Organisations and Strategies

Do you agree that Organisation and Strategy tend to go hand in hand? We shall look at each term individually and try to find a connection.

To different people, the word Organisation means different things!

Oganisation

The Collins English dictionary tells us that the word can mean the act of organising, a structure or an Association or Group.

WordNetdefines thus:
i) The persons (or committees or departments etc.) who make up a body for the purpose of administering something
ii) A group of people who work together
iii) An organized structure for arranging or classifying
iv) The act of forming or establishing something

We also have Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia giving this definition: An organisation is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment.

Some key words stand out for me in these definitions of an Organisation and they are:
Group, Goal/Purpose and Work.

These words make up the essential elements of an Organisation. There has to be a group, two or more individuals, togetherness/team (ie individuals in sync). This team has to have a purpose, a goal, an objective. After all, what is life without purpose? When a group or a team has a purpose, then they can be said to be working together. Indeed there is work involved in an Organisation.

Business Organisation
When we talk about a Business organisation, we refer to an Organisation which is created for the purpose of proving goods and services as well as the people that constitute it.

We find that business organisations are constituted by a group of people, establish its objectives and Goals, establish a mission and vision statement, and develop a strategy in order to run successfully.

Types of Business Organisations

Multinational Organisation: the definition by allbusiness states that this is a corporation based in one country that maintains manufacturing facilities or operations offices in other countries and that markets its products or services on an international basis. A multinational corporation is able to take advantage of special economically advantageous opportunities that exist in the countries where it operates, such as a low labour cost or favourable rate of currency exchange. An example of this are Coca cola, Nestle, Standard Chartered Bank

International Organisation: The free dictionary defines an international organisation as an international alliance involving many different countries. Examples of which would be the United Nations (UN), Organisation of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC) and World Trade Organization (WTO)

Virtual global companies: Techweb defines a Virtual Company as an organization that uses computer and telecommunications technologies to extend its capabilities by working routinely with employees or contractors located throughout the country or the world. Using e-mail, faxes, instant messaging, data and videoconferencing, it implies a high degree of telecommuting as well as using remote facilities.

An Enterprise: An enterprise is defined by answers.com as an entire organization, including all of its subsidiaries. It implies a large corporation or government agency, but it may also refer to a company of any size with many systems and users to manage. It depends on context. A corner candy store is "someone's enterprise." The terms "enterprise," "company," "corporation" and "organization" are used synonymously.


What is Strategy ?

The Collins mini dictionary defines this as an “overall plan”.

It is defined by The Standing Committee on Evaluation and Accountabilitythus: a plan or method employed in order to achieve a goal or objective.

For a strategy to exist, there surely must be a goal or an objective. Consequently a plan is made to assist in meeting that objective. Therefore, an Organisation, in developing a strategy, will assess its goals, resources and environmental factors, and come up with a plan or method on how it would achieve it’s goal.

An organisational strategy is usually long-term in nature considering that a business is a continuing venture. However, contrary to general belief, I believe that short term strategies do exist.

For instance, within an organisation, a business unit may develop a strategy to meet its objective which should eventually align with that of the Organisation. This unit may develop a 3 month strategy, which can not be called long-term.

As stated earlier, Organisation and Strategy tend to go hand in hand. Strategy is to do with a method, a plan an agreed means with which to achieve a goal. Bearing in mind our definition of Organisation, we then can deduce the role Strategy has to play in an Organisation. A plan should be put in place by an Organisation in order to achieve its goal.