PROS AND CONS OF STRATEGIC PLANNING OFFICES 2

Pros and Cons of Strategic Planning Offices Within Organizations
A dedicated strategic planning office within an organization can help an organization
improve. Such a team is close enough to the ground to pick up organizational weaknesses in a
way that outside entities may not manage. Additionally, being present in the organization
full-time, the team is likely to determine whether the organization is making progress in a
more accurate manner. Despite these benefits, having a dedicated strategic planning office
within an organization also has cons. For instance, the personnel may be too engrossed in
daily operations to notice any organization problems. Personal biases may also hinder an
appropriate assessment of the problems facing the organization.
Thus, for established organizations, it may not be appropriate to have a dedicated
strategic planning office. Instead of such an office, established organizations are better served
by an offsite team. An offsite team will establish problems facing the organization and what
needs to be done to address them objectively. Instead of basing their findings on their
opinions, they will use interviews and forms of information gathering to assess the
organization’s strengths and weaknesses.
Considering that my organization is a fairly established one, I do not think that having
a dedicated strategic planning office will achieve the desired results. For an organization such
as mine, it would be better to invite an offsite team to facilitate the strategic plan
development process. Inviting such a team will send that the organization is keen on having
an honest assessment of its strengths and weaknesses.
In conclusion, having a dedicated strategic planning office within an organization has
pros and cons. The pros include the ability to notice changes and assess improvements
quickly. In contrast, its cons include personal biases of team members, which prevent them

PROS AND CONS OF STRATEGIC PLANNING OFFICES 3
from correctly identifying problems facing an organization. For established organizations, it
is better to use offsite teams instead of in-house strategic planning teams.