Question

Distinguish between Strategic and Tactical Planning:

Answer 1

STRATEGIC PLANNING

A strategic plan is a course of action to achieve long term goals, generally up to 5 years. strategic plans reflect the company's direction and it's purpose as stated in its mission statement. In order to develop strategic plans, top management must develop ans use summary reports on finances , operations and the external environment. Strategic plans influence the development of tactical plans

TACTICAL PLANNING

It is a course of action to achieve short term goals, generally within a year or less. These represent the short term efforts to achieve the strategic,longer-term goals. They are concerned with what the units beneath top management must do, how they must do it and who has the responsibility. They have shorter time frames and narrower scopes than the strategic plans.

Although we set out strategic and tactical plans separately, they actually are inseparable. The overall strategy of a company is success, which relies on tactical plans building on each other to achieve the strategic plan.