VISIONING AND STRATEGIZING EXERCISES

Prof. Ben Kiregyera

NSDS Workshop,

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

11 August 2005

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COVERAGE

I. Generic strategic management model

II. SWOT Analysis

III. Visioning exercise

IV. Strategizing exercise

V. Example of strategic objectives/goals

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I. GENERIC STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT MODEL

Visioning

exercise

Perform

External

Audit

PerformInternalAudit

Develop Strategic

Objectives

Monitor,

Control and

Evaluate

Strategy Formulation Strategy Implementation Evaluation

Performance Feedback loops

Implement & execute strategies

Develop & select

strategies

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Strengths and weaknesses (Internal )

controllable activities within an organization which are performed especially well or poorly need to be identified and evaluated in functional areas strategy - to build on organization’s strengths and mitigate or eliminate weaknesses

Opportunities and threats (External )

economic, social, environmental, political, legal, governmental, technological trends and events that could benefit or harm the organization largely beyond the control of a single organization strategy - take advantage of opportunities and avoid or reduce impact of threats

II. STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS (SWOT) ANALYSIS

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Internal assessment/audit

• organization’s strengths which cannot be easily matched

called “distinctive competencies”• strategies should build on these competencies• assessment/audit process involves

gathering, assimilating and evaluating

information about organization’s operations determining and prioritizing important strengths

and weaknesses determining between 10 –20 most important

strengths and weaknesses• should involve managers and staff in assessment/audit• excellent vehicle or forum for improving communication

in organization

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External assessment/audit – environmental scanning

• identifies and evaluates trends and events beyond control of organization

• develops a finite list of opportunities that could benefit

organization and threats that should be avoided

• process should involve as many managers and staff

as possible

• gather, assimilate and evaluate information

List in order of priorities critical success factors

Strategy formulation involves aligning key external and internal factors

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Defined

Process that seeks to create a compelling and pen picture of a desirable future state that often represents quantum changes from the present

Vision answers the question: What do we want to become?

“Where there is no vision, a people perish” – Proverbs 29:18

“A corporate vision can focus, direct, motivate, unify and even excite a business into a superior performance.” – John Keane

This is possible if people engaged in process

III. VISIONING EXERCISE

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What is a mission?

• an enduring statement of purpose that distinguishes an organization from other organizations

• a declaration of an organization’s “reason for being”

• answers pivotal question: What is our business?

• also called a creed statement; it is a statement of: purpose philosophy beliefs business principles

• is foundation for priorities, strategies, plans and work

assignments

N.B: preparation of a mission statement is 1st step in

strategic management

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A good mission statement should:

• describe an organization’s purpose, customers, products or services, markets, philosophy and basic technology• be comprehensive and broad in scope • be inspiring, supplying energy, motivating and galvanizing organization • generate the impression that the organization is successful, has direction and is worthy of time, support and investment• create a commonality of interest that lifts workers into a new world of opportunity and challenge• create an “emotional bond” and “sense of mission” for managers and staff of the organization

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Examples of vision/mission statements

Office of Chief Government Statistician – Zanzibar

Vision: to become a “center of excellence” for statistical production and for promoting a culture of evidence-based policy and decision-making

Mission: to coordinate production of official statistics, provide high quality statistical data and information and promote their use in planning, decision-making, administration, governance, monitoring and evaluation

Statistics South Africa

Vision: to become a premier knowledge centre that provides leadership in statistical production and promotes a culture of empirical evidence-based policy, planning and decision- making

Mission: to collect, process, analyse and disseminate high quality official and other statistical data and information and co-ordinate the national statistics system in support of economic growth, socio-economic development, democracy and good governance

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Uganda Bureau of Statistics

Vision: to become a “centre of excellence” in statistical

production in Africa

Mission: to produce, coordinate and disseminate official statistics in order:

• support decision-making processes in all aspects of

life• inform and underpin the national and local

government planning processes

• inform public policy analysis and debate, and

• monitor the impact of government initiatives, policies

and programmes.

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Statistics Denmark

Vision: Statistics Denmark must be among the best statistical institutions, measured on the results achieved.

Mission: to produce and disseminate all trustworthy statistics on social and economic trends in society, which are an essential condition for its democracy and economy to work

Statistics Norway

Vision: An institution that counts

Mission: Through collection, processing and dissemination of statistics and analysis, Statistics Norway shall contribute to:

- strengthen and further develop democracy and a more informed public debate- ensure that economic and social policy and management are based on the best possible factual basis- improve the functioning of the market system

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an organization needs core corporate values that guide

the conduct and behaviour of staff and decision-making

inspire and galvanize individual efforts towards

improved performance

Examples of core values for Zambia CSO

user-focus quality consciousness integrity and credibility empowerment

Developing Core Values

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Gap analysis

Current situation

Desired future

situation

Evaluate the gap between current

situation and envisioned situation

Develop specific strategies &

allocate resources to close gap

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Strategy defined

is broad direction for achieving long-term objectives a declaration of intent, defining where you want to be in the long-term ensures that day-to-day decisions fit in with long-term interests of the organization

Strategizing

• setting strategic objectives or goals – overall

accomplishments to be achieved

• determining strategies – overall methods to achieve

strategic objectives or goals

IV. STRATEGIZING EXERCISE

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Strategic objectives

• are long-term objectives covering more than one year

• without long-term objectives, an organization would

drift aimlessly towards some unknown end

• no organization or individual can be successful

without clear objectives

• purpose of strategic objectives is to convert vision

and mission into specific performance outputs and

outcomes

• should be related to key functions of organization,

demonstrating broad coverage of key areas of service

• specific objectives should be few in number (3 - 8)

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Annual objectives

• represent the basis for resource allocation• are a primary mechanism for evaluating managers• are the major instrument for monitoring progress

towards achieving long-term objectives• establish organizational, divisional, section priorities

Objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable,

Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound)

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Outputs

o key outputs represent milestones of organization’s

strategic objectives

o represent achievements not the process or activities

o importance of outputs:

customer satisfaction

promotion of image of an organization

motivating staff

measurement of performance of organization

staff appraisal

control of organization's operations

monitoring and evaluation

benchmarks for others to copy

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Planning management process

Enables the organization to:o quantify long-term outcomes it wishes to achieveo establish short-term milestoneso identify mechanisms and provide resources for

achieving them o invest in performance drivers - people (e.g. skilling & re-skilling employees) - information systems and procedures, - development of new products through innovation

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Strategy analysis and choice

• Strategy analysis and choice seeks to determine

courses of action that will benefit organization

• objectives, mission, external and internal audit

information are the basis for generating and

evaluating alternative strategies

• the information helps avoid personal biases,

politics, emotions, personalities and holo error

(tendency to put too much weight on a single factor)

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• manageable set of most attractive alternatives developed• look at advantages, disadvantages, trade-offs, costs

and benefits of strategies

• produce a prioritized list of best strategies

Balancing act

Criteria for making strategic choices• consistency: should not present inconsistent goals or

policies• Consonance: need for strategies to examine sets of trends

as well as individual trends. • Strategy must represent an adaptive response to external

environment (corporate agility).

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• feasibility: refers to ability of a strategy to be

attempted within physical, human and financial

resources of the organization

• a strategy must neither overtax available resources

nor create unsolvable sub-problems

• competitive advantage: strategy must provide for

creation and/or maintenance of competitive advantage

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1. Organizational development (statistical awareness, coordination, networking,

information sharing, statistical legislation))

2. Institutional development (management systems, human resources, staff

motivation, etc)

3. Infrastructure development and equipment(office, survey infrastructure, IT infrastructure, statistical library, etc.)

V. EXAMPLE OF STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

FOR NAMIBIA NSS

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4. Data development (enhancing data quality, improving censuses and surveys, improving administrative data, new statistical products)

5. Data management (triangulation, integration, analysis, storage and

security, databases, reporting, dissemination & access)

6. Implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting (action plan, policies, performance

indicators, targets, benchmarking, reporting system)

7. Proposed budget and financing (recurrent and development budget, investment plan, sustainability) END

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