Strategy : The Key Of Success

It is important for organizations to have comprehensive goals and objectives that describe the reasons behind their existence. However, having a clear list of goals is not enough without developing methods that govern the entire business operations toward achieving established goals. These methods are identified by the term strategy. Strategy is a plan of how to utilize available resources to ensure achieving success in the future (Karloef & Loevingsson, 2005). To create an effective strategy, managers should have a clear approach on how to come up with the one that goes hand in hand with the established goals.

According to Kenny (2014), there are three steps for developing a strategy. The first step is to determine the stakeholder that will highly contribute on achieving established goals more than others. For instance, Kenny (2014) mentioned in his article, the Whole Food Market Inc. recognized that employees are the key for its success. Locke, Latham and Erez (cited in Tegarden, Sarason, Chilfers, & Hatfield, 2005) demonstrated that the involvement of employees in strategy planning will motivate the employees to work hard for achieving organization goals. The second step is to clarify what the organization is waiting from its stakeholders and decide what needs to be done to ensure receiving the desired feedback from its stakeholders. The third step is considering the expectations of the stakeholders. Based on Kenny's article (2014), this will be achieved by developing strategic factors that illustrate what is needed to be done to feed stakeholders appetite. Although the author has explained effective steps to create a strategy, his approach suffers from some serious limitations.

The main problem with this approach is that it fails to take into account the conflict that might arise between each stakeholder's interest and the organization interest as well. It is important to acknowledge the way to deal and balance all stakeholders' interest to ensure consistency and achieve the desired goals ("Balancing stakeholder needs," n.d).

                                                                     References

Balancing stakeholder needs. (n.d). Business case studies Web site. Retrieved from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/shell/balancing-stakeholder-needs/#axzz3U68narMO

Karlof, B., & Lovingsson, F. (2005). A to Z of management concepts and models. London, GBR: Thorogood Publishing.

Kenny, G. (2014). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/11/a-list-of-goals-is-not-a-strategy

Tegarden, L. F., Sarason, Y., Childers, J. S., & Hatfield, D. E. (2005). The engagement of employees in the strategy process and firm performance: The role of strategic goals and environment. Journal of Business Strategies, 22(2), 75-99.