Page 80 - The Handbook for Quality Management a Complete Guide to Operational Excellence

espite the inevitability of the future, it cannot be predicted. None-
theless, long-range planning has valuable benefits, providing
Dopportunity for managers to critically question (1) whether the
effects of present trends can be extended into the future, (2) assumptions
that today’s products, services, markets, and technologies will be the
products, services, markets, and technologies of tomorrow, and (3) per-
haps most important, the usefulness of devoting their energies and
resources to the defense of yesterday (Drucker, 1974).
Traditional strategic planning starts by answering two simple ques-
tions: “What is our business?” and “What should it be?”
Strategic planning is not forecasting, which Drucker (1974) pointedly
noted: “is not a respectable human activity and not worthwhile beyond
the shortest of periods.” Strategic planning is necessary precisely because
we cannot forecast the future. It deliberately seeks to upset the probabili-
ties by innovations and organizational change.
Strategic planning is the continuous process of making present entre-
preneurial decisions systematically and with the greatest knowledge of
their futu rity, organizing systematically the efforts needed to carry out
these decisions, and measuring the results of these decisions against the
expectations through organized, systematic feedback (Drucker, 1974).

Organizational Vision

The answer to these questions leads an organization to develop value and
mission statements to explain the organization’s broad (or sometimes quite
specific) goals. The successful organization will outlive the people who are
currently its members. Thus, the mission of the successful organization
must provide vision for the long term, describing why the organization
exists. No organization exists merely to “make a profit.” Profits accrue to
organizations that produce value in excess of their costs; that is, profits are
an effect of productive existence, not a cause. Consider these examples:

1. Matsushita electric industrial company is one of the world’s largest
firms. Its stated mission is to eliminate poverty in the world by

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