Ideas for Strategic Thinking in Marketing

Strategic Analysis

It’s the process of developing strategy for a business by researching the business and the environment in which it operates. A strategic analysis will be referred to as a SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Within these four areas, you will define your organization’s position relative to the competition and operational environments. While many believe it is best used at the organizational level, when properly implemented, a SWOT analysis will often return targeted, productive results at division or departmental levels of business. More about this step you can read here.

Scenario planning
The scenario planning technique constitutes a useful and practical way to think about the enterprise as a whole and its interaction with the environment. It refers to the formulation of alternative possible futures for the firm and its environment as a means of exploring the utility of different strategies. The scenario represented a landmark shift in management perspective, from a deterministic view (‘‘we can control our destiny’’) to the view that the future is intrinsically unpredictable (‘‘we need to envision a range of different
possible futures and prepare for them’’). Its pioneering implementation is usually attributed to Herman Kahn’s cold war studies at the RAND Corporation and the Hudson Institute and to Pierre Wack, who was head planner of the Royal Dutch Shell business environment division in the early 1970s.