[MUSIC] What must permeate throughout your entire business plan is some prioritization. And you need to have a prioritizing criteria when evaluating and selecting your specific strategy. Some evaluation criteria may be more important than others. And this may depend upon the mission and the objectives of the organization, the environmental and resource factors, the market position of the organization. Are you there just to survive, or do you want a sustained competitive advantage? The importance that's attributed to options by parts of the organization. Headquarters versus a subsidiary, for instance. Who will be playing an important role within your organization? Commercial organizations are looking for profit and survival. These are usually the basic objectives of any commercial organization. The needs and aspirations of other stakeholders usually modify these goals. The main issues for prioritizing criteria are to focus on number one, consistency with the mission and objectives. Two, building on the core competencies of the organization. Three, avoiding or eliminating weaknesses of the organization. These should be ranked in order of general importance to the business. Not-for-profit organizations. These organizations focus on public service. It's important to add value in these bodies, although the generation of a surplus for shareholders is not the primary objective. These organizations tend to rely on voluntary support and/or employee commitment. They have a strong sense of mission. They may have multiple goals, and often have complex decision making processes. They can be exposed to social and political pressures, and also have less quantifiable objectives. Remember, they're not there to make a profit. The evaluation process in a not-for-profit organization may be subject to more complex pressures than for a commercial organization. Prioritizing evaluation criteria may depend on similar factors to commercial organizations, but the process tends to be more ambiguous. There can be different viewpoints within the organization. Headquarters and the strategic business units, for instance, that make up an organization. And they may perceive the benefits of options differently. Experience and access to information of the two levels are likely to be different. Typically, we might expect that the headquarters, they want an overview of the organization. An overview of the environment. They want to identify synergies within the organization. They have a financial perspective on the allocation of resources. And they take a lead in national and international decision making. They have a keen interest in the strategic outcome. The smaller strategic business units, however, are much more focused on the specifics of the organizational strategy. They tend to have better information, more detailed information. And they have experience of customer needs that are specific to their environment. They have on the ground local information. They may be therefore better able to identify opportunities and threats. And they're more aware of their own core competencies and resources. They have an interest in their own survival, or development for that matter. Individual project managers for cross-departmental projects, they may have better information on the specific project for instance. They may be best informed to evaluate projects, and are likely to have an interest in the strategic outcome of a project. Since organizations rely on their internal and external stakeholders for achieving their strategy, consideration of their needs and expectations is important to the success of those specific strategies. Sometimes compromises may be essential. [MUSIC]
