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Formal Strategic Planning vs. Emergent Strategy Introduction

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Submitted By sunshinyy6
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“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do

something about it now.”

- Alan Lakein

“Strategy is the long-term direction of an organisation”

- Johnson, G., et al (2008)

“Strategy is a pattern in a stream of decisions”

- Mintzberg, H., (2007)

Strategy is a term frequently used by businesses and these are just a few definitions for

it. A more extensive one by Chandler (1963) is that strategy is ‘the determination of the

long-run goals and objectives of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action and

the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals.’ Strategic planning

has been used in the general business community since the mid-twentieth century. In

the 1960s and 1970s top firms such as General Electric applied strategic planning,

promoting the qualities of providing a framework beyond the 12-month period and a

systematic approach to managing business units (Webster, Reif and Bracker 1989).

Today’s companies have to deal with dynamic and uncertain environments. For

businesses to be successful, it is crucial to set out a game plan to continually strengthen

the performance of their organisation. Traditional strategic planning has been an

essential and repeatedly used management tool for decades; however, questions about

its relevancy and effectiveness in that role have persisted.

This essay critically examines the debate that formal strategic planning (FSP) is no

longer an appropriate organisational process for companies that make strategic

decisions in highly uncertain and dynamic environments.

This paper has been divided into six parts. The first part begins by lying out the nature

of formal strategic planning (FSP) and its key characteristics. Subsequently, FSP is

evaluated through advantages and disadvantages. The third

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