Organizational Level at Which Strategic Planning Is Appropriate
This issue does not have a single universally acceptable answer.
In non-healthcare organizations, corporate SP is characterized by
being generated at the strategic apex of the organization and sets
out the main strategic areas (SA)that affect the entire organization
without exception. Deriving from this, there may be a strategic
plan for each business area in which the corporation is active. In
addition, each internal department may have a functional strategic
plan tailored to its needs. For example, a pharmaceutical company
may have a global corporate strategy. Depending on this strategy,
the department of heart medicines may have another strategy that
differs from that of the department of drugs acting on the brain,
which in turn could be different from the diabetes department,
even though the strategic plans for these 3 departments will be
completely consistent with the corporate strategic plan. Within
the department of drugs acting on the heart,there may be a need to
develop a strategic plan for Spain that could differ from that for
Pakistan. Thus, within a sufficiently large organization, distinct
strategic plans may coexist at different levels. The only requirement is that each of the strategic plans is consistent and aligned
with any other or others at higher levels.