Strategic Planning: The Five Steps of the Process

Introduction 

Centralized business models by function tend to prove much endurance, durability, and stability over long periods of time. This follows from the understanding that business evolution is usually fairly incremental and steady. The modern business corporations are now in the wake of unlocking corporate value through matching strategies to the structures of that organization. Huge economies of scale have been witnessed in corporations that have centralized key functions such as finance, sales, and operations. HR services which are only defined by function, product or geography can prove costly, difficult to maintain given standards as well as frustration of business units due to intensive competition. This necessitates the implementation of a corporate strategic system in a balanced scorecard considering all the diversified operating realities of each business unit. The articulation of the company’s theory of synergy in a manner that aligns the corporate strategy with the business units defines the first pre-requisite towards achieving the desired change in human resourcing (Soares, et.al, 2016) . This paper evaluates the proposition of a centralized model of delivering HR services in order to escape the steep side of embedded HR services. 

Review of the Five Steps of Strategic Planning 

The necessity of a good strategic plan is to identify and strive to achieve the organizational objectives by mapping out the key steps towards the desired success. Every step n a strategic process builds off the succeeding step. This must commence in a passionate definition of a clear idea of what the organization sets to do. In this particular case, we map the five key steps which are instrumental in evaluating the desired proposition. 

The five-step process adopted in this discussion involves first, Development of a clear vision statement that carries a mental image of what the company hopes to achieve. This determines the pathway of arriving at the desired point. It is the strategic position of the company by giving the whole workforce a shared goal. This is congruently achieved by getting the right stakeholders and identifying all key strategic issues by pulling the appropriate customer insights, collecting necessary market data. Where necessary, it’s also important to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the organization as well as external opportunities in order to obtain a uni-directional move. Secondly, the definition of a clear mission statement in order to prioritize the objectives of the business is important ( Aileron, 2015) . The mission statement carries the primary objective as to why the business exists and offers a certain trajectory towards achieving the vision. In order to d so, its also key to incorporate all key stakeholders and evaluate all similar interests and refine a statement that reflects the organization in brief. The third step is the performance of a gap analysis . This is done in order to identify the gaps which are already in existence between the current state and what is aimed to be achieved as per the vision. A gap analysis is arrived by simply looking at where the organization is positioned currently and where it still hopes to be. This also undertakes a step of researching data outside the organization and at the same time evaluating data from within. Such gaps could be identified as market share, customer satisfaction, quality service or products, public relations, internal systems, and financials (Grünig & Kühn, 2010) . The current organizational status could be a profit margin of 1% or 12% market share etc. Identify the gap triggers taking necessary actions towards positioning the company on the right track of the competition. 

The next step is to Execute and manage the plan. With the vision, mission and gaps identified, this means that the next thing is to execute and implement issues of concern. It was now important to document SMART goals achievable over a defined period of time. The goals must be implemented through a well-structured performance management process. The goals are taken down t the employee level in order to identify who will get something done. The final step is the reviewing and monitoring of progress . The goals should be monitored on a quarterly basis by asking the responsible personnel to present a status update. The plan should be reviewed annually in order to update it to match the prevailing market conditions and changes impose. 

A strategic planning process is a vital tool that offers measurable objectives aiding in decision making. This plan constrains a company from aimlessly conducting tasks with no priorities for an actual purpose. The steps also constrain the whole workforce from error and confusion about the company’s position. Strategic analysis, formulation, implementation, and monitoring require much patience in order to go over every challenging undertaking. 

Development of a Vision and Mission Statement for the Project 

The vision statement describes the aspired future position of the company in a way of achieving the company mission which also gives a broad perspective of where the world or the community should bee due to the organizational services (Reider, n.d) . Considering the corporate culture, commitment, measurability of the company objectives and support from all stakeholders, the vision statement is: “Aconex will be the premier professional software provider of the metropolitan area offering unprecedented customer solutions that exceed the competition”. 

On the other hand, the mission statement is an action-oriented declaration of purpose statement on how the company should serve its audience. It should clarify the position of a company at any defined period of time by acting as the road map to the broad vision. Considering the ‘who’, ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of the company, the mission statement is: 

“ Offering our customers the best services and IT services with guaranteed longevity. "

The Project Charter 

A project charter refers to a formalized way of describing the entirety of a project in a typically short document. This includes the objectives, the fashioned way of executing them as well as defining the stakeholders. It is a crucial document that is used throughout the lifecycle of a project. The charter should reasonably document the reasons for proceeding with the project, the objectives, the constraints, key stakeholders, identified risks, benefits of the project, and a general overview of the budget ( Creating the Project Charter, 2018) . 

Among the key elements, the charter should contain a project purpose which states the business need which the project should seek to address which gives clarity and a uni-direction regarding the decisions to be made. This explains the ‘why’ a project is being executed. Secondly, the assumptions and constraints of the project should be stated with a lot of clarity as well as a summary budget which is created in the context of the stated constraints. All constraints pertaining the budgetary planning 

In the realization of the charter, the objectives and goals are pointed out through projecting the vision and getting the general scope of the project. Secondly, the organization is defined by listing all project roles of the project team, stakeholders and clients. An implementation plan is then drawn outlining major milestones, timelines, and dependencies for the project team. Finally, a list of potential challenges is highlighted by identifying all potential risks and thinking ahead of any threats. Of necessity also is the summary milestone stated implicitly or explicitly in order to define the project further. 

Statement of Emphasis 

The Centralized Human Resource can deliver more effectively and enhance organizational performance by improving the embedded HR value propositions in compliance, decisions and service delivery. Beyond just HR, it is important to utilize talent in work and organizational design which helps to blend and align the employees to the objectives and the tasks where they will fit into. In this project then it is important to add value through ensuring compliance to set guidelines, working toward objectives, adding value by the delivery of high-quality professional services and products. The value should also be added through improving the decisions made in and outside every function. 

Strategic business partners are the most effective. They utilize talented personnel; analyze benefits and compensation for employees, offer performance management and reward employees. In addition, they align the business goals to the individualized objectives of the workforce. When this is done from a centralized unit of the company rather than a scattered group and embedded HR tends to offer several strategic business merits (Hayward, 2006) . The embedded HR generalization of the current business is not strategic due to costly undertakings and poor positioning for competition. First, there is the benefit of lower operational costs. The centralized HR model saves on resources and organizational transaction costs for the HR department in administration benefits, payroll processing, and general organization. Processing of payrolls offers an easier oversight for audit processes, error corrections and compliance with appropriate payroll regulations. Secondly, there is a high concentration of HR skills in that the centralized HR staff is quite more accessible to line managers and top management and can offer faster services (Morris, 2018). When working from one team to the next the HR personnel can easily improve the quality of services in recruiting and managing performance as well as reduction of processing time for deadline-driven services. 

Additionally, a centralized HR model offers a centralized form of knowledge. The centralized HR unit offers rapid dissemination of appropriate knowledge of a company’s needs for the department and the larger external environment. It is easy also to communicate employee job descriptions, quality candidate descriptions, quality candidates, corporate goals and functional HR resources. Also, a centralized HR unit is essential in effective and efficient optimization of business processes. The process of payroll, recruiting, and onboard performance can easily be coordinated by staff. Centralized human resources provide better organizational support for companies with one location or many locations, although decentralized human resources may make more sense for very large, global operations (Likhitkar & Verma, 2019). Therefore, the centralized business model is quite instrumental in making tangible shifts and reasonable strides in human resources. 

Conclusion 

The Centralized HR unit model is much more effective than the embedded HR functional services. By centralizing the business HR units, the business opens to reduced costs, standardized procedures and methods that aid in the reduction of office operational costs. The office cost is brought low as it does not emphasize on any specialists but is more concerned with departmental equipment and machinery. However, it is important while settling to centralize business units to cushion the synergy of the company in a well thought strategic plan, vision, mission, values, and even the project charter. Additionally, all employees must buy into driving the company in the direction of productivity and profitability by aligning every individual objective to the primary objectives of a company. 

References  

Aileron. (2015, September 20). Five Steps to a Strategic Plan. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/aileron/2011/10/25/five-steps-to-a-strategic-plan/ 

Creating the Project Charter. (2018). PMP , 56-115. doi:10.1002/9781119549192.ch2 

Grünig, R., & Kühn, R. (2010). Process of strategic planning. Process-based Strategic Planning , 45-64. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16715-7_5 

Hayward, S. (2006). Transforming HR for strategic impact at AstraZeneca: How centralized HR support improved internal customer service. Strategic HR Review , 5 (2), 16-19. doi:10.1108/14754390680000861 

Likhitkar, P., & Verma, P. (2019). HR Value Proposition Using Predictive Analytics: An Overview. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing , 165-171. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-9330-3_15 

Morris, J. (2018). 5 advantages of a diverse workplace no one is talking about. Strategic HR Review , 17 (6), 305-306. doi:10.1108/shr-11-2018-151 

REIDER, B. J. (n.d.). The Process of Designing A Mission Statement, A Vision Statement, Purpose Statements, And Leadership Job Descriptions For The First Baptist Church, Homer, New York. doi:10.2986/tren.006-1103 

Soares, L., Dziurzanski, P., & Singh, A. K. (2016). Dynamic Resource Allocation in Embedded, High-Performance and Cloud Computing. Dynamic Resource Allocation in Embedded, High-Performance and Cloud Computing , 1-178. doi:10.13052/rp-9788793519077