The Systems Thinking Approach To Strategic Planning And Management

Easy-to-follow and understand, The Systems Thinking Approach to Strategic Planning and Management presents the first practical application of "systems thinking", a concept first introduced by Peter Senge in the Fifth Discipline as a new, better and elegantly simple A-B-C approach to strategic management, planning, and change. It provides a unique S

"Successful strategic planning presents a reinvented model of strategic planning for the twenty-first century. Its objective is to help teams, departments, and busineses of all sizes and types to plan and implement strategies in an efficient, holistic, and integrated manner ... "--p. 3.

Enterprises in today's Global Information Age must keep up with rapid changes in technology while overhauling businesses, programs, and operations to meet the changing values and demands of customers and employees. This guide will aid you in applying the Systems Thinking Approach to your strategic and business planning by explaining how to develop a strategic plan, ensure successful implementation of the plan, and build and sustain high performance over the long haul.

Why are some organizations more successful than others? Is it better products? Is it a superior service model? Is it some mixture of the two? Is it merely a matter of lining up the products and services to meet the needs of the marketplace at a particular time? Or did they just get lucky? Many business leaders believe that the answer to these questions is a matter of strategy. Find the right strategy and the company is bound to be successful. Unfortunately, too many organizations fail to find that right strategy. The question is why? Do they not go on enough executive retreats? Did they hire the wrong consultants? Were their PowerPoint slides just now powerful enough? While any of these factors could be a contributor, our research shows that the real driver is strategy efforts focusing too much on singular dimensions (e.g., the competition) rather than considering the entire ecosystem. Without a full view of the complete business environment, it is impossible to make fully informed decisions. Without being fully informed, we risk making the wrong choices. The Systems Thinking Strategy addresses this issue by providing a holistic approach that incorporates multiple domains into the strategy discussion. It allows us to understand how our Capabilities, our Customers, and the Competitive Environment are all impacting our business success. It then provides an approach to making sense of those disparate data points so that we can make the right decisions to drive business success.