The role of strategic direction
in organizational design
Submitted by:
HENA MARIA JOY
MBA SEC A
ROLL NO: 16

Strategic direction
Strategic direction” refers to the actions you are taking to achieve the goals of your
organizational strategy. Your strategic direction includes the plans and actions you have put
in place to work toward this vision of the future for your company.
One of manager’s primary responsibilities is to potion their organizations for success by
creating goals and strategies that can keep the organization competitive. For example:
Instagram’s’ Director of Operations who wanted to monetize new users without alienating
current users.
Roles of Strategic Direction in Organizational Design
An organizational goal is a desired state of affairs that the organization attempts to reach.
Top managers give direction to organizations; this direction alters how organizations should
be designed.

Top management’s primary responsibility
To determine an organizations goals, strategy, and design, thereby adapting the organization to a
changing environment.
Direction (Goal setting Process):
 Assessment of Opportunities and Threats (Both internal and external environments).
 Define Strategic Intent: Overall mission/goals fit to the previous environmental assessments.
 Formulate Specific Operational Goals: How to accomplish overall mission.
 Organizational Design: Design the Organization to achieve these specific goals.
 Effectiveness / Outcomes : Measure results and feed back into the international situation
analysis.

How to set a Strategic
direction

The importance of strategic direction lies in its capacity to orient your company's overall purpose.
Consider your vision, or your big-picture reason for wanting to be in business. This can be as ethereal
as wanting to make the world a better place or as practical as wanting to earn as much money as
possible while making the least possible effort. Your vision should embody the "why" behind your
venture
Next, consider your company's mission, or the tangible way you will make your vision into a reality.
Your mission statement will likely include some specifics about your products and services. For
example, an auto mechanic might articulate a mission to keep its customers' cars safe and
mechanically sound, and a fair-trade importer might adopt a mission to improve the quality of life for
indigenous artisans by paying fair prices for their offerings. Your mission is the "what" to your
vision's "why."

Setting Periodic Goals
Long-term goals.
By thinking through where you want to be far down the line, you'll be able to make shorter-term plans
aimed at taking you in the direction you've defined. Long-term goals should be practical, big-picture steps
aimed at moving you toward achieving your mission and fulfilling your vision.
Medium-term goals.
These are objectives that cover a time frame of approximately two to three years, long enough to be broad
and meaningful but short enough for you to actually be able to get specific about possible outcomes.
Medium-term goals connect the scope of long-term plans with the concrete details of shorter-term steps.
Short-term goals.
The process of setting short-term goals breaks your longer-term planning into achievable, manageable
steps. Short-term goals should take into account short-term needs such as having to meet your rent and
payroll. They should also be crafted with an eye toward long-term objectives.

Setting Quantifiable Goals
When setting goals, frame your objectives in terms that will be easy to measure. It's far more useful to say
that you plan to increase your gross sales by 20% over the next year than to say that you plan to grow
significantly. The more specific you are about goals, the easier it will be to see what you need to do to
achieve them and to measure your success through each stage of the process.
If you don't meet the specific targets that you have set, this does not necessarily mean that you have failed.
If you fall short by just a small margin, you probably just need to do some tinkering with your business
model. If you are nowhere near your target, you may need to make some more major adjustments to your
operations.
Keep in mind that the issue may be the goals themselves rather than your work toward achieving them.
Circumstances change, and sometimes variables appear that you couldn't possibly have anticipated, such as
the introduction of an especially savvy new competitor or a brilliant new technology. In that case, it is
prudent to re-evaluate your goals and set new objectives that keep the current situation aligned with your
strategic direction.

Acknowledgements
 Studocu
 Biz fluent
 Google Images
 Google Books

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