Stratejik planlama ve Türk otomobil sanayiinde bir inceleme

Abstract

Gittikçe artan bir oranda belirsizliğe bürünen, ani değişiklik ve gelişmelerle yapısının karmaşıklığı artan bir çevrede faaliyet gösteren organizasyonların etkin bir şekilde yönetilmeleri hayati önem taşımaktadır. Cazip fırsatlar kadar, firmalar için tehlike ya da tehdit oluşturabilecek unsurları da içeren çevrede uzun dönemde en az kayıpla var olabilmek amacıyla işletmelerin kuvvetli ve zayıf yönlerini çevre ile uyumlaştıracak stratejiler geliştirmeleri gerekmektedir. Bu açıdan, her tipte ve büyüklükteki işletmelerde stratejik planlama kavramının benimsenmesi ve yerleştirilmesi gündeme gelmektedir. Temel amacı, organizasyonun hedefleri ve kaynakları ile değişen pazar fırsatları arasında sürekli bir uyum geliştirmek ve sürdürmek olan stratejik planlama, geleceğe hak kazanmak için bugün ne yapılması gerektiği sorusu ile bugünün işletmesini yarına hazırlayan, geleceğin şekillendirilmesine yönelik bir faaliyettir. Stratejik planlamanın sağladığı analiz boyutu ile, organizasyonun ve çevrenin daha iyi tanınması, daha fazla alternatifin keşfedilmesi, daha doğru tahminlerde bulunulması ve daha etkin kararlar alınması gibi avantajlara sahip olunacaktır. Ancak, stratejik planlamanın söz edilen bu yararları tam anlamıyla sağlaması, organizasyonlarda sistematik bir süreç olarak işletilmesine bağlıdır. Misyonun belirlenmesi ve amaçların oluşturulması ile başlayan, bunlara erişmek için işletme ve çevre analizlerinin yürütülmesi, çeşitli politika ve stratejilerin belirlenmesi ile devam eden ve söz konusu stratejilerin uygulanması için ayrıntılı planlar geliştir¬ meyi kapsayan bu sürecin her aşamasının firmalar tarafından uzun vadede hayatta kalma ve kârlılık gibi temel hedeflerini gerçekleştirmeleri yolunda ciddiyetle ele alınması gerekmektedir. Stratejik planlama ile ilgili temel alınan bu bilgiler doğrultusunda çalışmanın araştırma kısmında ele alınan Türk otomobil firmalarında, konuya karşı oldukça olumlu bir yaklaşım olmasına rağmen organizasyonlarda, stratejik planlama faaliyetlerinin bilinçli ve sistematik olarak gerçekleştirilmediği, söz konusu sistemin tam anlamıyla kurulmuş olmadığı gözlenmiştir. Özellikle otomobil sanayii gibi, çevredeki değişikliğin firmalar açısından önemli sonuçlara yol açabileceği, yoğun rekabetin şekillendirdiği sektörlerde firmalar, uzun vadede kalıcılık ve rekabet üstünlüğü sağlamak, faaliyetlerinde etkinliğe ulaşmak açısından yönetimlerinde stratejik planlamanın sağlayacağı avantajları göz ardı etmemelidirler.

The main and the most important task of the manager of today's complex company who is surrounded by a complex environment with many uncertainties, is to match the strengths and the weaknesses of the organization with the opportunities and the threats of the environment. And the composition of the characteristics of this matching process will constitute the concept of "strategy". Strategy is concerned with the rules for guidance of organizational behaviour to reach the final goals. it is different from policies, plans, tactics, programs, proce- dures and is superior to these concepts at the firm's hierarchy of objectives. Indeed, the strategy is the pattern of objectives, purpo- ses, majör policies and plans for achieving the goals, stated in such a way as to define what business the company is in ör is to be in and the kind of company it is to be. Thus, the strategies have critical impor- tance about the existence of the firm; they give it the direction to reach its main goals. For this reason, ali of the companies must have at least öne strategy. Strategic planning, which appears as a new mana- gement concept as a result of the social and environmental changes, is concerned with the development of strategies for the firm's long range survival and grovrth. At the early 1970's, the changes in the environment such as the energy crisis, rapid technological developments, the maturing stag- nation of certain markets, and increased international competition forced managers to develop a systematic means of analyzing the envi¬ ronment, assessing their organization's strengths and weaknesses and identifying opportunities where the organization could have a compe- titive advantage. Thus the value of strategic planning began to be recognized. in general, strategic planning can be defined as to produce strategies appropriate to the firm's objectives. it includes the decisions given by the managers by the attempt of matching organi¬ zational strengths and weaknesses to the environmental opportunities and threats. At this point of view, strategic planning is the mana- gerial process of developing and maintaining a viable fit between the organization's objectives and resources and its changing market oppor¬ tunities. The aim of strategic planning is to shape and reshape the company's businesses and products so that they combine to produce satisfactory profits and growth. By asking what to do today to deserve - xii - the future, strategic planning prepares today's business for the future. It requires top management to go through the processes of taking the time to think about their business, where they are with the business, where and what they want to be as organization, writing all of those thoughts and ideas down on paper; and then developing, evalu ating and implementing action programs and strategies to get from where they are to where they want to be at the end of a reasonable, forese eable time horizon. Strategic planning does not eliminate risk; it just reduces risk by identifying future threats and opportunities so that management can develop strategies to deal with them. Strategic planning is a continous activity utilized by every company at any size and at any type; it is under the responsibility of top management and is interrelated with the whole managerial process at each level of the organization. Strategic planning is not forecasting; it is essentially directed to shape the future. But it does not deal with future deci sions; it deals with the futurity of present decisions. As a final step, it is possible to define strategic planning as the continous process of making present risk-taking decisions systematically and with the greatest knowledge of their futurity; organizing systematically the efforts needed to carry out these decisions; and measuring the results of these decisions against the expectations through organized, syste matic feedback. Strategic planning differs in many characteristics from the other types of planning in the organization. First of all, strategic planning is a type of long range plan. There are various interpretations about the time span of strategic planning; as a general commentary, it is accepted three years as a base of developing strategic plans. But, the se plans which are formed on three years, have to be revised perio dically and necessary adjustements should be done. Strategic planning should include all of the long range plans in the company and direct them appropriately. Strategic plans are concerned with all the factors of the environment; they arrange the relations between the firm and the whole environment and this is a main characteristic which differentiate strategic plans from others. Strategic planning is very useful to the managers and the compa nies in many respects. First of all, it provides to take precautions against the changing environment and to take benefits from the oppor tunities occuring in the environment. At the same time, strategic plan ning is seen as a tool providing the organization a direction. In this way, the activities which will approach the firm to its objectives can be determined and the company can work efficiently. The analysis dimen- - xiii - sion of the strategic planning provides managers more informations to take right decisions. Therefore, it will be possible to know more accu- rately the environment and the firm, to discover more alternatives, to make more suitable forecasts and to take more efficient decisions. Strategic planning can realize the advantages mentioned above only through a systematic process established in the organization. This process can be formed by searching answers in the firm to some ques- tions such as: "Where are we? Hhere do we want to go? How?" Essen- tially, the answers to these questions will provide the formation of the process and the firm will go through some steps of this process when operating in the complex environment. it will define the organi- zation's mission, scan the environment to ascertain opportunities, then merge this assessment with an evaluation of the organization's streng- ths and weaknesses to identify an exploitable niche in which the orga¬ nization wil1 have a competitive advantage. The starting point of the strategic planning process is to deter- mine organization's mission and objectives. Defining the organization's mission forces management to identify carefully the scope of its pro- ducts ör services. The mission statement should answer the question "what is our business?" and should be clear, well-defined. Besides, the mission statement which includes market needs rather than concentrate on product/technology terms, will have positive effects on the long range success of the firm. Objectives will translate the mission into concrete terms. The firm can define short range ör long range objec¬ tives in ali areas upon which the organization's survival depends; but these objectives should be specific, measurable, feasible, acceptable and clear. The greatest success in the strategic planning process is gained when ali key personnel participate at the determination of organization's objectives. The more important steps of the strategic planning process are internal (organizational) and external (environmental) analysis which are performed simultaneously. External analysis refers to examine the uncontrollable environmental factors of the firm. in general, the company has to monitör key macro environment forces (demographic/ economic, technological, politic/legal, and social/cultural) that affect its business. And it must monitör significant tnicro environment actors (customers, competitors, distribution channels, suppliers) that affects its ability to earn profits in the marketplace. The results of the external analysis will present the opportunities and the threats for the firm. Through the internal analysis, the firm evaluates its - xiv - resources and capabilities and finds out its strengths and weaknesses. As a result, these analysis will give the firm its strategic profile. Determination of the mission and objectives, analysis of the organi zation and the environment can be accepted as infrastructure work for developing strategies to reach the goals. To choose the appropriate strategy for the firm which is the final step of the process, alter native strategies and activities have to be evaluated. To develop strategies, the firm has to analyze firstly its current portfolio including its products or businesses and then develop growth strate gies. The companies which produce various products and operate in more than one business can define strategic business units (SBU) in order to manage them strategically. SBU is a single business or collection of related businesses that can be planned separately and, in principle, can stand above from the rest of the company. It has its own compe titors and its own mission. It has a manager who is responsible for strategic planning and profit performance. The purpose of identifying strategic business units is to assign these units strategic planning responsibilities. The firm can utilize portfolio analysis to evaluate SBU according to several criteria such as market growth rate, relative market share, competitive position, market attractiveness, etc. Two of the best known portfolio models are the Boston Consulting Group model and the General Electric model. These strategy tools will guide reso urce allocation decisions and after the evaluation, the firm choose one of the growth strategies to provide its development policy. At this step, the firm can identify further opportunities to achieve growth within its current businesses; or it can identify opportunities to build or acquire businesses that are related to the company's current businesses; the third alternative is to identify opportunities to add attractive businesses that are unrelated to the company's current busi nesses. Each of these opportunities includes a broad class of strate gies which the firm can prefer to use to be successful and survive longtime. The success depends on selecting the right strategy; the one that fits with the competitive posture of the organization and the industry of which it is a part. The firm has to analyze how management can create and sustain a competitive advantage that will achieve profi tability above the industry average. Furthermore, companies should not forget that the ultimate objective of strategic planning is to select from a wide variety of product-market possibilities those combinations which appear to offer the highest return to the firm from resources expended. The effectiveness of strategic planning process can be obtained if this process operates as a part of the whole strategic management - xv - process. Strategic planning has to be integrated in the ıvhole process with strategy implementation and control. This later is concerned with making a variety of managerial decisions such as the type of organi- zation structure, leadership styles, management information systems and monitoring and evaluation systems used to ensure that the organization objectives are achieved effectively. Therefore, the key to success of the total planning system is a well administered control and perfor- mance review policy and procedure. Strategic planning is particularly vital for the firms which operate under the intensive competition and in an environment which presents various risks and opportunities. These firms have to analyze themselves and the changing environment, have to establish a point of view of strategic planning in their organizations to be successful and survive in the long run. These opinions have been the starting point of the research part of this study; the Turkish automobile sector is cho- sen as the subject of analysis due to its characteristics. The sector, which is defined as the locomotive sector for industrialization, has many problems beside its developing aspect. The automobile firms ope¬ rate in a highly changing and uncertain environment; furthermore, it is expected that the competition will be more severe when the new producer firms begin their activities. The firms complain about the high tax ratio on the automobile, the unexpected policies of the government and the unstability of Turkish economy. Under these conditions, it is seen that the three majör automobile firms do not develop effective compe- titive strategies. Then, it is intended to analyze these firms which occupy the market (Tofaş, Renault and Otosan) in order to have opinions about their point of view to strategic planning at the end of the rese¬ arch. The findings show that, although there is a positive approach to the concept of strategic planning, it is not possible to conclude that a system is established in the organization of the firms. The Turkish automobile firms should understand that to be succes¬ sful against their current and potential rivals they have to analyze systematically their organization and the environment to create some differentiated advantages in the intensive competitive conditions. This will lead the companies to the success in the market such as profita- bility, high market share, growth ör long run "survival. As these objec¬ tives can be held only through a conscious and continous strategic planning process, it is suggested that the Turkish automobile firms give more importance to this subject critical for their future life.