Strategic Planning for a Sustainable Development Centre …
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necessary maneuvers to achieve a goal. The concept of strategy, from its inception,
was associated with the military view, as the application of forces against an enemy.
After the Renaissance, strategy began to be used as the art of war, no longer just a
function of the generalate. Although, the Greeks were aware that strategy was more
than just fighting in battles.
The duty generals were responsible for properly planning their actions. Their
responsibilities also included deciding when to fight, when not to fight, and managing
the army’s relations with politicians, diplomats and citizens. Effective generals could
not only plan, but above all had to act. The concept of strategy since the time of the
Greeks had elements of decision making or action. These two elements together were
the basis of the great strategic planning (Stoner et al. 1995).
Strategic competition is nothing new. Elements of strategy have been recognized
and used since humans combined intelligence and imagination, with resources and
coordinated behavior to direct their wars. Strategic business competition is a fact,
and it can certainly have as massive an impact on the productivity of organizations
as the Industrial Revolution brought on individual productivity (Montgomery and
Porter 1998).
A strategy is the set of initiatives and indicators that companies need to formulate
to achieve their goals. Planning can be understood as a basic process that managers
use to determine the company’s strategic objectives and what it will do to achieve
them (Stoner et al. 1995; Montgomery and Porter 1998).
Mintzberg et al. (2005) add that strategic planning can be understood as a formalized process to generate and articulate results, as an integrated decision system. The
technique called “strategic planning” arose basically from the union of two concepts:
strategy and planning.
Strategic planning management requires evaluation processes that include
measurement, but do not end with it, that is, evaluation is the next step to the measurement process. To understand the importance of measuring performance and evaluating an organization, Kaplan and Norton (1996) express an example, which is briefly
presented below.
Corrêa and Hourneaux Jr. (2008) think further by describing that the belief
that what is measured is managed must be exchanged for what is measured and
used in assessments is managed. Evaluating organizational performance consists in
valuing what an organization considers important, considering its strategic objectives, informing what level of performance it is in, with the purpose of improvement
actions.
In other words, the organizational performance evaluation deals with the process
of identifying aspects considered important. It does this in an organizational context
by evaluation of these aspects, visualization of organizational performance, and as a
result is an indication of improvement actions.
203
necessary maneuvers to achieve a goal. The concept of strategy, from its inception,
was associated with the military view, as the application of forces against an enemy.
After the Renaissance, strategy began to be used as the art of war, no longer just a
function of the generalate. Although, the Greeks were aware that strategy was more
than just fighting in battles.
The duty generals were responsible for properly planning their actions. Their
responsibilities also included deciding when to fight, when not to fight, and managing
the army’s relations with politicians, diplomats and citizens. Effective generals could
not only plan, but above all had to act. The concept of strategy since the time of the
Greeks had elements of decision making or action. These two elements together were
the basis of the great strategic planning (Stoner et al. 1995).
Strategic competition is nothing new. Elements of strategy have been recognized
and used since humans combined intelligence and imagination, with resources and
coordinated behavior to direct their wars. Strategic business competition is a fact,
and it can certainly have as massive an impact on the productivity of organizations
as the Industrial Revolution brought on individual productivity (Montgomery and
Porter 1998).
A strategy is the set of initiatives and indicators that companies need to formulate
to achieve their goals. Planning can be understood as a basic process that managers
use to determine the company’s strategic objectives and what it will do to achieve
them (Stoner et al. 1995; Montgomery and Porter 1998).
Mintzberg et al. (2005) add that strategic planning can be understood as a formalized process to generate and articulate results, as an integrated decision system. The
technique called “strategic planning” arose basically from the union of two concepts:
strategy and planning.
Strategic planning management requires evaluation processes that include
measurement, but do not end with it, that is, evaluation is the next step to the measurement process. To understand the importance of measuring performance and evaluating an organization, Kaplan and Norton (1996) express an example, which is briefly
presented below.
Corrêa and Hourneaux Jr. (2008) think further by describing that the belief
that what is measured is managed must be exchanged for what is measured and
used in assessments is managed. Evaluating organizational performance consists in
valuing what an organization considers important, considering its strategic objectives, informing what level of performance it is in, with the purpose of improvement
actions.
In other words, the organizational performance evaluation deals with the process
of identifying aspects considered important. It does this in an organizational context
by evaluation of these aspects, visualization of organizational performance, and as a
result is an indication of improvement actions.