3.3 Strategic planning
3.3.3 Strategic planning participants
In the strategic planning process, participation is essential (Chen, 2017). The right choice of strategic planning participants is also one of the key factors in the planning process (Täks &
Vadi, 2019). There are two types of strategic planning participants, namely exclusive and inclusive strategic planning participants. Each of these participant types are detailed further in the following subsections.
3.3.3.1 Exclusive strategic planning participants
Exclusive strategic planning participants relate solely to the owner(s) and top manager(s) of a business (Taks &Vadi, 2019). In some cases, the term does include a wide variety of positions, specialists, and blue-collar workers (Täks & Vadi, 2019). Exclusive strategic planning participants are widely accepted as part of the theory pertaining to SME strategic planning, as it is accepted that in such cases only owners and top managers are necessary for a successful strategic planning process (Dhanimol, 2019. According to Täks and Vadi (2019), owners and top managers have the best overview of an SME’s goals and ideals as well as how these need to be managed. The role of owners and top managers in the exclusive strategic planning process, thus, includes strategic decision-making; design and formulation; planning, organising, managing, and evaluating strategy planning phases; and supporting and facilitating other strategic planning participants (Täks & Vadi, 2019).
As supported by Sax and Andersen (2019), the adherence to only including exclusive strategic planning participants allows owners and top managers to reassesses an SME’s current strategy by using a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis and to draw up several alternative strategic scenarios and appraise them against the long-term objective of the SME. Owners and top managers can then decide if and/or who else to involve in the strategic planning process and can guide these other strategic participants to build up a shared understating of the overall strategic plan and related goals (Taylor, 2016; Täks & Vadi, 2019).
In this way, specialists, blue-collar workers, and middle and first-level managers can all be called upon to be involved as exclusive strategic planning participants, as these individuals can offer new ideas, improvements, and creative solutions to various issues (Täks & Vadi, 2019).
Furthermore, their feedback tends to be based on their experiences and incorporation of change into practice (Allahar, 2019).
For example, specialists have particular knowledge to offer as part of the SME strategic planning process and may even prove a key factor to achieving the SME’s goals, which is why they are often called upon during this process (Majama & Magang, 2017; Täks & Vadi, 2019).
Blue-collar workers, in turn, may be called upon to play an advisory role during strategic planning (Täks & Vadi, 2019). Middle and first level managers are associated with better internalisation strategy, as their participation contributes to the planning process by providing relevant soft data and tacit knowledge (Täks & Vadi, 2019). It should be noted, however, that despite all these parties being included as part of the process, none of them make any final
decisions – only owners and top managers make final decisions when employing an exclusive approach.
3.3.3.2 Inclusive strategic planning participants
Inclusive strategic planning participants involve all stakeholders of an SMEs, including employees (Täks & Vadi, 2019). A study by George et al. (2019) identifies inclusive strategic planning participants as forming an integrative stakeholder participation theory, which underpins the notion that stakeholders should participate throughout the decision-making process in order to produce positive and beneficial outcomes. The application of integrative stakeholder participation tends to be more beneficial to the strategic planning process than the exclusive participant approach, as a variety of stakeholders participate therein it – from owners and top managers down through to employees – as opposed to only owners and top managers (George et al., 2019). By having all participants involved in the strategic planning process, they are able to better understand the SME’s goals and objectives and relate their own goals to those of the SMEs (Täks & Vadi, 2019). As such, inclusive strategic planning allows employees to have a sense of ownership and responsibility in respect to the SME, which brings about empowerment, improves morale, and betters general workplace relationships (Anderson, 2019).
Furthermore, inclusive strategic planning participants make it easier for all stakeholders to embrace strategic goals, as employees can better see how their work contributes to the SME’s goals (George et al., 2019). Employees are also able to offer valuable knowledge and experience for developing the strategic plan that owners and top managers may not have (Täks
& Vadi, 2019). However, there are also challenges associated with employing inclusive strategic planning participants, as some employees may begin to think that they are at the same level as managers, which could lead to lack of traditional management authority and potentially even open the SME up to security risks related to private information being leaked (George et al., 2019). Despite such negatives, the inclusive strategic planning approach has been the more widely suggested strategy to be employed for dealing with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic (Täks & Vadi, 2019). Although this is the more supported approach, it is still finally up to SME owner-managers to decide whether or not the inclusive strategic planning approach is best suited for their own SMEs’ strategic planning process.