Strategic Planning in Profit Oriented Organizations INTRODUCTION The conduct of strategi

Miles and Snow (1978) envisioned the development of business strategy as primarily the process of selecting a specific product/market domain. Within this context, Miles and Snow (1978) perceived organizations in the roles of (1) defenders, (2) prospectors, (3) analyzers, and (4) reactors. Defenders seek to locate and maintain a secure market niche, while prospectors attempt to capitalize on innovation, analyzers depend largely on a stable product line with carefully selected and limited introductions of new products, and reactors do not adhere to a specific strategy, preferring to react only when environmental pressures cause it to become impossible to do otherwise.

Porter's (1980) topology focused on competitive strategies. In this topology, Porter identified three strategies that organizations may employ to gain a competitive advantage. The first strategy is the maintenance of cost leadership, while the second depends on product differentiation, and the third requires an organizational focus on (1) a specific customer group, (2) a segment of a pr

. . .
e, (2) the character and structure of the firm's organization at a given point in time, and (3) the capabilities and preferences of the people within the firm at a given point in time. With such a perspective, objectives and goals would be determined subsequent to the development of strategy, as opposed to providing bases for strategy development. Certainly, McCaskey's approach better provided for incorporation of environmental dynamics into the strategic planning process. Whether it was also capable of providing coherent longterm direction to a firm was open to question when he proposed his ideas in the 1970s. Since that time, however, goalbased strategic planning, as suggested by McCaskey, has become widely recognized as an essential element of an FSP process that will lead to the attainment of performance objectives (Guerard, 1990, pp. 359367). Since that time also, the compatibility of management and strategy (the capabilities and preferences of the people within the firm at a given point in time, in McCaskey's words) has also been widely accepted as a requisite for an FSP process that will lead to the attainment of performance objectives (Thomas, Litschert, and Ramaswamy, 1991, pp. 509522). Both goalbased strategic
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Miles Snow, , miles snow, snow 1978, miles snow 1978, porter 1980, ANOVA Statistical, defined miles snow, competitive strategies, defined miles, Charles Snow, Michael Porter, organizations defined miles, competitive strategies defined, business strategy, development strategy, topology porter, product line, organizations defined, strategies defined porter,
Approximate Word count = 4329
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)