Sunday 29 September 2013

How Strategic Insight Can Help Organizations Survive

By Paulette Short


Each and every organization needs to make provision for the many changes that affect the way in which they operate. Without provisions for adaptation to change no organization can hope to survive in the long term. New innovations and changes in the environment force businesses to adapt. Strategic insight can only be developed by studying trends and by foreseeing likely changes. In fact, the pace of change is so hectic that change management has become a discipline of great importance in the corporate environment.

In this fast changing world businesses need to have policies and procedures in place that will deal with changes and that will enable the organization to take advantage of such changes. Strategies are broad plans that simply identify likely changes and that directs business units to adapt their methods and tactics. Strategies therefore focus upon macro issues rather than micro consequences of such changes.

The problem faced by most organizations is the enormous pace of change. In addition, many changes simply cannot be foreseen but it is still necessary to devise long range plans that will enable to organization to survive and to thrive. For example, regional conflict that has a decided impact upon the financial markets is almost impossible to predict. Yet, businesses must remain ready to react the very moment that change occurs.

The main aim of a long term strategy is to enable the organization to take advantage of change. This can only be achieved if all the various environments that have an impact on the business is studied, This may include the technological, financial, political and even geographic environments. Not only is it necessary to identify likely changes, but also to specify the impact that those changes will have on the organization.

One of the most difficult aspects of devising a strategy is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the organization honestly. It is necessary to determine the strengths that can be used to take advantage of environmental changes but it is equally important to identify those factors that can prevent a business to benefit from change. Such an analysis often forms the core of a long term plan.

In order to take full advantage of costly strategic planning processes, businesses need to translate their strategies into plans. It is only natural that such plans will change because of the unpredictable nature of the external environment. However, business units need to translate strategies into action plans and those plans need to be communicated to the lowest level of the organization.

Change demands change and the only way in which any business can hope to thrive is to embrace changes and to use them to the best possible advantage. However, this requires a long term strategy that takes note of trends and tendencies. Without such a strategy it would be virtually impossible to plan for taking advantage of new developments.

Strategic insight is the product of careful studies of the trends in the various environments that affect every business, individual and organization. If a trend can be predicted, plans can be made to take advantage of those changes. Unanticipated changes can easily lead to disaster because the company will not be ready to react quickly enough.




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