Summary of the lesson: 1. Relationship between Strategic Planning, Social Responsibility and Business Ethics. 2. Strategic Planning issues. 3. Social Responsibilities and Ethics of the SB.

Relationship between Strategic Planning, Social Responsibility and Business Ethics Strategic planning ( SP) is the guiding process used to identify the direction for your business. It spells out a long-term game plan for operating your business. Social responsibilities ( SR) are the obligations of a business to maximize the positive effects it has on society and minimize the negative effects. Ethics ( E) are the rules of moral values that guide decision making—your understanding of the difference between right and wrong. “In many cases, a small business is an extension of the owner’s life and personality”

Let’s look at the SR, E, and SP in the following way: The connection between SR, E, and SP is especially strong in small business. In fact, at a very fundamental level, they are more difficult to separate than to connect. When you assess your company’s external environment for opportunities and threats, you identify what you might do. When you look at your internal strengths and weaknesses, you see what you can do and cannot do. Your personal values are ingrained in the business; they are what you want to do. Your ethical standards will determine what is right for you to do. Finally, in responding to everyone who could be affected by your business, social responsibility guides what you should do.

Strategic Planning issues. Strategic plan - A long-term planning tool used for viewing a business and the environments in which it operates in broadest terms. A good strategic plan is a priority for the SB owners. Strategic planning is a long-range management tool that helps SB respond to environmental changes. provides an overview of your business and all the factors that may affect. formulate goals for your business so as to take advantage of opportunities and avoid threats

Writing a strategic plan generally involves a six-step process: 1. Formulating your mission statement 2. Completing an environmental analysis 3. Performing a competitive analysis 4. Analyzing your strategic alternatives 5. Setting your goals and strategies 6. Setting up a control system

Figure 1. Six-step process

Description 1. Mission Statement. A description of the reason why an organization exists. 2. SWOT analysis. Identifying the internal strengths and weaknesses of a business and the opportunities and threats that exist outside the business. 3. Competitive advantage. The facet of a business that it does better than all of its competitors. 4. Strategic Alternatives. It’s two-step process, you identify what is wrong and then determine what you can do about it steps. 5. Goal Setting and Strategies. the goals that you set must stem from your mission statement. Obviously, goals are needed before you can build a set of strategies. 6. Control Systems. Planning for the future is an inexact science. Very rarely do the actual outcomes of your plans exactly match what you anticipated.

Goals need to be Written in terms of outcomes rather than actions. A good goal states where you want to be, not how you want to get there. For example, a goal should focus on increasing sales rather than on your intention to send one of your brochures to every address in town. Measurable. In order to tell whether you have accomplished a goal, you must be able to measure the outcome. Challenging, yet attainable. Goals that are too easy to accomplish are not motivating. Goals that are not likely to be accomplished are self-defeating and decrease motivation. Communicated to everyone in the company. A team effort is difficult to produce if some of your players don’t know the goals. Written with a time frame for achievement. Performance and motivation increase when people have goals accompanied by a time frame as compared with open-ended goals.

Social Responsibilities of the SB Social responsibilities. The obligation of a business to have a positive effect on society on four levels: economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic.

Ethics of the SB Business ethics means more than simply passing moral judgment on what should and should not be done in a particular situation. It is a link between morality, responsibility, and decision making within the organization A code of ethics is a formal statement of what your business expects in the way of ethical behavior. It can serve as a guide for employee conduct to help employees determine what behaviors are acceptable.