Many years ago it was announced that the 2016 Summer Olympic

Many years ago, it was announced that the 2016 Summer Olympic Games would be held in Rio de Janeiro. Lots of strategic planning and expense went into a massive overhaul of infrastructure and cleanup efforts in anticipation of this magnificent event. Despite a long planning window,unanticipated last-minute threats appeared.( i.e.,the threat of the Zika virus emerging from that area severely altered expectations and plans). Some athletes even cancelled plans to participate. For your consideration: Is long-term strategic planning worth it? Why or why not? If it is, what is an appropriate planning window (months, years, etc.)? How do you plan for contingencies? Your discussion posts should reflect original thoughts, be approximately 250 words, and draw upon your personal and professional experiences. Where possible

Solution

Some unpleasant events are unpredictable, uncontrollable and are bound to happen. In anticipation of occurance of such an unpleasant event, one shouldn\'t stop long term strategic planning. Occurance of such an event is very rare, but a contigency plan should be there, in case the first plan doesn\'t work out. But in this case the cost is lesser rather than prepare no long term strategy at all. Such events happen once in a while, but a long term strategy helps an organization achieve its goals, when everything goes fine. Examples of such events are like Katrina, Tsunami or seasonal floods and draught that affect the organizational strategy. Still every organization keep their long term strategies in place and a contingency plan too.

A long term strategy is for a period of 2 to 5 years but it has to be reviewed quarterly and make adjustments as and when necessary. This adjustment should be in conjunction with the short term strategy so that while meeting the long term plan, short term plan and action shouldn\'t suffer.

Contingency plan should be done considering the following points:

1. The plan should be such that the organzation doesn\'t suffer loss when faced with an unplanned critical situation.

2. Every important member in the value chain should be aware of the plan so that they can execute the plan successfully.

3. Not much investment or waste should go in the contingency plan.

4. Planners should review their plan and should be abe to anticipate the organization\'s perfromance when faced with such situations.