“Strategic Management is defined as the set of decisions and actions that result in the formulation and implementation of plans designed to achieve a company’s objectives” (Pearce II & Robinson, 2013, p. 3). The process of Strategic Management consists of nine (9) steps. The first three (3) steps are crucial for an organization’s success: formulating company mission, conducting analysis on internal capabilities and assessment of the external environment factors influencing the company operations.
This paper will begin the strategic planning process for ABC Financial Corporation. The paper will outline the ABC Financial Corporation's research approach that will be used for the strategic plan to validate vision statement as well as the sources that will be utilized in performing an external and internal environmental analysis.
The organization’s vision statement “presents a firm’s strategic intent designed to focus the energies and resources of the company on achieving a desirable future” (Pearce II & Robinson, 2013, p. 34). The value of the mission statement “is its specification of the firm’s ultimate aims” (Pearce II & Robinson, 2013, p. 42). ABC Financial Corporation’s vision statement is “to be recognized for the unparalleled customer experience” (ABC Vision, 2013, para. 1). ABC’s mission statement reads “With our position of trust and our tradition of integrity, our shared mission is to know our customers and anticipate their needs; advocate and advise; innovate and surprise” (ABC Vision, 2013, para. 2). More important that[than?] what the mission and vision statements actually say is their alignment to chosen strategies and how they are validated.
There are many ways in which a firm can validate its mission, vision, and value statements. The first is by developing and prioritizing critical success factors (CSF) that can be identified by interviewing key