answer16

Give 3 examples of strategic issues an organization might face. Why are these issues strategic in nature?

In a strategic planning process the committee will perform environmental scanning which examines internal and external potentialities and realities that affect the organization. In order to facilitate this scanning, they perform a SWOT(C) analysis, looking at internal Strengths and Weaknesses, and external Opportunities and Threats (sometimes challenges). As a result of the SWOT analysis, strategic issues are determined and strategies are developed to manage and resolve the issues.

One example of a strategic issue is one in which a company moves to preserve or reinforce a strength. If one of the strengths determined in the SWOT analysis was the organization's strong internal leadership and their referent power, one resultant issue is how to retain and fill that strong leadership in the longer term.

Another example of a strategic issue is one in which a weakness is found in a particular product's sales, especially when that product was once a strong or flagship product. The strategic issue might be how to rebuild the following of the product, how to upgrade the product in order to extend its popular life, or how to replace the product with a superior product. If the product is losing market share due to a competing product with better features, the issue may be how to add more useful features to the product and keep it competitive in the marketplace.

A final example might be a discovered external opportunity, such as a rival organization going out of business, and ending a popular but neglected line of products that your organization is well suited to reproduce and improve upon. By choosing to pursue the new products, issues of additional costs, legality and copyright need to be considered, but may be reasonably addressed.

These issues are considered strategic because they are used to develop strategies for implementation, which feed the strategic plan of the organization.