Procurement

Today, most professional servicing firms engage in strategic planning, although the degree of sophistication and formality vary considerably. Conceptually, strategic planning is deceptively simple: analyze the current and expected future situation, determine the direction of the firm, and develop the means for achieving the mission. In reality, this is an extremely complex process which demands a systematic approach for identifying and analyzing factors outside of the organization and matching them with the firm's capabilities.

Planning is done in an environment of uncertainty. No one can be sure what the business environment will be even next week, let alone several years from now. Therefore, people make assumptions or forecasts about the anticipated environment. Some of the forecasts become assumptions for other plans.

To be effective, strategies and policies must be put into practice by means of plans, increasing in detail until they get down to the nuts-and-bolts details of operations. Tactics, then, are the actions through which strategies are executed. Strategies must be supported by effective tactics.