Abstract
Abstract The heart of the study is based on the ten schools on Strategic Planning outlined by Henry Mintzberg, especially their arguments in the pivotal roles played by planning, plan, and planner. Another important source of discussion here is Mintzberg’s “The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning”. Out of the literature review came twelve essential points summarized in this study. The author has extracted from these twelve points ten questionnaires that were used for interviewing with three industrial leaders who were selected for their experiences in this field. The attempt is to integrate theories with practice, since strategic planning is inevitably intertwined with human judgments. Some of the ten questionnaires include: “Should planning be scheduled ahead?”, “Does strategic planning really help out enterprises?”, “Should strategic planning come out of formal process?”, “Does strategic planning contribute to the success of enterprises?”, and “How meaningful is formal planning meeting?”. The interviews are listed here and the author’s own interpretations are also included along with the opinions recorded. It becomes clear that strategic planning is intrinsically affected by the external factors that have forced the manifestation of strategic planning. Once the need is formed, then the next stage is an attempt to formulate it—into a written form. During this stage the formal statements will be discussed and revised; it is also at the stage the process is closely dependent on the “inertia” of the organization: the smaller the decision body, the faster it is concluded. This goes along with the general observation that the bigger the organization, the slower the decision is arrived. The final stage for strategic planning is the execution stage. At this stage, the swiftness of implementing any change in strategic planning depends on the “capability” of the executing body, in this case, usually concerning how fast an organization reacts to changes. The study also suggests that to perfect the formation of strategic planning, other than the human factors, it would be necessary to approach the problem from the planning life cycle, implementation process, and views of the executioner. Keywords: strategic planning, the model of strategic planning, strategy implementing, strategy formulation, industry life cycle