Obstacles to Strategic Planning
Ali Fouad Ksheish
Under the supervision of Asst. Lect. Zainab Muslim Al-Moussawi
1- Rapid environmental change: Since a strategy is a long-term plan (five years or more), it requires stable conditions surrounding it during this period. Rapid changes force the strategy to confront a new reality different from the one upon which it was built, leading to its stumbling and possibly failure.
2- Inability to invest resources to define objectives and build a strategic plan: Although the investment of resources may have full faith in the importance and necessity of strategic planning, it lacks the capabilities and capacity to develop a strategic plan and define its objectives and implementation plans. The plan is, first and foremost, an expression of the organization’s own capabilities, even if it seeks assistance from others to develop its plan, but it will not be able to implement it.
3- Resistance of some elements within the organization to change: The primary task of strategic planning is to bring about changes in the organization’s work and adopt policies, programs, and procedures for this purpose. Some elements within the organization, accustomed to existing policies and procedures, may reject new policies and cling to their current status quo.
4- The organization’s financial resources: It is well known that any strategic plan, no matter how ambitious or well-crafted, may encounter financial resources. The planner must consider these resources from the outset. The lack of funds to cover the plan’s expenses will lead to its stagnation and possibly failure.
5- Lack of clarity in responsibilities within the organization and a weak organizational structure: The lack of distribution of responsibilities and authorities across the organization’s various administrative levels, coupled with an organizational structure that does not meet the needs of strategic work, is one of the most significant obstacles to a strategic plan
