some objectives in a probable future. That means strategic management which has a long term span of time (usually 4-5 years). The importance of strategic management comes from the fact that operational management cannot deal in long term with a changing business environment. If there is a good strategic management then there are well-defined strategies which during implementation generates activities to be done by the operational management. Thus, operational management is integrated into the strategic management and the company can achieve a competitive advantage in the business competition. All great companies are great because they used successfully strategic thinking and strategic management.

"If you don't where you're going, you will probably end up somewhere else." Strategic planning is the process setting of goals and objectives that match an organization's capabilities, competencies, and resources to existing and potential market opportunities. It focuses the organization's activities on specific goals and provides a way of measuring performance. An organization without a strategic plan is flying blind.

The organization would probably achieve the competitive advantage easier when they adopt strategic planning. It means the reduction in cost of production, improving the skills of the workers and upgraded the capability of the firm in terms of knowledge. Its known as the "learning organisation" and " organisational development". 

I think a strategic planning exercise is as important in the public sector as the private sector, but the challenges and outcomes are a little different. For example:

1. Building shared mental models and a shared strategic consensus is the most important task for both. However, the stakeholders may be spread over different organizations, with more complex dynamics for the public sector organization.

2. Identification of goals, and how to achieve them is important for both. The basket of assumptions, risks, constraints and options for both would be different.

3. Planning for human and capital resources, and milestones for success have to be done in both cases. The degree of impact and account-abilities may be different.

Thank you greatly to all respondents for providing insightful answers. As is evident, in the literature, there are many inconsistent and conflicting opinions regarding strategic planning...additionally, some organizations excelling in this area whilst others tend to struggle. 

You might be interested in the importance of mission statements.

We need "Gear man"  to lead the organisation. Then only the pay back can be measured.  

At present QFD model is available.  (Quality Function Deployment Matrix).

You can develop a QFD to find out the payback

You can refer my research paper on CSR in this regard.

Strategic planning  is essential for the survival and growth of the firm. The strategic planning allows firms to set direction for the future, understand the reason for existence, set goals, and develop strategies based on the analysis of both extenal and internal environemnt. The pack back from comprehensive strategic planning is the minimized risk, stable cashflows, and ability to respond to the custoner needs, competitors' strategies, and create long-term value for the shareholders. In the public sector, the pay back is minimize risk, efficient allocation of funds, lower taxes, and greater public service goods to the citizens.

Regards,

Mohammed

Just when I submit my doctoral manuscript on effective strategic planning in public organizations - this question pops up in my newsfeed!

The four "core findings" of my manuscript:

Strategic planning can contribute to strategic decision-making in public organizations, but its contribution is, at least partially, contingent on (a) the "way" in which plans are used by decision-makers (e.g. blame avoidance?), (b) the characteristics of the public organization (e.g. performance-oriented culture?), (c) the participatory nature of the planning process (e.g. involvement of external stakeholders) and (d) the psychological characteristics of planning team members (e.g. creating cognitive style?).

I have added a link for those who want to learn more!

Thesis Unravelling the Determinants of Strategic Planning Effective...

Thanks Heather!!

I have little to add to what has been said here except that (i) pace worldwide attention to strategic planning, the notion of strategic practice is surprisingly new; and (ii) Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher Bartlett have argued that purpose—not strategy—is the reason an organization exists (and so have recommended that organizations should move beyond strategy, structure, and systems to a framework built on purpose, processes, and people). A short article on strategic practice is at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266478186_From_Strategy_to_Practice.

Article From Strategy to Practice

I think this is already established fact that investment in strategic planning can yield many fold benefits for the organisations. It takes into account operational aspects too by focusing on efficient management of operations through better use of technology as well as human resources in the organisation

Organisations should be able to measure the achevement of its strategic objectives.

Strategic planning enable the firm to utilize its resources to the optimum level. 

Dear Neale J. Slack, You raised important question about the benefit of 'Comprehensive Strategic planning' and its difference from ' Purpose' of an organization.

In my understanding, purpose of the organization is  a must to be defined. Every organization should have purpose for why it is established. The question is how the purpose of an organization can be attained? Because organizations are complex systems constituting various resources, including input materials, machinery, people, money, energy, land, processes, output products and by products, and systems integrating these resources; the efficiency and effectiveness of these components separately and/or the organization as a unit is always a challenge to managers.  Even if the purpose is there, unless the decisions and actions  with in the organizations are aligned, and they are effective and efficient;  the growth, continuity and existence of the company would highly be in question. This is because there will no be tool to translate the purpose to the actions of the organizations and vise versa. there should be a forward and backward linking system between the purpose/ objectives to activities of the firm so that the loop will  enable to ensure continuous improvement by correcting variations. 

So strategy planning is a tool or system that translates the purpose of the organizations to the decisions and actions of the organization through appropriate performance measurement systems (constituting KPIs and Targets) and controls the variations to ensure organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Whereas purpose is the reason why the organization is established. Organizations could exist without strategy planning but not without purpose. It is all about efficient and effective controlling of your organizations among many benefits of strategic planning. Organizations with increased efficiency and effectiveness will be more competitive and will have better excellence as they perform best! 

It is comprehensive because the strategies will be from different perspectives to ultimately satisfy the various stakeholders' interests of the organization . This prevents the organization from liability and ensure profitability and corporate social responsibility. Thank you!

To commnicate better the goals