In simple terms strategic thinking focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value by enabling a provocative and creative dialogue. For universities strategic planning/thinking can also be considered as means of establishing major directions for the university specially in today’s competitive environment. Strategic planning is a structured approach in order to anticipate the future and “exploiting the inevitable” (Keller. G, 1983). A university can easily differentiate themselves from others on the basis of their strategic planning, how they forecast their future. According to McConkey (1981) the essence of strategy is differentiation.
For any university to plan for ICT they have to invest in technology to be able to achieve their goals, however in Australian universities strategic plans set out the mission, core values, goals and broad objectives and associated strategies for the overall university (Richard. A, 1999). Any or all universitiesshould and must have their own strategic planning model, with the help of that it should be able answer why do we exist, who is affected by our work, what are their needs all these should be clear to them under their mission statement. In majority of the cases, strategic planning is much more sensitive to the external environment as compare to long term planning (Richard.A, 1999).
There are various issues associate with universities in how they plan and implement on those plans, mainly because of the reason that universities are unique institutions in their structure and purpose and if they adopt uncritically planning practice they will have major issues. The universityheads must take this matter seriously specially when they seek the interest and involvement of their IT staff. ICT is growing day by day, more and more courses are now being offered by various universities which definitely encourage many students not only locally but internationally to enroll in those programs. So far India being the leader in IT industry, other universities in different countries have to plan strategically so they not only attract more students but at the same time their graduates get employment on nice positions. According to Harman, G.K effecting change in a university is not impossible, but it is inherently more difficult than in most other institutions, public or private.
When all the universities are heavily engaged in the process of strategic planning, the form and general structure of their result will vary. Those who are able to do effective strategic plan can accrue various benefits to the organization as a whole (Simmons and Pohl, 1994). The major benefit universities will get in their ICT department by engaging themselves in strategic plan would be to achieve stability in the organization in spite of increasingly frequent leadership change. On the opposite side, according to Jurinski (1993) says that strategic planning efforts that fail typically do so because the organization underestimated the required amount of time, effort and money from the start.
In short, every process takes time.
Harman, G.K, 1996, Institutional Planning, Higher Education Project, Office of Higher Education, Port Moresby.
Jurinski, J. (1993). Strategic planning. Saranac Lake, NY: American Management Association.
Keller, G. (1983). Academic strategy: The management revolution in American Higher Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
McConkey, D. (1981). Strategic planning in nonprofit organizations. Business Quarterly (School of Business, University of Western Ontario). 46(2), 24–33.
Simmons & Pohl. (1994). Leveraging areas for strategic planning in a university setting. Unpublished manuscript, Office of Quality Improvement, University of Wisconsin- Madison.
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