Strategic Planning in the Small Business

Unit 3

HO 3-3

(continued)

In summary,

the mission statement

must do only

two things, but it must

do them well. It

must

set

forth the direction of

the business, thereby

specifying what the business

is and what it

is not;

and

it must note the tone

or culture of the business

set forth by

the owner's philosophy

of how

the business

should be run.

DEVELOPING

THE FIRM'S

STRATEGIC POSTURE

In

the preceding section,

the importance of

an identifiable mission

was stressed. The

mission,

if developed well,

gives a guideline and

general direction for

the business and an

indication of

its management philosophy.

Before

goals can be defined

more specifically or

strategies

developed to achieve

those goals, it is necessary

to determine the

firm's strategic posture.

Strategic postures

provide a general

indication of how the

business will achieve

its overall

mission

and secure a competitive

advantage. The

strategic posture is

management's overall

plan

of action for running

the business in

response to external opportunities

and threats.

It is based

on external awareness,

assessment

of internal strengths and

weaknesses, and the

set of distinctive

competencies

the business

has developed.

Often, small businesses

fail to give specific

planning attention

to strategic postures,

and instead,

emphasize short-run

goals and operational

decisions.

As such, the firm's

strategic posture

evolves

as a reflectior of past

actions. If that happens,

the strategic posture

describes what

the

firm has done rather

than prescribe what

the business will 'o.

Thus, the strategic

posture fails

to reinforce the

sense of direction generated

by the mission

statement.

The

purpose of this section

is to address the

issue of strategic postures

by describing some

of

the

more common ones

a small business

may assume and to

suggest considerations

for

determining when
each of the postures
may be most appropriate
(see Figure 4-1
below).

Figure4-1

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