Strategic Opportunities and Constraints in Planning the Future Direction of a Company

This article discusses the strategic opportunities and constraints faced by the board and executive management when planning the future direction of a company. It highlights opportunities such as operational efficiency, expansion, market share, and profitability, as well as constraints like rigidity, dynamic environment, huge cost, and time consumption.

Management and organization

Management and organization
Executive summary
It can be said that planning has an important role in boosting the growth and success ratio of the
company. This will paper has highlighted the strategic opportunities and constraints that are
faced by the board of management and executive management at the time of planning the future
direction of the company. There are various opportunities such as operational efficiency,
expansion, market share and profitability and also the constraints like dynamic environment,
rigidity, time consumption and huge cost. All these are the aspects that are faced the board of
management and executive management at the time of making plans for the future growth and
success.
Introduction
The paper will discuss about the different strategic opportunities and constraints that are faced by
the board of management and executive management at the time of planning the future direction
of the company. It can be stated that to plan the future direction is one of the important aspect for
the management as it helps to focus on the overall growth and also it helps in minimizing the
risks. Planning helps the company to determine their values and norms in relation to the entire
operational functions of the company. So, there are various opportunities and constraints that
will be elaborated briefly.
Critical analysis and discussion
It has been analyzed that in the present era, it is necessary for the board and executive
management to focus on planning the future direction of the company as it can help in
controlling the business functions. But at the time of planning, one of the opportunities that can
be grabbed is related with setting priorities. It can be stated that setting the priorities of the
different function is one of the opportunity that lies in the hand of the management. At the time
of planning for the future direction, the management can be easily set the priorities which can
help in attaining the positive outcome. The opportunity that takes place emphasizes on setting the
priorities as it helps in maintaining the clear vision that should be considered by the management
in the future. The financial capital needs are also necessary to be balanced as it is considered as
1

Management and organization
one of the important factor that can assist in determining the success of the company (Cassidy,
2016).
 Opportunity related with increasing the operational efficiency
At the time of planning for future done by the executive management they have the opportunity
in relation to boosting the operational efficiency of the employees. The strategic plan assists the
management in giving direction in which the company should consider the realistic objectives
and goals in context to the vision and mission of the company. The strategic plan provides the
overall foundation from which the company can easily grow and evaluate the success ratio of the
company. It can also been seen that at the time of planning the managers have the opportunity to
determine the compensation of the employees and also to create the efficient boundaries for
proper decision making. When the management emphasizes on planning they consider the
roadmap to align the overall activities of the company to attain the objectives. It also helps in
guiding the management in determining the resources and budget that is required to boost
efficient relates to operations. So, it can be stated that at the time of planning the future direction
of the company, the management has the opportunity to focus on boosting the overall efficiency
of the employees by compensating them to give their best towards the future organizational goals
(Johnsen, 2015).
 Opportunity concerned with expansion
The board and executive management also have the opportunity to expand its operations in the
competitive market. It is observed that at the time of planning for the future direction, they have
the chance to enhance the operational functions that can also help in boosting the overall market
share in the market. Planning is one of the essential factor that relates with expansion as it can be
said that if effective planning or if future directions are determined then it would be easy to grab
the opportunity related with expansion. The board and executive management can easily focus
towards maintaining the resources that can be done through effective planning. This is one of the
best strategies that can help the companies in the overall process of expansion. So, it is also one
of the strategic opportunities that can be faced by the board and executive management at the
time of planning for the future (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).
 Opportunity can be related with boosting the market share and profitability
2

Management and organization
It can be stated that with the help of planning for the future, the board and executive management
can also grab the opportunity of enhancing the market share and also the profitability ratio in the
competitive market. At the time of planning, the management has the opportunity in relation to
enhancing the overall market share. The company can attain the valuable insight in relation to
market trends and also focus can be given on the consumer segments such as product offering
and service offering. This is considered as an approach that can help to target and also emphasize
on strategizing the entire sales and marketing efforts into the possible outcome that can assist in
boosting the profits and also the market share. Therefore, it can be stated that the board and
executive management has the opportunity to boost the overall market share and its profitability
by emphasizing on the future planning (Lasserre, 2017).
 Future plan can make the business more durable
The business is considered as the tumultuous concept in which it can be seen that business can be
booming in the one year and in the next year the debt can be faced. So, board and executive
management focuses on planning the future direction of the company. With the constant changes
in the present business world, the companies lack the strong foundation and also focus on riding
the next wave. The strategic plan for the future can help board and executive management to
look forward to align the staff in relation to the daily functions that are existing one (Sharma,
Chua & Chrisman, 2015).
The Future direction through strategic planning can create the opportunity to manage the
strategic and operating plans and also to track the performance of the stakeholders. So, it can be
stated that it is the essential factor that assist in maintaining the business model more durable.
Future directions can be determined if there is proper planning, so it can be stated that this can
assist in accomplishing the future set goals and objectives of the company in the highly
competitive market (Lee, 2016).
Constraints faced by that are faced by board and executive management when
planning the future direction of the company
 RIGIDITY
3

Management and organization
It has been examined that rigidity is one of the constraint or limitation that is faced by the board
and executive management at the time of making plans for the future. The quality of flexibility
is considered as inherent in planning but the management can focus on the small changes. When
the future plans are made the board and executive management are not able to make the future
plans which sometimes also affect the overall growth. It is sometimes not easy to introduce the
change in relation to different situations so there are many cases when the chance has been lost
by the company in relation of earning profits. For the limited flexibility in terms of planning the
responsibility is of both external and internal factors. The internal flexibility is considered by
board and executive management in which there are various policies and rules that are
determined but the management can only implement some changes in relation to the policies.
There are various limitations that are faced by the company at the time of change and it is mainly
related with time (Lichfield, Kettle & Whitbread, 2016). So, it can be stated that rigidity and
change in the rules and procedures is some type of limitations which are important to be
considered by board and executive management.
 Constraints in the dynamic environment
The board and executive management faces the issue in relation to the future happenings. It is
analyzed that the future is uncertain and dynamic so if the management emphasizes on the long
term planning then it can be less effective. This is one of the major issues which are faced by the
management as it is stated that planning does not take place in the dynamic environment. One of
the best examples can be of the company thought that government is emphasizing on the
allowing the overall export of the specific product and with the hope they focused on
manufacturing the product. But on the other hand the government did not allow the export of the
overall products. So, in this way it can be determined that the wrong anticipation has proved the
overall planning wrong. It has also impacted the overall profit margin ratio of the company in the
highly competitive business world (Ansoff, Kipley, Lewis, Helm-Stevens & Ansoff, 2018).
 Huge cost in planning
It is also one of the constraints that are faced by board and executive management. It is analyzed
that for planning the small process the management has to consider the lengthy process. The
entire process of planning is known as meaningful when the huge cost is invested in investing the
4

Management and organization
different factors. In the overall process, it can also be analyzed that the managers stay busy in
gathering the information and evaluating it. In this way, it can be stated that when there are many
people involved in the same activity, the company faces thee high cost (Yigitcanlar & Teriman,
2015).
So, when the board and executive management focuses on future planning then they have to
ensure the finance in the workplace as it can help in managing the overall activities of the
company. The huge cost incurs simply states that there is high requirement of funds so it is
important for the company to maintain its finance so that it would be easy to attain the positive
outcome in relation to the operational functions of the company. Requirement of the huge cost
can be known as one of the limitation for the board and executive management (Bryson, 2018).
 Time consuming process
It can also be considered as the constraint for the board and executive management as planning is
one of the time consuming process that requires huge time. So, it creates difficulty for the
management sometimes as it requires huge time in relation to evaluate the information and also
time is required to analyze the different aspects that are important to be considered in the future.
The process of planning is known as the blessing that can help in definite situation but it is also
known as the long process that takes place due to the high emergencies. The sudden emergencies
that took place can be concerned with the issue and if there is no planning then it can affect the
working pattern of the employees in the workplace. There are many cases, where the managers
decide to take the decision but the situation can be worsen as the management can sometimes
slip the chance of earning the profits. So, when the board and executive management decides to
focus on planning the future then one of the constraints is related with the time consumption that
takes place at the time of planning the activities (Morden, 2016).
 Constraint related to success
It can be seen that the planning done by board and executive management can also does not
guarantee success, so it is important for the management to focus on all the factors before
conducting the process of planning. To accomplish the set goals and to maintain the future
planning, it is necessary to focus on different aspects that can affect planning (Nankervis, Baird,
Coffey & Shields, 2016).
5

Management and organization
Conclusion
So, it can be concluded that there are strategic opportunities and constraints that are faced by
board and executive management when planning the future direction of the company. The
opportunities that are faced relates to operational efficiency, expansion, market share and
profitability. There are also various constraints that are faced by the board and executive
management such as Constraints in the dynamic environment, rigidity, time consumption and
huge cost. These all factors should be considered by the management before focusing on making
the plan for the future. If these factors are considered than only goals and objectives are attained
in the competitive market.
6

Management and organization
References
Ansoff, H. I., Kipley, D., Lewis, A. O., Helm-Stevens, R., & Ansoff, R. (2018). Implanting
strategic management. Springer.
Bryson, J. M. (2018). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to
strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. John Wiley & Sons.
Cassidy, A. (2016). A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. Auerbach
Publications.
Johnsen, Å. (2015). Strategic management thinking and practice in the public sector: A strategic
planning for all seasons?. Financial Accountability & Management, 31(3), 243-268.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Lasserre, P. (2017). Global strategic management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Lee, C. (2016). Models in planning: an introduction to the use of quantitative models in
planning. Elsevier.
Lichfield, N., Kettle, P., & Whitbread, M. (2016). Evaluation in the Planning Process: The
Urban and Regional Planning Series (Vol. 10). Elsevier.
Morden, T. (2016). Principles of strategic management. Routledge.
Nankervis, A. R., Baird, M., Coffey, J., & Shields, J. (2016). Human resource management:
strategy and practice. Cengage AU.
Sharma, P., Chua, J. H., & Chrisman, J. J. (2015). Succession Planning. Wiley Encyclopedia of
Management, 1-4.
7

Management and organization
Yigitcanlar, T., & Teriman, S. (2015). Rethinking sustainable urban development: towards an
integrated planning and development process. International Journal of Environmental
Science and Technology, 12(1), 341-352.
8