EFFECTS OF STRATEGIC PLANNING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SMES IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
1.1Â Background To The Study
In the 20th century, the subject of strategic planning has been particularly applied to Organizations. It is viewed as the science and art of the formulation, implementation and evaluation of cross-functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objective. Â Strategic planning applies the integration of all functional units in the organization consisting of marketing, finance and accounting, operations and production and management to attain organizational success. Strategic planning constitute as an organizational process which aims at channeling both human and other organizational resources in the profitable attainment of the needs of customers and other principal stakeholders. Strategic planning implementation is guided by the stated policies, mission statement and strategic goals and objectives. The behavior of top management and other key managers in the organization. Strategic management requires the specification of strategic aims and objectives in the light of its internal resources and external factors. It specifies the target customers to serve with the right product and services through the effective and efficient allocation of resources (Cole, 1997).Strategic planning as explain by Lamb (1984) indispensable for SMES to be more proactive and secure the future. The research therefore seek to investigate Effects of strategic planning on the performance of SMES in south-west Nigeria
1.2Â Statement of the Problem
The growing significance of SMES cannot be overemphasized in view of its contribution to the economic growth of the country through the provision of employment for a large segment of the population and revenue derivation.
However SMES are faced with challenges in respect of formulating and implementing strategic plans. The inability to be proactive and secure the future with success has been the reason for many folding up of SMES and as well as their inability to grow rapidly. Consequently management experts have advocated the need for SMES to deploy strategic planning as a measure to ensure the effective and efficient channeling of resources to profitably meet the growing needs of customers with innovative products and services. Many of the growing challenges encountered by SMES in the evolution and implementation of strategic planning include management inability to support strategy, lack of adequate resources, no alignment of activities with strategy and inability to manage change and lack of human resources to implement strategic plans. Consequently the problem confronting the research is to appraise Effects of strategic planning on the performance of SMES in south-west Nigeria
