Reflective Journal: Strategic Enterprise Planning and Development

This reflective journal discusses the learnings and challenges encountered during the execution and evaluation of strategic business planning methods. It highlights the importance of strategic planning in achieving business goals and addressing issues such as changing market conditions and customer needs. The journal explores the advantages and disadvantages of strategic planning, including its role in providing direction and enhancing operational efficiency, while also acknowledging limitations like rigidity and potential cost. The reflection emphasizes the significance of research, knowledge, and stakeholder prioritization in effective decision-making and future career development. The student aims to apply these concepts to manage work effectively and meet customer satisfaction levels, contributing to overall business growth.

Strategic Enterprise Planning
– Reflective Journal

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The learning has helped me in providing the vast amount of knowledge regarding the execution
and the evaluation of the strategic business planning methods along with the planning of the
development procedures. I have encountered a few of the crucial issues while the execution of
the strategic planning for the development of the business practices. These include the various
types of the challenges present at different levels starting from the research plan to the
development and implementing of the maps. Moreover, I clearly understood the fact that the
strategic plan can be effectively be defined as the desired plan that typically focuses on the
evaluation of the concerned business processes for any of the firm concerned with the help of
basic strategies that helps in achieving the concerned goals and target of the business (Mitchell,
2017). The learnings from this topic have helped in providing vast knowledge regarding the
handling of various issues and the formulation of different strategies that will help in boosting
the overall growth of the concerned firm.
One of the other issues that I found while executing the procedures of strategic planning for the
business is that the business endowment, as well as the market, is changing constantly. The
concepts evaluated throughout the learnings helped in boosting my overall knowledge and
strengths. One of weakness was making effective decisions and the decisions become the little
bit difficult for the managers and the marketers to take to bring the desired profitability in their
concerned business practices (Wu, Straub, & Liang, 2015). It becomes vital for delivering the
desired strategies to reduce the issues as this will help in promoting the overall growth of the
firm throughout the concerned competitive market segments. As per (Barraket, Furneaux, Barth
& Mason, 2016) the customers are considered to be the key aspects that facilitate the growth and
profitability of any of the firm. Different customers have different requirements and needs and
thus needs to be aligned with the strategic moves of the firm as this will help in achieving the
desired goals of the firm throughout the concerned competitive market areas.
I have found one of the crucial advantage as well as disadvantages of strategic planning for
businesses. The use of this planning method is considered as to be vital because it offers the
desired sense of direction as well as outlines various measurable goals which finally brings
profits to the firm. The planning is recognized as the desired robust tool which stratifies each
way in a defined manner and makes the decisions taken by the managers a profitable one
(Brinckmann, & Kim, 2015). Few of the benefits or the advantages of strategic planning includes

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the setting up of the desired sense of direction which provides the execution and evaluation of
the work activities on the right track. Moreover, it helps in increasing the operational efficiency
(Christopher, & Ryals, 2014)). I have gathered knowledge that the use of the strategic planning
can be done to enhance the market share of the various firms operating firm along with the
profits. One of the other benefits is that it increases the durability of the entire business methods
are concerned.
It needs to be understood that besides advantages there are a few of the disadvantages too. These
include managerial perception regarding the execution of the concerned work activities. Few of
the other provides interdependence of the units, ask of proper knowledge which significantly
affects the entire business methods. I have enquired the fact that there exist a lot of research to
facilitate the overall performance of the concerned firm. One of my other weaknesses is Lack of
knowledge which includes improper training and limited knowledge regarding the products and
services of the firm (El-Masri, Orozco, Tarhini, & Tarhini, 2015). The limitations in the
execution of the business planning critically affect the entire business procedures, and thus,
proper research is considered as to be vital for getting positives outcomes from the firm. I have
understood that planning is responsible for creating rigidity and this consists of the inherent
flexibility along with the external flexibility and these contributes enhancing the overall
performances of the firm (Wolf & Floyd, 2017). As per my learnings and research carried,
planning processes reduce creativity, and it also includes the vast amount of costs (Grimmer,
Miles, & Grimmer, 2016). Moreover, it is said to be a time-consuming process, but I mainly
prefer this process because a proper way of planning helps in reducing errors and increases the
overall efficiency of the work processes.
The issues related to the core access data and skills and capabilities will influence the overall
decision-making processes followed by the respective managers or the senior members of the
firm. I have gathered knowledge that there needs to be prioritizing and expectations of the
required key stakeholders. The learnings will help in giving the desired shape to my future career
goals and will improve my capabilities of making decisions instantly. Furthermore, in my future
career, the concepts of the strategic business planning will help in getting the exact information
and to manage the work as per the satisfaction level of the customers.

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References
Barraket, J., Furneaux, C., Barth, S., & Mason, C. (2016). Understanding Legitimacy Formation
in Multi‐Goal Firms: An Examination of Business Planning Practices among Social
Enterprises. Journal of Small Business Management, 54, 77-89.
Brinckmann, J., & Kim, S. M. (2015). Why we plan: The impact of nascent entrepreneurs'
cognitive characteristics and human capital on business planning. Strategic
Entrepreneurship Journal, 9(2), 153-166.
Christopher, M., & Ryals, L. J. (2014). The supply chain becomes the demand chain. Journal of
Business Logistics, 35(1), 29-35.
El-Masri, M., Orozco, J., Tarhini, A., & Tarhini, T. (2015, July). The Impact of IS-Business
Alignment Practices on Organizational Choice of IS-Business Alignment Strategies.
In PACIS (p. 215).
Grimmer, L., Miles, M. P., & Grimmer, M. (2016). The performance advantage of business
planning for small and social retail enterprises in an economically disadvantaged
region. European Journal of International Management, 10(4), 403-421.
Mitchell, T. L. (2017). The future of FM: Integrating asset management planning practices to
lead transformation change. Corporate Real Estate Journal, 6(4), 349-357.
Wolf, C., & Floyd, S. W. (2017). Strategic planning research: Toward a theory-driven
agenda. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1754-1788.
Wu, S. P. J., Straub, D. W., & Liang, T. P. (2015). How information technology governance
mechanisms and strategic alignment influence organizational performance: Insights from
a matched survey of business and IT managers. Mis Quarterly, 39(2), 497-518.