How Strategic Insight Can Help Organizations Survive

By Paulette Short


Each and every organization needs to make provision for the many changes that affect the way in which they operate. Without provisions for adaptation to change no organization can hope to survive in the long term. New innovations and changes in the environment force businesses to adapt. Strategic insight can only be developed by studying trends and by foreseeing likely changes. In fact, the pace of change is so hectic that change management has become a discipline of great importance in the corporate environment.

Most large businesses employ specialists that focus upon the study of environmental change. These environments include political, social, technological and financial trends, amongst others. Changes in those environments affect the way that business is conducted, the products and services demanded by consumers and the way in which business is regulated. It is therefore very important to develop operating strategies that will make provision for such changes.

It is not always possible to foresee changes. Yet it is important to remain focused upon trends and new ideas. Businesses need to have strategies on how exactly they plan to deal with change. It is especially important to evaluate the impact change will have on the products offered, the business model employed and the way in which the business is situated to serve its customer base.

It would be of no value to an organization to study change without making plans to take advantage of those changes. That is why it is so important to analyze anticipated changes in terms of the impact it will have on the business. The environments that are crucial include the financial, political, technological and social environments. Plans need to be devised to take advantage of changes in those arenas.

The one area in which larger businesses fail is to honestly identify their own strengths and weaknesses. It is often deemed unseemly to admit to weaknesses but unless they are listed and acknowledged it is impossible to do something about the matter. Naturally, such deliberations need to be confidential in order to prevent competitors to take advantage of weaknesses admitted and documented.

Long term projections are all good and well, but they are useless unless they are translated into detailed action plans. In most cases a top down approach is followed. This means that broad aims are communicated to business units and that those business units then translate them into specific plans. The plans are then translated into very specific objectives by small teams.

Change demands change and the only way in which any business can hope to thrive is to embrace changes and to use them to the best possible advantage. However, this requires a long term strategy that takes note of trends and tendencies. Without such a strategy it would be virtually impossible to plan for taking advantage of new developments.

Strategic insight is extraordinary difficult to obtain. It requires the skills of many professionals that are experts in the various fields that have an impact upon the way business is done. It is an expensive exercise, but vital. Without operating strategies businesses simply will not survive.




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