INDEX

1. Environment monitoring...................................................................................................1
1.1. Environment monitoring process and scope.............................................................1
5.1.1. The macro environment.....................................................................................2
5.1.2. The industrial environment...............................................................................3
5.1.3. The competitive environment............................................................................4
5.1.4. The internal environment..................................................................................4
5.2. Monitoring Approach................................................................................................4
5.3. Monitoring the environment and driving forces......................................................5
5.4. Organization of information about the environment...............................................6
5.5. Effective observation of the environment.................................................................7
6. Considerations for your application.................................................................................8
7. Search for values................................................................................................................8
7.1. Congruence of organizational values........................................................................9
7.2. Elements of the search for values............................................................................10
7.2.1. Personal values..................................................................................................10
7.2.2. Organizational values.......................................................................................12
7.2.3. Operational philosophy....................................................................................13
7.2.4. Organizational culture.....................................................................................14
7.3. Analysis of interest groups.......................................................................................17
7.3.1. Exchange processes...........................................................................................17
7.3.2. Identification of interest groups......................................................................18
SUMMARY...............................................................................................................................20
CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................................26
 ENVIRONMENT MONITORING AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR ITS
APPLICATION

1. Environment monitoring

All organizations have a vital need to record what is happening, or what is about
to happen, in their environments. Although change has been the only constant in
the world, its rate is accelerating and organizations that do not attempt to
manage these increasing and rapid changes face unstable futures. Only by
monitoring an organization's environment can it record and understand these
changes. As Murphy (1989) concluded from a review of the literature on
monitoring, Most companies do it poorly and unconsciously, even when it is
done well, the information collected is not used for the development of
alternative futures.
Strategic planning requires that a company take the time to seriously examine
how it monitors the environments that have a direct impact on its future and how
it processes the information it obtains. Since the applied strategic planning
model involves monitoring the environment. Consequently, the model shows
this as a continuous aspect of the planning process. Continuous data should
provide information to the planning team and the entire company about what is
happening, and the possibility of something happening that could affect the
company's normal operations, its planning process, and its future. .

1.1. Environment monitoring process and scope

In the planning process, two essential aspects of environmental monitoring
must be confronted. The first is related to the types of information obtained
and the way it should be used (facts, hypotheses, intuitions, assumptions and
others). The second aspect is related to the effectiveness of the system for
compiling, storing, processing, integrating and disseminating information
from the environment belonging to the organization. In most cases, your data
is fragmented and incomplete and your monitoring system, particularly your
competitor's analysis, is woefully inadequate. One of the collateral benefits
of the applied strategic planning mode is that it helps the organization
confront and evaluate its environmental monitoring system and, where
necessary, develop a more effective system.

The particular types and forms of information that a given organization

needs will, of course, depend on it and the nature of its environments. The
information must identify emerging opportunities and threats in the external
environment . Then, identify your strengths and weaknesses to respond to
these opportunities and threats. . In addition, the environmental monitoring
process must bring to light a variety of important factors, both internal and
external to the organization, that to date have been overlooked but that must

1
be considered as part of the strategic planning process. These could include
cyclical economic trends, the development of novel and yet to be approved
technologies, the emergence of new, untested competitors, and the gradual
disappearance of a critical job skill set in the workforce. Likewise, the public
sector is affected by the aforementioned trends (for example, total quality
management, customer service and cost-benefit analysis).

One of our clients is an exact example of the usefulness of this approach. As

part of environmental monitoring, various facts, rumors and simple
conjectures were gathered, and the planning team was allowed to conclude
that a new Taiwanese group was purchasing and remodeling an obsolete
factory and could directly compete with our client in a short term. of almost
18 months. Although this information was available in the organization
before strategic planning was carried out, it had not been collated, processed
and integrated into a meaningful conclusion. Once the above was done, the
appropriate plans could be drawn up to face, in a timely and more effective
way, the hitherto unseen competition. No action plan could be formulated or
executed until the information and its implications were integrated into the
consciousness of the planning team.

In general, the following four environments should be scanned regularly:

2. The macro environment

3. The industrial environment
4. The competitive environment
5. The internal organizational environment

5.1.1. The macro environment

During the past decade, few, if any, organizations were unaffected by
the introduction of the microcomputer, rising oil prices, changes in
exchange rates and interest, increased consumer protection and
information, Changing employee attitudes toward work, taxpayer
rebellion, and countless major trends in technological advances, the
body politic, and society clearly affect most organizations but in
different ways. and to different degrees.

2
 Several social observers have clearly explained some of these
changes. One of them, Nasbiu (1982), identified the following
emerging trends that will transform our lives, especially our
organizational lives:

1. The change from an industrial society to a society

characterized by information technology.
2. The development of a high-tech, high-touch requirement
3. A change from national to global economy.
4. A shift from short-term to long-term thinking, management
and planning.
5. A shift from centralization to decentralization.
6. The resurgence of self-help to replace institutional help
7. A shift from representative democracy to participatory
democracy
8. A shift from hierarchical forms of administration towards
network interconnection.
9. In the US, the development of the south as a center of energy
and organizational life.
10. A shift toward seeking multiple options rather than leaning
toward any alternative solution.

5.1.2. The industrial environment

Among the factors to consider as part of the industrial environment

are changes in the structure of the industry, in the way it is financed,
in its degree of government presence, in the engineering, processes
and typical products used there, and in their common marketing
strategies.
The adoption of a faster cycle (CMR) by the industry is an example
of this trend. This ongoing ability to identify, satisfy, and receive
payment for meeting customer demands faster than any other
competitor changes the parameters of competition in that industry. A
faster cycle, in turn, requires total quality management, as CMR
implies the assumption that all products are produced to satisfy
customer requirements. As trends like this begin to impact an
industry, it changes the way business is done. The organization that

3
 detects these changes and responds positively to them has a
competitive advantage.
The industrial environment is best monitored by reading technical
and trade journals of the respective industry. One of the common
surprises we have as we begin to work in a new industry for us is the
abundance of newspapers, reviews and newsletters that form part of
its information dissemination network. An inherent aspect of
developing a total monitoring process involves reviewing the
available information, ensuring that it is covered, and that
complicated information from that coverage systematically reaches
the organization for review and analysis.

5.1.3. The competitive environment

Monitoring the competitive environment includes consideration of

changes in competitor profiles, market segmentation patterns,
commitment to research and development, etc. The initial questions
refer to who the competition is and how they compete. The
traditional way to answer such questions is to look at other
organizations that provide the same products or services, although
this approach is incomplete. Another way is to consider those
products that customers might consider reasonable alternatives to
satisfy their needs or wants. This second approach requires the
organization to guess when answering the crucial question of who the
competition is.

5.1.4. The internal environment

Among the factors to consider as part of the internal organizational

environment are changes in the company's structure, its culture, its
climate, its productivity and its distinctive strengths and weaknesses.
Additionally, the internal environment includes the various structures
and systems that are typically used in daily planning and control
within the organization, such as inventory control, distribution, and
quality control.
Areas of interest are how these systems work and whether they are
improving or deteriorating. Because members of the strategic
planning team are part of this internal environment, they may fall
short in their observation. Consequently, an external consultant can
be useful at this point in the strategic planning process, as they have
the obligation to ensure that the evaluation of the internal
environment, which is developed in the planning process, is fair and
that it pays equal attention to the strengths and environmental
weaknesses.
Although it is crucial to monitor employee satisfaction on a regular
basis as a medicine of the internal environment, it is equally
important to develop clear mechanisms to record the way in which
customers, the life of any organization, including the public sector,
4
 perceive that internal environment. . The way the internal
environment operates directly impacts customer satisfaction, and it is
imperative that this data be recorded frequently.

5.2. Monitoring Approach

Since there is no end to the changes that regularly occur in these four
environments, there is always the question of how this monitoring process
should be directed. Effective monitoring of the environment requires careful
attention to those issues that have a potentially high impact on the future
success of the organization. A simple way to approach the task of
establishing a useful environmental monitoring process is for the planning
team to systematically review each of the four areas and develop a broad list
of possible changes that could impact the organization. Each of these
potential changes must be ranked according to importance and probability.
Changes that will have high impact and are reasonably likely need careful
monitoring. Although the other areas should not be neglected, they may
receive a little less attention.
In summary, each of these four aspects of the environment needs special
attention during the strategic planning process. Although there will be
variation in the degree to which an organization needs to consider each
factor, every company should identify how and to what extent each of these
four aspects could impact its future plans. Categorizing how changes in any
of these environments can impact the organization over time, and carefully
recording the most important changes, is the essence of sound environmental
monitoring. Although it identifies a variety of internal and external factors,
the four broad areas form a useful starting point for understanding and
managing the process of observing the environment. However, the other
identified areas must be programmed within this monitoring process and
considered during strategic planning.
The most important decision related to monitoring the environment is which
of its important aspects should be monitored on a regular basis. One of the
positive consequences of strategic planning is determining the way in which
the organization monitors its environment and how said process can and
should be improved.

5.3. Monitoring the environment and driving forces

Organizations differ quite a bit in the way they focus their monitoring,
evidently as a function of the predominant driving forces that differentiate
the various organizations. For example, Procter & Gamble with marketing as
its first driving force dedicates most of its monitoring energy to the
competitive field, while WalMart with distribution as its first driving force
dedicates most of its monitoring energy to its internal environment
(inventories). , transportation and similar). The dashboard in WalMart's
corporate headquarters in Bensoville, Arkansas, probably looks more like
NASA's launch control center than a typical retail chain network, is
dedicated to recording the condition of WalMart's distribution system. .
5
 Two lessons can be learned from observing the driving forces. The first is
that this individual set of criteria may prevent an organization from
adequately monitoring those areas that are outside its usual focus of
concentration. Depending on the validity of this lesson, some reorientation
of energy may be needed to successfully complete the strategic planning
process. The second lesson - a reflection of the first - is that monitoring the
company's environment reveals its predominant driving force, which also
represents useful information for the planning process.

5.4. Organization of information about the environment

Most organizations are exposed to large amounts of information about the

environment. They have multiple subscriptions to commercial newspapers,
association newsletters, and commercial and financial publications; They
frequently send representatives to trade exhibitions and conventions.
Despite having all this information, data is often classified, organized,
analyzed and stored incompletely and, as a result, is not available to make
administrative decisions or carry out strategic planning. In other words, in
most cases the observation of the environment is indirect, casual and non-
functional,
In order to create some order to this chaotic condition, Aaker (1983)
recommended that companies use a Strategic Information Search System
(SBIE). This is a simple, formal, five-step system aimed at identifying
organizational information needs, assigning organizational members specific
monitoring tasks, and bringing the information to administrative and
strategic planning processes.
The five steps are as follows:

1. Identify the information needs of the company, especially for the

next phase of strategic planning.
2. Generate a list of information sources that provide essential data (for
example, trade shows, publications, technical meetings, and
customers)
3. Identify those who will participate in the environmental monitoring
process (they do not have to be members of the planning team)
4. Assign monitoring tasks to various members of the organization.
5. Store and disseminate information

The SBIE should be as simple and manageable as possible. All important

areas (such as identifying current or potential changes in competitors'
strategy) should be covered, but monitoring tasks should be kept simple and
direct. Information needs can be classified according to their importance and
impact on the organization. For example, if there is a chance of a serious
threat occurring immediately then information in this area is much more
important than data about threats and likelihoods in the distant future. It is
necessary to make an extensive list of information sources (for example by
brainstorming), and then finalize the sources that are accessible on an
irregular routine basis. Likewise, those that have been ignored and
6
 overlooked must be identified. This procedure will help a company
rationally develop an important set of information sources. People from
various parts of the organization should be designated as sources of
information for vendors, clients, advertisers, etc. Many individuals outside
the planning team have easy access to valuable information and will be
happy to report their findings.

5.5. Effective observation of the environment

Observation is an activity that detects and assimilates the features of an

element using the senses. The concept also includes any data collected
during this activity.
As a research technique, it consists of “seeing” and “hearing” the phenomena
we want to study, and is fundamentally used to understand facts, behaviors
and collective behaviors.
We are talking about a fundamental tool in the business world that will allow
us to identify market opportunities and protect ourselves from possible
threats, in addition to detecting weaknesses or shortcomings on which to
base our strengths.
Albert Einstein said the following: "I don't have special talents, but I am
deeply curious." This curiosity is what leads the company to orient the
company towards the Customer, to innovate by offering new products, to be
better, to adapt to these complex times, to discover things that no one had
thought of.
It is essential to carefully observe the company and the environment that
surrounds it. To do this, we must look around us with multiple eyes, which
means that all members of the organization must contribute information to
the business intelligence system. Adequate training is important that
indicates how to obtain this information, as well as systems that channel it.
For example, the company's delivery drivers are possibly the only people

7
 who access the client's warehouses and therefore can provide us with
invaluable information about the client.
Observation is a stage of analysis that will later allow us to make decisions.
The higher the quality of the information collected, the more likely we are to
make the right decisions.
We will observe competing companies.
We will value our own company and its possibilities.
We will study our Clients carefully, the potential market and the target
market, those who have never thought of buying from us (non-Clients).
It is important to have the ability to listen to what the market tells us.
Remember that markets are conversations and it is essential that we
participate in the conversation.

6. Considerations for your application

One of the most important ways in which the applied strategic planning model
differs from other models is in its great interest in a deep involvement of the
process. For new involvement, three rules must be followed.
Large-scale involvement should begin as soon as possible.
Involvement must be practical and reach the maximum possible degree.
There should be as much participation as possible in making decisions about the
plan.
Obviously not all members of the organization can or should sit at the planning
table, but it is necessary for each of them to get involved in one way or another
as quickly as possible. Likewise, it must be done as soon as possible so as to The
achievements of the planning team will be applied.
Although the implementation phase constitutes the final step of the applied
strategic planning model, the application or implementation must take place
continuously throughout the strategic planning process as observed in chapter 5.
It is the mission statement for all relevant interest groups to make comments and
suggestions before it is accepted and no further planning should be undertaken
until there is consensus in implementation with the statement.
Establishing and maintaining involvement and tangible demonstrations of the
achievements of this phase of the planning process allows generating
information for the next.
The implementation phase involves the initiation of various action plans
designed at the single functional levels and their integration at the highest level
of the organization. This may involve, for example, evacuation, initiation of
development of our assets, technical training, increased research and
development, commercialization. of new products etc. the parts of the
organization must have a clear sense that exists at all levels will lead to the
successful completion of the organization's mission.
As the Strategic plan rolls out, the ways in which people have been involved in
the planning process must be made, given the length of the planning cycle and
the pressure of current operations. It would be easy for people to forget their
involvement and commitment. This must be allowed to happen.

7. Search for values

8
All business organizations are values-based, where all organizational decisions
are based on values.
Schwartz and Davis 1884 put it in a different way. They argue that the options
that managers select reflect their point of view of reality: the values, beliefs and
norms that helped them rise to power.
This strong statement is often a source of dispute among managers, particularly
among those who come from traditional business organizations.
Generally, business decisions are based on the considerations of the line of
support, that is, to what extent the decision affects profitability, although it could
be noted that the alternative of money as a criterion for making decisions and
constitutes itself as a value is usually opted for by another argument
How to choose whether to select a company for dividends, stock or bonuses for
managers and investment in growth or how these two alternatives are weighed in
the decision-making process
Another option is to question how short and long term profits are compensated
since these are typical issues that must be resolved by senior management on an
almost regular basis. Compression will soon be observed from the customer's
perspective.
Most organizations do not have clarity regarding their values and this often
causes problems to arise which can be satisfactory results in getting the ads out
and resolving the value dilemmas underlying this clarification making it
impossible to develop a strategic plan.
A unique aspect of the applied strategic planning model and its emphasis on the
search for values, many other authors who criticize strategic planning suggest
that the underlying values of the organization must be considered in the planning
process that comprises organizational culture is essential to have success in the
planning activity despite providing little advice and few suggestions on how to
approach this definitely important workspace

7.1. Congruence of organizational values

Strategic plans that do not take sources into account will encounter problems
and may even fail.
The relationship that exists between organizational values and those of the
worker, known as value congruence, can range from a perfect fit between the
two to a state of conflict where the organization's values are opposite to the
worker's values. Authors explain that it must be possible to understand the
forms of congruence between organizational and individual values, so that
when there is no adjustment of values, conflict does not necessarily occur,
but there may be states of incongruence or misalignment of values.
The congruence of values allows us to understand how the organizational
culture will impact the worker, at the same time that it explains the way in
which workers affect the processes of organizational change. This impact of
value congruence is verified in terms of satisfaction and positive attitudes
towards work in cases of value adjustment, while in cases of conflict
situations of work stress and desires to leave the organization appear.

9
 In this way, it is important to carry out studies on organizational culture
taking into account the context of the organization, specifically through the
analysis of the relationship between organizational values and the values of
workers as relevant elements within the components of culture. . For this
reason, the objective of this research was to identify differences between
private, public and mixed organizations based on the degree to which
personal and organizational values are related.

7.2. Elements of the search for values

The search for values in applied strategic planning involves an in-depth

examination of the following five elements:
1. Personal values of the planning team
2. The values of the organization as a whole
3. The operating philosophy of the organization
4. The culture of the organization
5. Organizational interest groups

The examination of each of these elements is based on the analysis of the

previous element. Each examination can be threatening to the members of
the planning team and as a consequence consume a lot of time, the
examination of each of these elements is based on the analysis of the
element. It is often these elements that require the greatest degree of
competence on the part of the facilitator.
According to Rokeach, a value is the enduring belief that a specific form of
conduct or final condition of existence is personally or socially preferred to
an inverted opposite mode of conduct or final condition of existence. A
value system is an enduring organization of convictions concerning
preferable modes of conduct or ultimate conditions of existence parallel to a
continuum of relative importance.
Values lead to considering some goals or purposes as more legitimate or
correct and others as illegitimate or wrong, they also lead to considering
certain ways of achieving said goals or means as appropriate and fair and
others as inappropriate or unfair, as these values are deeply rooted. in
people's belief systems they are relatively invariable.
This enduring organization of convictions determines what individuals and
companies consider appropriate or inappropriate behavior; belief or value
systems determine norms, that is, standards of action in companies.

7.2.1. Personal values

The first step in carrying out the search for values is an examination
of the personal values that characterize the members of the planning
team since values exist at both the individual and organizational
levels; Like the different segments of the organization, there needs to
be clarity regarding the level at which the evaluation is carried out.
The first aspect of the search must take place at the individual level.
It is particularly important that the key decision-makers in a company
10
are clear about their personal values and recognize the differences
between them. If any of these key individuals are not members of
the planning team, then assessing their values should be part of the
values search.
There are several important reasons to begin searching for values at
a personal level, one of which is that differences in personal values
among members of the planning team will impact the course of
strategic planning. As you can see internally, the values about your
sensitive issues such as risk taking, profitability and growth are at the
core of the strategic planning process. They will have an impact on
the course of strategic planning. Values about your critical issues
such as risk taking, profitability and growth are at the core of the
strategic planning process.
The most direct and effective technique for surfacing personal values
is to ask each member of the planning team to fill out a simple values
questionnaire. The consultant can then calculate the range and
average of these scores and record them. Ask the group to
characterize themselves according to these dimensions. Generally,
the members will begin to share their individual scores, analyze the
meaning and implication of these in their own behavior and the
impact of these on the group.

 How to manage the difference in personal values

This process involves the following steps

1. Don't overlook an itch to work on the difference before it
becomes a flare-up; a cool-down period with an agreed
upon time may be necessary to address the problem later.
2. The two people who have differences should talk and try
to resolve them on their own.
3. It is good to ask the consultant for suggestions on how to
approach the other person or how to best define the issue.
4. If someone approaches you with a difference in values
you should be willing to work through it with that person.
You may also want to seek the help of your consultant to
clarify your own point of view.
5. If after having tried to work on the issue on your own no
change is recorded and differences in values persist, you
should seek the help of a consultant for the following
6. If an individual complains to me about the values of
another person who is not present, I encourage you to
discuss the matter directly with that person. You don't
have to pigeonhole yourself into that type of triangular
relationships.

If an individual complains to you about another person's values

that there is no reason to discuss the matter directly with that

11
 person, you should not pigeonhole yourself into that type of
triangular relationship.

7.2.2. Organizational values

Once the differences in individual values of the administrative

planning team have been overcome, the desired values of the entire
organization must be considered, that is, given the personal values of
the members who make up the planning team.

What values do you want this company to adopt and use in its
decision making?

Although the analysis of the personal values of the planning group

focuses on the question of what do they wish to support as
individuals? The question that should be asked in this part is what do
they want their organization to support?
Usually at this point the team raises concerns such as profitability
versus growth, being a good corporate citizen and being seen as a
value-added organization or a good place to work, in other words,
during the organizational part of the search for values, the task of the
planning group is to articulate the aspects that the organization will
value as it implements its strategic plan, organizational values can be
determined with instruments similar to those used in the evaluation
of personal values, the values are found in At the core of almost all
organizational decisions, when managers claim that department In
terms of the basis of your values, in this part of the search for values
the important aspect to address is: what values in the planning team
to make the organization operate in the future, then it may be useful
to determine if there are differences in the desired values among the
main segments of the organization.

 Considerations for your application

If the search for values identifies desired values in a segment of

the organization that are incongruent with those of other
segments, this difference must be addressed immediately, it is
essential to have a certain degree of value articulation and some
resolution of strong differences in Regarding values, in order to
achieve a successful strategic planning process, the process of
providing the future condition of an organization is an activity
that is based on values, the way in which a company considers
common market decisions as those corresponding to market
participation, dealing with competition, innovation in products
and services and consumer or customer service; It is a natural
12
 result of the organization's core values that must be examined or
reexamined as part of the strategic planning process.
When a planning team arrives at a solution about the
organization's values, the information must be disseminated to the
rest of the organization.

7.2.3. Operational philosophy

Generally, a company's values are organized and codified in an

operations philosophy, which explains how the company approaches
its work, how it manages its internal affairs, and how it relates to its
external environment, including its consumers. or clients this type of
formal statement.
Integrate the values of the organization into the way business is
carried out. Some organizations have explicit and formal statements
of philosophy as values.
Performance Values, is the preferred provider dedicated to
understanding and meeting consumer expectations, having
commitment to employee safety, health and protection of the
responsible corporate citizen environment such as:
 Profits to support long-term growth consistently superior to
the competition commitment to continuous improvement of
people.
 Respect for individuals and appreciation of the contributions
each can make
 Acceptance and appreciation of diversity interest and fair
treatment of individuals in managing business change equal
opportunity for each employee to achieve their potential
employee pride and enthusiasm informed through open
communication process openness and trust in all relationships
encouragement to innovation creativity and risk taking
teamwork throughout the organization
 Establishing participatory measurement and feedback of goals
decision making at the lowest practical level actions
consistent with a clearly understood mission and long-term
goals
 Recognition of achievements in quality committed resources
for ongoing training and development.

All of these organizations constantly update their explicit statements

of philosophy, have regular seminars with employees to ensure the
dissemination of these values, and actually hold managers
accountable for operating in accordance with these philosophies.
In business meetings it is common to hear a manager ask the question
Is what we are proposing really consistent with our values? Do these
public statements provide managers with well-defined parameters
about decision making? It is common that the operations philosophy

13
 of an organization includes a series of assumptions about the way
processes work and the way decisions are made. These assumptions
in the sector in charge of generating profits include profits when
doing business with the government. or allowing the union to
organize our hourly production staff destroys the company in the
non-profit sector, the typical presumptions if we don't spend all of
this year's budget will remember next year and has to continue if it
wants to progress.
Some general assumptions are:
That the growth of the organization is assured by a large population
or that there will never be a satisfactory substitute for the company's
most important product or service. Unless these assumptions are
examined in terms of their current validity and relevance, the
company will continue to assume that they are true. and will operate
in accordance with them, in fact an important part of the strategic
planning process consists of identifying the assumptions that will be
made in the organization about its environment, its markets, its
operations and how the processes work or should work in order to
examine their validity, An important part of the strategic planning
process consists of creating an explicit operations philosophy
because this becomes the vehicle for disseminating the organization's
values both internally and externally.
Likewise, the strategic plan must be based on the company's
operations philosophy or it is necessary to modify the philosophy in
order for the strategic plan to adjust. There is no simple and direct
way for an organization to produce an explicit operations philosophy.
If you do not have one often, it is useful for the strategic planning
team to try to develop one as part of their work by using examples
such as Johnson and Mars, it is useful for the strategic planning
consultant to keep a record of the various organizational functions
found during the initial work with the organization and at appropriate
times during the planning process, present them as topics for the
planning group to analyze their truth or falsity and determine whether
there is agreement or disagreement.
Organizations often make unproven assumptions about their market
competence, compensation programs for exempt and non-exempt
workers, the role of government, problems with unionization, etc.
Although raising these concerns for a reasonable analysis is a
difficult and anxiety-inducing task for the consultant, it represents an
important part of the strategic planning process.

7.2.4. Organizational culture

Organizational culture is generated by the set of functions of an

organization about the way the world works the individual values of
its members of the organization as a whole and its philosophy of
operations the culture of an organization, one of its members
provides sense and purpose to their daily work life, it is becoming
14
increasingly obvious that those companies that have strong cultures,
that is, organizations have a clearly established mission and have a
transparent system of informal rules that reveal how they should
behave. regularly organizational members and that give them the
opportunity to feel good about their work and their employers are
high-performance systems.
These are companies whose cultures provide a work life that is
actually worth living, that employees can regularly foresee. The most
profitable organizations are those whose cultures are mission-driven
and regularly involve their employees, in the company's work both
aspects of organizational culture When Identifying and understanding
the origins of an organization's culture, it is necessary to investigate
three elements in addition to the company's desired values that
constitute the core of its culture The Heroes of the organization, its
Ritual rites and their cultural network

 Heroes

The Heroes of an organization are those people who embody

the company's values and upon whom they are woven. They
are the organizational members who serve as clear role
models for others and summarize the unique character of an
organization. It is not surprising that the founders of
Companies often find this role an organization with a strong
culture always has a hero or two whose exploits help qualify
and embody organizational values. Learning about a
company's heroes is an integral part of understanding its
culture.

 Rites and rituals

The rites and rituals of an organization are the ceremonies and

other scheduled routines that help define the company's
expectations regarding employees, a company that honors
career workers for their time with the company with
recognition and badges for every five years of connection that
they proudly display, is quite different from that which does
not pay attention to the length of service and barely
compensates its best salespeople and other important
executors and these are differences from companies that have
rites and rituals, for both aspects these Symbolic acts say a lot
about the organization and need to be observed carefully; In a
high-growth company that was experiencing a compound
increase of 20% in staff generating a doubling every four
years, new employees accidentally washed their identification
badges in the washing machine along with their clothes in
order to avoid being seen as a new employee. hiring.

15
 High-performing organizations have a variety of rites and
rituals as part of their deep-rooted culture, and these must be
identified as part of the strategic planning process.

 cultural network

A strong culture requires a cultural network of informal

communications to contribute and spread the culture
storytellers and keep the culture alive by telling stories about
the organization's heroes and villains, preachers who care
about the imprinting of alien values on their culture
organizational, arrangements that transmit cultural
information otherwise almost inaccessible, etc. These people
are the important actors who maintain and expand the culture
of the organization and are inhalable informants in the
strategic planning process. It also plays a decisive role in
facilitating the acceptance of the strategic planning process
and the assimilation of the strategic plan into the ongoing
work life of the organization.
Behavioral evidence about the organization's culture is found
everywhere: What is its physical structure and sites, how it
receives or protects itself from strange "struggle stories" told
about the good or bad times of the past, Who They are
considered the heroes and villains of the company, in rites
and rituals, etc. All of this must be decoded, although it is a
rather difficult task because it requires making deductions
about the underlying meaning and importance of the
behavior, an activity that often causes controversy. Therefore,
decoding becomes one of the tasks that must be initiated. and
manage the strategic planning consultant.
An organization's culture provides the social context in which
and through which it does its work, and guides its members in
making decisions, how time and energy are spent, which
factors are carefully examined and which are They reject
outright, what options are considered favorable from the
beginning, what type of people and they select with the aim
of making them work for and within the company and almost
everything that is affected within it.
It is evident that the culture of an organization will facilitate
or hinder the strategic planning process itself and the
implementation of any plan that the process produces.
Typically, a formal assessment of the organization's current
culture and its potential impact on strategic plan
implementation is performed as part of the performance audit
and gap analysis phases of the applied strategic planning
process. However an analysis of the culture of the particular
organization the root of that culture in which functions values
and beliefs of the management team often begins during the
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 search for values. This can be a useful and important part of
that phase, providing a link between the performance audit
and gap analysis phases of the planning process. Analysis of
the organization's culture is also useful in surfacing issues that
may interfere with the strategic planning process itself and
can enable the planning team to better manage those potential
blockages.

7.3. Analysis of interest groups

The final step of the search for values is the analysis of interest groups. By
interest groups we mean those individuals, groups and organizations that will
receive the impact of the strategic plan or that may possibly be interested in
it in the organization's planning process. It includes all those who consider,
correctly or incorrectly, that they have an interest in the business cycle and
not exclusively. Those who are not removed from planning consider that
they have a reasonable or legitimate right to said interest. It is necessary to
identify each of these interest groups and determine how likely they are to
correspond to the plan, the planning process, and the implementation of the
plan.
In this analysis, the values presupposed by the different interest groups and
their respective resources, status, freedom of action, relationships and
activities that may be affected by changes and modifications in the strategic
direction of the organization must be taken into account. However, given the
diversity of interests of these groups, it will never be possible to satisfy them
all; Rather, those interests must be evaluated and considered in terms of the
consequences of satisfying them or not. This evaluation will reduce surprises
that could otherwise have an impact on the strategic planning process and its
implementation.

7.3.1. Exchange processes

In his analysis of interest groups, Ackoff (1981) points out that

business organizations engage in the process of direct exchange with
interest groups.

1. An exchange of money for work with employees, including

managers.
2. Exchange of money for goods and services with suppliers.
3. An exchange of goods and services for money with
consumers.
4. an exchange of money paid later for money received now
with investors and lenders.
5. An exchange of money paid now for money received later
with debtors.
6. An exchange of money for goods, services and regulation
with the government (police and fire protection, antitrust
regulation, pollution control, tariffs, Aqueduct, sewage, etc.)
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 Ackoff insists that the proper objective of a business organization is
to serve all stakeholders by increasing their ability to achieve their
own objectives more efficiently and effectively. In other words, it
states that the predominant purpose of a company should be to serve
the interests of all its stakeholders and not just its investors (the
group on which the organization generally emphasizes).

The purpose of presenting Ackoff's position is to address two

important aspects that affect the strategic planning process: one Who
are the organization's stakeholders and two How the company
attempts to address the values of these interest groups.
Identification of interest groups and their values allows the planning
team to consider the impact of various future conditions on each of
them. The analysis of interest groups makes it easier for the planning
team to identify the different components that must be considered in
the planning process.

7.3.2. Identification of interest groups

A straightforward way to approach stakeholder analysis is to have

planning team members, first independently and then as a group,
identify the various stakeholder groups and work to understand the
values of those groups. This can be done by examining the evident
behaviors of stakeholders over time and supporting the underlying
values that these behaviors represent. Then it is necessary to try to
understand the nature of the current exchange process with each of
these groups.

This analysis should provide the planning team with a model for
understanding and meeting the different expectations of the various
interest groups during the course of the planning process. For
example, a planning team considered its relationships with suppliers

18
as stakeholders and concluded that its suppliers wanted an ongoing
session characterized by the open communication, mutual respect,
and appreciation that partners could provide for each other. This
generated a fundamental change in the company's relationship with
its suppliers; In the new relationship, the Cisnero company
negotiated with its suppliers in the same way it hoped to do with its
customers.

Similarly in dealing with its employees one company concluded that

they valued in their minds a high level of quality in working life,
including the opportunity for professional and personal development.
Paying attention to these employee values would facilitate the
organization to have a strong preference as an employer or capable of
attracting and retaining its human resources. Pitney Bowes, whose
important environmental monitoring processes were discussed in
Chapter Six, holds an annual employee meeting in addition to its
traditional shareholder meetings. The purpose of these two meetings
is more or less identical: to allow a set of groups to of important
interest learn about the company's Progress and plans and share
concerns and concerns. These employee meetings are one of the
many reasons why Pitney Bowes is listed by Levering, Moskowitz,
and Kats (1984) as one of the 100 best companies to work for in
North America. However, a more general important element is that
without this type of attention to the various interest groups whose
lives and future are closely linked to the future and plans of the
organization, any strategic planning process remains incomplete.
The search for values is the second decisive step of the applied
strategic planning process, and forces the strategic planning team to
analyze and understand the foundations of the organization and its
way of operating: the assumptions based on which it operates, the
personal values of the planning team, the desired values of the
organization as a whole, its operations philosophy, its culture and its
stakeholders. Understanding these elements and their
interrelationships is essential to achieving a successful strategic plan.
That truly provides the future direction of the organization.

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 SUMMARY

ENVIRONMENT MONITORING AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR ITS

APPLICATION

The applied strategic planning model consists of nine consecutive steps (or phases) plus
two continuous steps: monitoring the environment and considerations for its application.
Environmental monitoring is generally needed to provide information to the company
during daily work and, in particular, to provide that information to the planning team at
each consecutive step.
Environment Monitoring
All organizations have a vital need to record what is happening, or what is about to
happen, in their environments.
Most companies do it poorly and unconsciously, even when it is done well, the
information collected is not used for the development of alternative futures.
Strategic planning requires that a company take the time to seriously examine how it
monitors the environments that have a direct impact on its future and how it processes
the information it obtains.
Continuous data should provide information to the planning team and the entire
company about what is happening, and the possibility of something happening that
could affect the company's normal operations, its planning process, and its future. .
Environment monitoring process and scope
The first is related to the types of information obtained and the way it should be used
(facts, hypotheses, intuitions, assumptions and others). The second aspect is related to
the effectiveness of the system for compiling, storing, processing, integrating and
disseminating information from the environment belonging to the organization.

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The information must identify emerging opportunities and threats in the external
environment. Then, identify your strengths and weaknesses to respond to these
opportunities and threats.
Then, identify your strengths and weaknesses to respond to these opportunities and
threats. In addition, the environmental monitoring process must bring to light a variety
of important factors, both internal and external to the organization, that to date have
been overlooked but that must be considered as part of the strategic planning process.

The macro environment

It is used to encompass all those external variables that affect business activity. These
variables generally not only affect the
company, but rather the entire society and its activities, and encompass matters related
to the population, legal or technological issues.

One of them, Nasbiu (1982), identified the following emerging trends that will
transform our lives, especially our organizational lives:
1. The change from an industrial society to a society characterized by information
technology.
2. The development of a high-tech, high-touch requirement
3. A change from national to global economy.
4. A shift from short-term to long-term thinking, management and planning.
5. A shift from centralization to decentralization.
6. The resurgence of self-help to replace institutional help
7. A shift from representative democracy to participatory democracy

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 8. A shift from hierarchical forms of administration towards network
interconnection.
9. In the US, the development of the south as a center of energy and organizational
life.
10. A shift toward seeking multiple options rather than leaning toward any
alternative solution.

The industrial environment

Among the factors to consider as part of the industrial environment are changes in the
structure of the industry, in the way it is financed, in its degree of government presence,
in the engineering, processes and typical products used there, and in their common
marketing strategies.
The industrial environment is best monitored by reading technical and trade journals of
the respective industry.

Competitive environment, monitoring the competitive environment refers to who the

competition is and how they compete. The traditional way to answer such questions is
to look at other organizations that provide the same products or services, although this
approach is incomplete. Another way is to consider those products that customers might
consider reasonable alternatives to satisfy their needs or wants.

The internal environment . Among the factors to consider as part of the internal
organizational environment are changes in the company's structure, its culture, its
climate, its productivity and its distinctive strengths and weaknesses.

Although it is crucial to monitor employee satisfaction on a regular basis as a medicine

of the internal environment, it is equally important to develop clear mechanisms to
record the way in which customers, the life of any organization, including the public
sector, perceive that internal environment. . The way the internal environment operates
directly impacts customer satisfaction, and it is imperative that this data be recorded
frequently.

Approach to Monitoring Effective monitoring of the environment requires that careful

attention be paid to those issues that have a potentially high impact on the future success
of the organization. A simple way to approach the task of establishing a useful
environmental monitoring process is for the planning team to systematically review
each of the four areas and develop a broad list of possible changes that could impact the
organization. Each of these potential changes must be ranked according to importance
and probability. Changes that will have high impact and are reasonably likely need
careful monitoring. Although the other areas should not be neglected, they may receive
a little less attention.

Monitoring the environment and driving forces, organizations differ quite a bit in the
way they concentrate their monitoring. For example, Procter & Gamble with marketing

22
as its first driving force dedicates most of its monitoring energy to the competitive field,
while WalMart with distribution as its first driving force dedicates most of its
monitoring energy to its internal environment (inventories). , transportation and
similar).

Two lessons can be learned from observing the driving forces. The first is that this
individual set of criteria may prevent an organization from adequately monitoring those
areas that are outside its usual focus of concentration. The second lesson - a reflection of
the first - is that monitoring the company's environment reveals its predominant driving
force, which also represents useful information for the planning process.

Organization of information about the environment Most organizations are exposed

to large amounts of information about the environment. Despite having all this
information, data is often classified, organized, analyzed and stored incompletely and,
as a result, is not available to make administrative decisions or carry out strategic
planning.

In order to create some order to this chaotic condition, Aaker (1983) recommended that
companies use a Strategic Information Search System (SBIE). This is a simple, formal,
five-step system.

1. Identify the information needs of the company, especially for the next phase of
strategic planning.

2. generate a list of information sources that provide essential data (for example,
trade shows, publications, technical meetings, and customers)

3. Identify those who will participate in the environmental monitoring process

(they do not have to be members of the planning team)

4. assign monitoring tasks to various members of the organization.

5. store and disseminate information

It is aimed at identifying organizational information needs, assigning organizational

members specific monitoring tasks, and bringing the information to administrative and
strategic planning processes.

 Effective observation of the environment is a fundamental tool in the business

world that will allow us to identify market opportunities and protect ourselves
from possible threats, in addition to detecting weaknesses or shortcomings on
which to base our strengths.

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  Organizational values are a key element by which the people who collaborate
and the employees who work together are governed in order to obtain the same
objective. It can be for a company, company or an institution where the
organizational values are effective and thus the members of the group They must
exercise them based on their own convictions and not by establishments where
each person has to be sure that they act under the rules of conduct that can
benefit both them and the rest of the group.

The relationship that exists between organizational values and those of the worker,
known as value congruence, can range from a perfect fit between the two to a state of
conflict where the organization's values are opposite to the worker's values. Authors
explain that it must be possible to understand the forms of congruence between
organizational and individual values, so that when there is no adjustment of values,
conflict does not necessarily occur, but there may be states of incongruence or
misalignment of values.

A value system is an enduring organization of convictions concerning preferable modes

of conduct or ultimate conditions of existence parallel to a continuum of relative
importance.

The decisions they will make, the goals, the objectives and everything they must do to
reach what they most want are according to the values of each person. Something
similar happens in the organization, it is essential to determine the values since these
constitute the path and the rules to respect to obtain the best possible results. The values
will allow better management of resources and maximum efficiency to obtain the
expected results; For this reason, it is necessary to carry out a prior analysis of the
personal values that make up the organization in order to determine which values will
constitute those of the entire organization.

Organizational values: These are the desired values of the entire organization, that is,
given the personal values of the members who make up the planning team.

If the search for values identifies desired values in a segment of the organization that are
incongruent with those of other segments, this difference must be addressed
immediately, it is essential to have a certain degree of value articulation and some
resolution of strong differences in regarding values, in order to achieve a successful
strategic planning process.

When a planning team arrives at a solution about the organization's values, the
information must be disseminated to the rest of the organization.

Operational philosophy, A company's values are organized and codified in an

operations philosophy, which explains how the company approaches its work, how it
manages its internal affairs, and how it relates to its external environment, including its
consumers. or clients this type of formal statement.

24
Integrate the values of the organization into the way business is carried out. Some
organizations have explicit and formal statements of philosophy as values.

Organizational culture, organizational culture is generated by the set of functions of an

organization about the way the world works, the individual values of its members, the
organization as a whole and its philosophy of operations, the culture of an organization.

Heroes, the Heroes of an organization are those people who embody the company's
values and upon whom they are woven, they are the organizational members who serve
as clear role models for others and summarize the unique character of an organization.

Rites and Rituals, The rites and rituals of an organization are the ceremonies and other
scheduled routines that help define the company's expectations regarding employees, a
company that entertains career workers for their time with the company with
recognition and badges for every five years of connection that they proudly display, is
quite different from those that do not pay attention to the length of service and barely
reward their best salespeople and other important performers and these are differences
from companies that have rites and rituals, For both aspects these symbolic acts say a lot
about the organization and need to be observed carefully.

The culture of an organization provides the social context in which and through which it
performs its work, guides its members in making decisions, how time and energy are
invested, formal evaluation of the organization's current culture and its potential impact
on the implementation of the strategic plan is executed as part of the performance audit
and gap analysis phases of the applied strategic planning process.

Analysis of the organization's culture is also useful to surface issues that may interfere
with the strategic planning process itself.

Interest groups: individuals, groups and organizations that will receive the impact of the
strategic plan or that may possibly be interested in it in the planning process of the
organization. This analysis must take into account the values that the different interest
groups and their respective groups presuppose. resources, status, freedom of action,
relationships and activities that may be affected by changes and modifications in the
strategic direction of the organization.

By identifying the various interest groups we will understand the values of these groups.

By examining evident stakeholder behaviors over time and supporting the underlying
values that these behaviors represent.

25
 CONCLUSIONS
 Without a doubt, companies are totally dependent on their environments, but
above all it is important to highlight that the company-environment relationship
must exist at all times, since its success and, above all, its participation in the
market it serves will depend on it.
 In strategic planning it is important to monitor the organization's environments,
in order to allow us to know what type of competitors we have; Knowing how
the internal environment is, since through this aspect we can know how
customers perceive the organization since the success of the company will
depend on this.
 It is an enormous challenge for an organization to seriously “work” on its
values, which adds to the daily challenges that the market presents. However,
deciding to invest time and resources in this task results in the creation of a
strong company, in which its members achieve their objectives more efficiently
and satisfactorily and feel united and motivated to be part of it.
 For an adequate search for values for the organization, teamwork is necessary, as
well as actively obtaining everyone's participation, because this will help
determine the values for the organization more easily.
 Organizational values not only influence work environment situations but are
also definitive in areas as varied as competitiveness strategies, creation of
services for our clients, work relationships, innovation processes or investment
decisions, which is why they need to have meaning. practical so as not to
become good intentions published in a table but rather contain a clear practical
usefulness for all members and for this it is necessary to make them known.
 The role of companies in society has evolved enormously, largely due to the
“pressure” of different interest groups that gain weight and influence in the
decisions and the future of the company itself without a good analysis of the
interest groups. Any strategic planning will not have an effect on an
organization.

26