Convenience

Strategic Plans
Strategic plans are developed to achieve strategic goals. More pre-
cisely, a
strategic plan
is a general plan outlining decisions about resource allocation,
priorities, and action steps necessary to reach strategic goals. These plans are set by the
board of directors and top management, generally have an extended time horizon, and
address questions of scope, resource deployment, competitive advantage, and synergy.
We discuss strategic planning further in the next major section of this chapter.
Tactical Plans
A tactical plan, aimed at achieving tactical goals, is developed to
implement specific parts of a strategic plan. Tactical plans typically involve upper and
middle management and, compared with strategic plans, have a somewhat shorter time
horizon and a more specific and concrete focus. Thus, tactical plans are concerned more
strategic goal
A goal set by and for
an organization’s top
management
tactical goal
A goal set by and for
an organization’s
middle managers
operational goal
A goal set by and for
an organization’s
lower-level
managers
mission
A statement of an
organization’s
fundamental
purpose
strategic plan
A general plan
outlining decisions
about the resource
allocation, priorities,
and action steps
necessary to reach
strategic goals
Chapter 3:
Planning and Strategic Management
6 9
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with actually getting things done than with deciding what to do. Tactical planning is
covered in detail later in this chapter.