Strategic planning outlines the path between the current status of the business and the desired status. It requires the business to identify its objectives and goals, and then make the correct decisions to achieve these objectives and goals. This book provides a complete set of practical strategic planning techniques and tools. It explains how and

Easy-to-follow and understand, The Systems Thinking Approach to Strategic Planning and Management presents the first practical application of "systems thinking", a concept first introduced by Peter Senge in the Fifth Discipline as a new, better and elegantly simple A-B-C approach to strategic management, planning, and change. It provides a unique S

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.

Marketing is under immense pressure to perform: required to submit reports to management, judged by the sales department based on whether it helps sales, scrutinized by financial controlling regarding how efficiently it uses budgets, and last but not least, under constant review by customers, markets and the public. Marketing faces more dilemmas and conflicts of interest than any other part of a company. The reason for this lies in the lack of a plan for marketing planning. This book not only identifies numerous examples of this problem as experienced by businesses, it also offers ways of solving the problem. Ralf Strauss highlights a 7 phase process for marketing planning, where the potential marketing can reach is demonstrated. Useful check lists included in this book allow the readers to readily create their own ‘plans for a marketing planning’. With insights drawn from more than 150 case studies included in the book, Marketing Planning by Design covers areas such as: How to overcome existing hurdles of marketing planning and marketing strategy. How to set up a project for managing the marketing planning cycle. How to develop a really target group and content driven marketing planning, which is stepwise cascaded from a program, campaign down to a tactical level. How to make marketing accountable in terms of performance measurement. How to implement an enhanced marketing planning in the organisation. How to systematically integrate Web 2.0 into marketing planning, or how to link marketing with modern IT. This highly practical book is destined to be a must-have reference work on any marketer’s desk.

In today's complex world of business, strategic planning is indispensable to effective management. Ever since the mid-1950's, when American companies began to develop formal long-range planning systems, wise managers have understood the importance of knowing where their firm was headed and how it intended to get there. To function effectively in a modern, planned operation, every manager must have a practical understanding of how the planning process works. That's exactly what this book offers: a step-by-step guide to strategic planning. George A. Steiner, a well-known expert in the field of management, provides a concise, jargon-free handbook that avoids abstract theory and takes you straight to the how-to of planning. Whether you're designing and implementing a new plan or working with a plan that's already in operation, Strategic Planning puts the information you need at your fingertips. It takes you through every stage of the process, from idea to execution to evaluation. (And explains Fifty Common Pitfalls you'll need to know about.)You can plug your own data into the lucid charts, tables, and checklists for a valuable start on getting organized and evaluating your planning needs. And there's plenty of penetrating discussion about the questions and quandaries you're likely to meet along the way. For example: * How do you identify, evaluate, and implement strategies? * How do you design a planning system to fit the unique characteristics of you and your company? * Can an intuitive manager do formal strategic planning? * What are some ways to develop clear objectives? * What human behavior factors can endanger planning and how can managers overcome them? * How, and when, should a situation audit be made? * What do you need to know about computer models? * How can business planning lessons be applied to not-for-profit organizations? * How can managers apply lessons of planning experience to the planning of their own careers? You don't have to get an advanced degree to make strategic planning a part of your management style. All you need is the expert advice in this idea-packed handbook. (As a bonus the book includes a glossary of the terms, tools, and techniques of strategic planning.)

Case Studies in Strategic Planning shows you how to do systematic strategic planning in real-life cases, regardless of your level of expertise. The simplified version of this methodology and its analysis tools, based on fundamentals, are easily understood and universally applied to any type of business for developing strategic plans. More important

The foundation of a successful information systems strategic plan is the recognition that business direction and requirements must drive the IS strategy and computing architecture. A Practical Guide to Information Systems Strategic Planning, Second Edition outlines a systematic approach to guide you through the development of an effective IS plan t

A practical workbook and accompanying CD-ROM which take the user through logical stages in strategic thinking. The CD-ROM contains worked examples and blank templates.