Strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. Generally, strategic planning deals, on the whole business, rather than just an isolated unit, with at least one of following three key questions: § “What do we do?” § “For whom do we do it?” § “How do we excel?” For example, the first and third questions are those that motivate an acquisition. Acquisitions are thus strategic choices. Typically, strategic choices look at 3 to 5 years, although some extend their vision to 20 years (long term). Because of the time horizon and the nature of the questions dealt, mishaps potentially occurring during the execution of a strategic plan are afflicted by significant uncertainties and may lie very remotely out of the control of management (war, geopolitical shocks, etc.). Those mishaps, in conjunction to their potential consequences are called “strateg...
