It provides organization with direction and long term planning. It remains constant throughout the life span of any organization and is decided upon for the period of 10 to 20 years. It is part of organization's business plan and is only changes when either the organization has met its objectives in relation to the vision or is unable to meet with the challenges and have moved away from it.
Mission
The mission describes the guiding principles that drive employees, management and partners towards meeting organization objectives and goals. It helps in developing a strategy to guide the actions of employees in order to meet organization objectives. In other words if business plan is a road map for meeting objectives and vision provides for an overall direction then mission represents the street signs to meet the objectives and goals.
Objectives
Objectives are the end result or an outcome that is achieved through comparing organization performance against certain quantitative measures. These quantitative measures help in meeting organization mission. Objectives must be specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and time bound.
Goals
Goals are basically general steps and guidelines that explain what an organization want to achieve and the goals are met by following quantitative measures and strategy mentioned in objectives.
Competencies
Competencies mean skills, knowledge and person's ability to change and learn new attitudes and skills in order to meet the demand complex and changing environment.
Mission and Competencies of Clinton Cards
Their overall vision is to meet the customer's everyday demands with the help of a mission to re energize and reinvigorate Clinton Cards as a popular and well established high street brand. The major competencies that are required in Clinton Cards are strong skills in retail management, interpersonal and people management skills, lead and motivate employees, leadership skills and ability to meet the demands of external environment through continuous learning and change management.
Issues in Strategic Planning
One of the major issues with strategic planning is to decide upon what the organization must and must not do according to the policies and principles of organization. It is necessary to define the main purpose and aim for which the organization was established so that respective policies can be applied to it in order to keep the planning process and steps can be aligned with the relevant policies to avoid any type of hurdle in the future. The second most important issue that most organizations face is in the form of relevant external laws and regulations that are applicable to organization functions in the country in which it is operating. Every country has different policies and business laws, therefore the local laws of business operations must be kept into consideration in terms of funding agencies and government before carrying out any strategic plan. The third important issue and problem that may arise in the way of strategic planning would be analysis of internal policies and guidelines must be adhered to for meeting organization strategic objectives. An internal analysis would require and in ...