The Concept of Strategic Planning
Ali Fouad Ksheish
Under the supervision of Asst. Lect. Zainab Muslim Al-Moussawi
Strategic planning is a qualitative shift in planning practice, linked to thought and practice through efficient administrative work coupled with a future-oriented perspective to cope with future changes and how to deal with them. This type of planning is linked to organized mental effort based on creativity and innovation. In recent years, the use of the concept of strategic planning has increased within modern administrative concepts that organizations must adopt if they want to achieve the goals for which they were established and ensure their continuity and survival. The word strategy comes from the root word “strategos,” a word with Greek roots meaning leadership.
Strategic planning is one of the most important components of the success or failure of any organization because it determines the mechanism of work, its details, its cost, the precise timing of completion, and the human and mechanical needs, among other things.
Strategic planning is based on shaping the future and analyzing available data that impacts it. The organization’s primary long-term objectives are defined, plans are drawn up, and resources are allocated to achieve these objectives within the framework of available opportunities and constraints imposed by the organization’s environment. However, the most comprehensive definition is provided by the American Federal Reserve in 1997, which defined strategic planning as “a systematic, ongoing process by which organizational leaders make decisions related to the organization’s future and development, as well as the actions and processes required to achieve that desired future, and how success in achieving it will be measured.” Strategic planning is also defined as defining the set of activities or actions that the organization is expected to perform, while simultaneously taking into account the set of external opportunities and threats facing the organization. Strategic planning occupies a prominent position in the administrative process, as it clarifies the roadmap and determines the course of the administrative process. The strategy of any organization refines the organization’s policy and employs all dimensions to create a successful strategy to achieve the organization’s goals. Tourism planning can be defined as drawing an estimated future picture of tourism activity in a specific country or organization during a specific period. This requires identifying tourism resources in the country in order to determine the objectives of the tourism plan and achieve rapid and regular tourism development through preparing and implementing a coordinated program that is characterized by the comprehensiveness of the branches of tourism activity and the country’s tourist areas.
