Claudia Jean Pierre

Professor Notturno

Business Capstone 4950

20 January 2023

Homework 1

1. Distinguish between long-range planning and strategic planning.

Strategic planning’s purpose is to exploit and create new and different opportunities

for tomorrow. In other terms, it aims to capitalize and build new and diverse possibilities for

future purposes and advancements. In contrast, long-range planning tries to optimize the

trends of today for tomorrow. Indeed, it strives to leverage the current trends to obtain

better ones in the future . Thus, strategic planning involves building new opportunities for

tomorrow while long range planning uses current opportunities to achieve future ones.

2. Distinguish between the concepts of vision and mission.

A vision statement is the first step in strategic planning, preceding even development

of a mission statement. It is a single sentence that answers the question “What do we want to

become? Thus, it implies a focus on the future, it states where the organization aspires to go

and what it desires to ultimately become . Alternatively, a mission statement is an

“enduring statement of purpose that distinguishes one firm from other similar ones and

identifies the scope of a firm’s operations in product and market terms . Simply put, it defines

an organization’s core focus, uniqueness, purposes, and objectives while stating what the
firm is about and offers to customers . Thus, a mission statement states why the company

exists and what he offers while a vision statement highlights its future state and objectives.

3. Why do you believe SWOT analysis is so commonly used by businesses in doing

strategic planning?

As the textbook states, the SWOT analysis is an important benchmarking tool that

helps managers develop critical strategies to make their business thrive. It gives them a clear

picture of their company's strengths and weaknesses as well as pointing out the many

different opportunities and potential threats. It also allows them to determine internal and

external factors that may affect their business in order to respond proactively. Thus, it is

commonly used because it provides a clearer understanding of the firm's position. Likewise,

it allows them to evaluate and assess their chosen market, stay ahead of the competition,

identify weaknesses that may require improvement and ultimately achieve goals. Indeed, it

empowers businesses to capitalize on opportunities, consolidate weaknesses, adapt to

ongoing changes and design effective strategies to offset threats. Once all the aspects of the

business, such as its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, are efficiently

addressed, the strategic planning process can be carried out effortlessly and yield successful

results. Given that strategic planning is concerned with exploiting new and different

opportunities, the SWOT analysis is an effective approach to assess existing opportunities

while fighting any impediment to progress.

 REFERENCE

Textbook: The Nature of Strategic Planning . Chapter 1