The Institutionalization of Private Sector Strategic Planning Methods in a Public Sector Research & Development Organization: The Naval Surface Warfare Center Case 1982-1989
Abstract
This MIT Sloan School of Management thesis describes the development, implementation, and institutionalization of private sector corporate-style strategic planning methods in a public sector federal government Department of Defense research and development organization. Corporate-style strategic planning means using a formal integrative strategic planning process whose cornerstone is the segmentation of the organization's activities into strategic business units (SBUs). The role and mission of industrial organizations are key drivers or forcing functions in the process of execution motivation to plan and manage strategically. The U.S. federal system does not, by its design, provide the key driving forces nor foster the planning for efficient strategic management. In 1980, internal and external environmental conditions raised the level of management's attention at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) to the need for a means which would provide a cohesive focus toward the Center's mission and permit some control in shaping its future density. As a result of undertaking strategic planning, the organization has accrued numerous tangible and intangible benefits from having worked through the process of three cycles and from having managers who think more strategically. NSWC has ownership of core skills that has led to a firm-specific advantage (FSA). This FSA endogenous to NSWC is an intangible advantage when competing for the deploying limited public assets.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA223879
Entities
People
- Francis E. Baker Jr.
Organizations
- Naval Surface Warfare Center