The Institutionalization of Private Sector Strategic Planning Methods in a Public Sector Research & Development Organization: The Naval Surface Warfare Center Case 1982-1989. Executive Summary

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 executive 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 destiny. As a result of undertaking strategic planning, the organization has accrued numerous tangible and intangible benefits from having worked through the process for 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 and deploying limited public assets. (SDW)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1990
Accession Number
ADA225296

Entities

People

  • Frencis E. Baker Jr

Organizations

  • Naval Surface Warfare Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Commerce
  • Corporations
  • Couplings
  • Department Of Defense
  • Engineering
  • Environment
  • Governments
  • Leadership
  • National Governments
  • Navy
  • Patient Care
  • Personnel Management
  • Security
  • Surface Warfare
  • Training
  • United States Government
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Economics
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.