FREE ESSAY ON STRATEGIC PLANNING

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic Planning: A Dynamic Duty
Tiqila Bryson-Finney
Organization Theory And Design
August 7, 2000
Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are household names. Together they control soft drink market.
Their success can be attributed to their overall strategy to produce and promote their
products. They both decided to build global brands to bottlers throughout the world. And
a portion of the proceeds goes toward advertising to build and maintain brand awareness.
The bottlers are responsible for producing and distributing to vending machines,
supermarkets, restaurants, and other retail outlets. However, the advertising is left up
to Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In addition, the bottlers must sign an agreement that prohibits
them from distributing competing cola brands. Their strategy is simple, yet dynamic. It
forces bottlers to enter into exclusive agreements, which creates a high barrier to entry
into the industry. Any potential competitor must create their distribution network rather
than use the existing one. And the large amounts of money spent on advertising helps to
develop a global brand name and differentiate their products. Furthermore, brand loyalty
allows both companies to charge high prices. Accordingly, managers must study the way
other organizations behave and identify their strategies. In an uncertain or unstable
competitive environment, managers must hold fast in thorough planning to find a strategy
that allows them to compete effectively. Strategic planning involves three major steps:
determining an organization's mission and major goals, choosing strategies to realize the
mission and goals, and implementation of the strategies. 
Determining the organization's mission and goals is the first step of the planning
process. To define the mission managers must ask themselves "Who are our customers, are
their needs being satisfied, and how are we satisfying them?" These questions allow the
manager to identify the needs for the present and future. They also help the managers to
plan and establish appropriate goals and disregard inappropriate goals. Developing goals
give an organization a sense of direction. Coca-Cola's mission to maximize shareowner
value over time is backed by six key beliefs: 1) Consumer demand drives everything we do.
2) Brand Coca-Cola is the core of our business. 3) We will serve customers a broad
selection of the nonalcoholic ready to drink beverages they want to drink throughout the
day. 4) We will be the best marketers in the world. 5) We will think and act locally. 6)
We will lead as a model corporate citizen (Cola, 2000). These objectives are their
strategy to increase sales to improve profit. Their goals are ambitious and require that
managers continually improve performance capabilities. Once the mission and goals are
agreed upon and formally stated in a corporate plan, the next step is to formulate a
strategy.
Strategy formulation involves managers analyzing an organization's current situation and
then developing strategies to accomplish its mission and achieve its goals. It begins
with analyzing the factors within the organization and outside, in the environment, that
may affect its ability to meet its goals now and in the future. SWOT analysis is a
technique used by managers to analyze these factors. Its planning exercise identifies
organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Based on SWOT analysis
managers are capable of implementing the best strategies to achieve its organization's
mission and goals. It is assumed Coca-Cola has a well-developed strategy, brand name
reputation, good marketing skills and differentiation advantage as strengths. One of
their opportunities was expanding into foreign markets. One of their weaknesses would be
their recent conflict and politics. And a potential threat would be an increase in
industry rivalry (Pepsi). With the SWOT analysis completed, and strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats identified managers can determine strategies to achieve the
organization's mission and goals. These strategies should enable the organization to
attain its goals by taking advantage of opportunities, attacking threats, building
strengths, and correcting weaknesses. 
After identifying the strategies needed to achieve an organization's mission and goals,
managers must confront the challenge of putting those strategies to action. Strategy
implementation requires managers to allocate responsibilities to appropriate individuals
or groups, draft detailed action plans that specify how a strategy is to be implemented,
establish a timetable for implementation that includes precise, measurable goals linked
to the attainment of the action plan, allocate appropriate resources to the responsible
individuals or groups, and hold individuals or groups accountable for the attainment of
goals (Contemporary, 1998). Implementation requires that the total organization be in
agreement to the full plan. It requires that the strategies be documented and
communicated. Room should be left for adjustments or corrective actions. It is also wise
to track performance and compare expectations. According to enTarga business, the
Balanced Scorecard concept should be used to study in the implementation process. It
involves analyzing the cause and effect of business processes needed to implement the
strategy. Then, organizations must build into their culture processes to facilitate
learning. Building knowledge is keen in supporting the strategy. However, all efforts
will be wasted if not carefully implemented because people are naturally resistant to
change. Coca-Cola recognizes there is a right time and place for their product;
therefore, their strategy makes room for adjustments. 
There is more than one way to enter and compete in any industry; however, gaining
efficiency, quality, innovation, and responsiveness to customers requires that a
strategic plan be in tact. It can help an organization achieve a competitive advantage by
lowering the cost of creating value, or by adding value above ad beyond that offered by
rivals. Coca-Cola strives to create value for their consumers, customers, bottlers and
the community. They believe their success depends on their ability to satisfy their
beverage consumption demands and their ability to add value for their customers.
Nevertheless, attaining efficiency, quality, innovation, and responsiveness to customers
requires a strategic plan.
Bibliography
"Contemporary Management," The Manager as a planner and s strategist. 196-222 McGraw-Hill
1998
"entarga Business Planning"
Strategic Planning for the business of the future
Webmaster 2000 (10-7-99)
www.thecocacolacompany.com "Visit the World of Coca Cola"
2000