Read the passage and answer the following question.
The function of strategic planning is to position a company for long-term growth and ex-
pansion in a variety of markets by analyzing its strengths and weaknesses and examining
current and potential opportunities. Based on this information, the company develops strat-
egy for itself. That strategy then becomes the basis for supporting strategies for its various
departments.
This is where all too many strategic plans go astray at implementation. Recent business
management surveys show that most CEOs who have a strategic plan are concerned with
the potential breakdown in the implementation of the plan. Unlike 1980s corporations that
blindly followed their 5-year plans, even when they were misguided, today’s corporations
tend to second-guess.
Outsiders can help facilitate the process, but in the final analysis, if the company doesn’t
make the plan, the company won’t follow the plan. This was one of the problems with strategic
planning in the 1980s. In that era, it was an abstract, top-down process involving only a few
top corporate officers and hired guns. Number-crunching experts came into a company and
generated tome-like volumes filled with a mixture of abstruse facts and grand theories which
had little to do with the day-to-day realities of the company. Key middle managers were left
out of planning sessions, resulting in lost opportunities and ruffled feelings.
However, more hands-on strategic planning can produce startling results. A recent survey
queried more than a thousand small-to-medium sized businesses to compare companies with a
strategic plan to companies without one. The survey found that companies with strategic plans
had annual revenue growth of 6.2 percent as opposed to 3.8 percent for the other companies.
Perhaps most important, a strategic plan helps companies anticipate and survive change.
New technology and the mobility of capital mean that markets can shift faster than ever be-
fore. Some financial analysts wonder why they should bother planning two years ahead when
market dynamics might be transformed by next quarter. The fact is that it’s the very pace of
change that makes planning so crucial. Now, more than ever, companies have to stay alert
to the marketplace. In an environment of continual and rapid change, long range planning
expands options and organizational flexibility.