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Transcript of strategic planning
Contents
UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLANNING IN ORGANIZATIONS:........................................................................................................................3
UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS ON ORGANIZATIONS:........................................................................................................................6
UNDERSTAND THE STRATEGIES THAT ORGANIZATIONS USE TO ACHIEVE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE:.................................................................................................12
REFRENCES:................................................................................................................................18
3
UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF STRATEGIC
BUSINESS PLANNING IN ORGANIZATIONS:
A goal can be defined as a specific desires state over a specific period of time. The goals are
established in an organization to attain the objectives developed according to the mission and
vision statement of the organization. The mission and vision statements explain the purpose of
organization as well as its broader future perspective respectively. Developing best objectives
and strategies do not work for an organization until and unless they develop goals which ensure
their success. Organizations should use the SMART principle when setting goals. SMART is an
acronym for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time Bound.
Specific: Goals should be very specific and clear. After communicating the goals, corporate
leaders should make sure employees in the organization understand the what, why and how of
the goals as well as are able to identify how they can benefit from and help to implement the
goals. This is often referred as buy-in, where all employees or team members personally identify
with the goals and the corporate mission behind the goals. A lack of employee buy-in can
significantly undermine the effective implementation of goals.
Measurable: If you don't measure it, you cannot manage it. This is a key attribute that many
corporate leaders and goal setters do not consider when setting goals. It's often an afterthought.
So, during the goal-setting process, goal setters should ask themselves, "Is it measurable?" If the
goal is measurable, then it fits the SMART framework. There are tools and techniques corporate
managers can use to manage the goal. One popular methodology used by large corporations is
the balanced scorecard methodology. The balanced scorecard is a measurement and performance
tracking methodology used to measure and balance financial, customer, process and innovation
goals daily.
Actionable: Goals should be actionable. Actionable goals are goals where each employee or
team member knows exactly what she has to do and when. For this reason, goals cannot be
vague, too broad or based too far in the future. The strategic mission and vision can be lofty and
motivational, but bottom line goals must be immediately actionable.
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Realistic: falls in line with actionable. Realistic goals are believable. Believable goals are
actionable. For this reason, goal setters should make sure that goals are realistic for employees
and team members. To support this realistic requirement, goal setters must ensure employees and
team members have the skills, tools and resources they need to accomplish the goals.
Time Bound: A goal is not a goal unless it is time bound. To establish urgency and motivate
immediate action, set a clear start and completion date.
Values are the standards that guide our conduct in a variety of settings. An organization’s values
might be thought of as a moral compass for its business practices. While circumstances may
change, ideally values do not. Organizational values guide your organization’s thinking and
actions. You can think of your organizational values in terms of dimensions: prosocial, market,
financial, achievement, and artistic. Your values are your corporate culture. When it comes to
culture and values, actions speak louder than words. To figure out your organizational values,
see what people spend their time on and what they talk about. Vision and mission statements
provide direction, focus, and energy to accomplish shared goals. Values express the integrity that
individuals and organizations believe in. They serve as a decision-making tool in daily
interactions that guide behavior. Ultimately, defining and adoption of organizational values must
be an organizational commitment. Values are living (not static), traits or qualities that help define
the organization and the people who work there. Integrating these values must be a priority for
everyone, therefore, include everyone in the decision making process. The values of an
organization express what it stands for and guide everyone’s behavior when dealing with
everything from product development, to each other, to customers and suppliers.
Support an employee's behavior by demonstrating to them (likely through training), how they
can use these values as they would use tools to do their job. Measure and reward their success by
integrating them into each employee's performance objectives. It's not easy work, but it is
valuable in aligning the goals and objectives of your organization, your departments and your
employee.
How Do You Find Organizational Values: Grady writes the following point on finding the
values?
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In order to understand and identify the values of an organization and to gauge their
influence on the company, managers must carefully examine how that organization
operates.
While it may be helpful to listen to people describe what they believe the values of the
organization are, it is far better to observe those people in their day-to-day activities.
Note how employees spend their time, how they communicate within the organization
and how they go about their daily job responsibilities and tasks.
Although values are often difficult to define, they are usually revealed by employees’
actions and thinking, how they set their priorities, and how they allocate their time and
energy. An employee’s actions are more revealing than their words
UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT OF INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL FACTORS ON ORGANIZATIONS:
Strategic business management and planning is the basic need of an organization. It helps to
establish the strategic goals for an organization and also the way to achieve them. Strategic
planning is to a business what a map is to a road rally driver. It is a tool that defines the routes
that when taken will lead to the most likely probability of getting from where the business is to
where the owners or stakeholders want it to go. And like a road rally, strategic plans meet
detours and obstacles that call for adapting and adjusting as the plan is implemented.
Strategic planning is a process that brings to life the mission and vision of the enterprise.
A strategic plan, well crafted and of value, is driven from the top down; considers the internal
and external environment around the business; is the work of the managers of the business; and
is communicated to all the business stakeholders, both inside and outside of the company.
As a company grows and as the business environment becomes more complex the need for
strategic planning becomes greater. There is a need for all people in the corporation to
understand the direction and mission of the business. Companies consistently applying a
disciplined approach to strategic planning are better prepared to evolve as the market changes
and as different market segments require different needs for the products or services of the
company. The benefit of the discipline that develops from the process of strategic planning,
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leads to improved communication. It facilitates effective decision-making, better selection of
tactical options and leads to a higher probability of achieving the owners’ or stakeholders’ goals
and objectives.
External environment aims to help an organization to obtain opportunities and threats that will
affect the organization’s competitive situation. External opportunities are characteristics of the
external environment that have the potential to help the organization achieve or exceed its
strategic goals. External threats are characteristics of the external environment that may prevent
the organization from achieving its strategic goals. Therefore, organizations must formulate
appropriate strategies to take advantage of the opportunities while overcome the threats in order
to achieve their strategic goals. The external environment consists of variables that are outside
the organization and not typically within the short-run control of top management. They may be
general forces within the macro or remote environment, which consists of political-legal,
economic, socio-cultural, technological forces – usually called PEST. Political-legal force
influences strategy formulation through government and law intervention. For example, the
environment law requires the world’s automobile manufacturers to reduce emission of green
house gasses, and therefore these manufacturers have to reformulate their product strategy.
Economic force influences strategy formulation through economic growth, interest rates,
exchange rates and the inflation rate. For example, exchange rates affect the costs of exporting
goods and the supply and price of imported goods in an economy, and thus influence strategy
formulation of exporters. Socio-cultural force is about the cultural aspects, health consciousness,
population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. Trends in
social-cultural factors affect the demand for a company's products and how that company
operates. For example, increasing health consciousness can influence strategy formulation of
fast-food companies that may have to adopt product innovation strategy, so on and so forth.
Stakeholders can be defined as all entities that are impacted through a business running its
operations and conducting other activities related to its existence. The impact can be direct in the
case of the business's customers and suppliers or indirect in the case of the communities in which
the business chooses to place its locations. Businesses must consider the needs and expectations
of its stakeholders, though it need not consider them to be of equal importance. Certain
stakeholders such as owners and investors are more important than others. The impact of
7
stakeholder needs and expectations on businesses is inescapable and ubiquitous. Businesses exist
to meet the expectations of one specific stakeholder in the sense that businesses are set up and
operated to produce profit for their owners and investors. Businesses also must consider the
needs and expectations of other stakeholders because of their ability to help and hinder their
operations. For example, a business should be considerate of its host communities because that
improves its reputation and strengthens its market presence. On the other hand, if the business
chooses to ignore its host communities, that disregard becomes a black mark on its reputation
and can result in other sanctions if relations become bad enough. The only stakeholders that
businesses can ignore are the ones with little interest and influence on their operations.
Forecasting techniques help organizations plan for the future. Some are based on subjective
criteria and often amount to little more than wild guesses or wishful thinking. Others are based
on measurable, historical quantitative data and are given more credence by outside parties, such
as analysts and potential investors. While no forecasting tool can predict the future with
complete certainty, they remain essential in estimating an organization's forward prospects.
DELPHI TECHNIQUE:
The RAND Corporation developed the Delphi Technique in the late 1960s. In the Delphi
Technique, a group of experts responds to a series of questionnaires. The experts are kept apart
and unaware of each other. The results of the first questionnaire are compiled, and a second
questionnaire based on the results of the first is presented to the experts, who are asked to
reevaluate their responses to the first questionnaire. This questioning, compilation and
requisitioning continue until the researchers have a narrow range of opinions.
SCENARIO WRITING:
In Scenario Writing, the forecaster generates different outcomes based on different starting
criteria. The decision-maker then decides on the most likely outcome from the numerous
scenarios presented. Scenario writing typically yields best, worst and middle options.
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SUBJECTIVE APPROACH:
Subjective forecasting allows forecasters to predict outcomes based on their subjective thoughts
and feelings. Subjective forecasting uses brainstorming sessions to generate ideas and to solve
problems casually, free from criticism and peer pressure. They are often used when time
constraints prohibit objective forecasts. Subjective forecasts are subject to biases and should be
viewed skeptically by decision-makers.
TIME-SERIES FORECASTING:
Time-series forecasting is a quantitative forecasting technique. It measures data gathered over
time to identify trends. The data may be taken over any interval: hourly; daily; weekly; monthly;
yearly; or longer. Trend, cyclical, seasonal and irregular components make up the time series.
The trend component refers to the data's gradual shifting over time. It is often shown as an
upward- or downward-sloping line to represent increasing or decreasing trends, respectively.
Cyclical components lie above or below the trend line and repeat for a year or longer. The
business cycle illustrates a cyclical component. Seasonal components are similar to cyclical in
their repetitive nature, but they occur in one-year periods. The annual increase in gas prices
during the summer driving season and the corresponding decrease during the winter months is an
example of a seasonal event. Irregular components happen randomly and cannot be predicted.
Broadly speaking, the environment of business is composed of the microenvironment and
microenvironment. The microenvironment is also called the operating, competitive or task
environment. It consists of sets of forces and conditions that originate with suppliers,
distributors, customers, creditors, competitors, and shareholders, as well as trade unions, and the
community in which the business operates. These forces, on a daily basis, impact the
organization’s ability to obtain inputs and discharge of its outputs. Factors in the
microenvironment are largely within the control of the managers. In this way, organizations can
be much more proactive in dealing with the task environment than in dealing with the macro
environment.
Forces in the microenvironment result from the actions of four main elements or groups, namely
suppliers, distributors, customers, and competitors. These groups affect the manager’s or firm’s
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ability to produce on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, and thus significantly impact short-term
decision making. Let’s examine these main actors.
Suppliers:
Suppliers are individuals or organizations that provide (supply) an enterprise with the various
inputs (such as raw materials, component parts, or employees) required for production. It is
important that the manager ensures a reliable supply of input resources. The effectiveness of the
supply system determines the organization’s long-term survival and growth.
Changes in the nature, numbers, or types of any supplier result in forces that produce
opportunities and threats to which the managers must respond if their organization is to prosper.
Another major supplier-related threat that confronts managers pertains to prices of inputs. When
supplies bargaining position with an organization is so strong, they can raise the prices of inputs
that they supply the organization.
A supplier’s bargaining position is especially strong if the supplier is the source of an input and
if input is vital to the organization.
Distributors:
In the microenvironment of business, another group of actors are distributors. Distributors are
organizations that help other organizations sell their goods and services to customers. The
decisions that managers make on how to distribute products to customers can have an important
effect on organizational performance. The changing nature of distributors and distribution
methods can also bring opportunities and threats for managers. If distributors are so large and
powerful that they can threaten the organization by demanding that it reduces the prices of its
goods and services, then, the manager becomes constrained and challenged. In contrast, the
power of the distribution may be weakened if there are many options or alternatives.
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Customers:
Customers are another group of actors in the operating environment of business. Customers
are the individuals and groups that buy the goods and services that an enterprise produces,
changes in the numbers and types of customers or changes in customers’ tastes and needs result
in opportunities and threats. A forward looking organization must meet the needs and wants of
its customers or exceed the customers’ expectations. The organization must have a customer
orientation to succeed in this competitive, unpredictable and challenging business environment.
Competitors:
Competitors are businesses that produce goods and services that are similar to a particular
organization’s goods and services. Put differently, they are organizations that are vying for same
customers. Rivalry between competitors is potentially the most threatening force that managers
must deal with. A high level of rivalry often results in price competition, and falling prices
reduce access to resources and lower profit.
MacroEnvironment:
This environment refers to the wide ranging economic, socio-cultural, political and legal, and
technological forces that affect the organization and its operating environment. These forces
originate beyond the firm’s operating situation. The macro environment is also called the
external or remote environment. The macro environment presents threats and opportunities that
are often difficult to grapple with (that is, identify and respond to), than with events in the
microenvironment.
Economic:
The economic forces have significant impact on the success of any organization. These forces
on factors affect the conditions of procurement (buying) and sales market. In the same vein,
during periods of unhealthy economic growth occasioned by such factors as inflation, rising
unemployment, high interest rates, and high taxes, among others, individuals as well as
businesses have problems. This is more serious in the case of emerging enterprises, or new
entrants.
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Political:
The political and legal forces are paralleled to the social environment. This is because laws are
ordinarily passed following social pressures and problems. Others are equal employment
opportunity, contract of employment, and law of collective bargaining, among others. These
regulations influence business operations either positively or negatively. Besides, political and
government leaders, the actions or political activities by pressure groups and lobbying groups
should be taken into consideration, when considering investments or projects.
Technological:
Technological forces or factors could be said to be the most pervasive in the environment.
Technology refers to the application of knowledge base which science provides. It is a well
established fact that information and communication technology has revolutionized business
operations. Consequently, organizations that apply knowledge that is rapidly changing and
complex are highly vulnerable. These changes bring about new inventions and gradual
improvements in methods, in design, in materials, in application, in efficiency, and diffusion into
new industries. Corporate managers must adapt or adjust to these changes, in order to survive
and prosper in this competitive and challenging business environment. The changes constitute
threats and opportunities for any manager.
Socio-cultural:
Socio-cultural forces have to do with the attitudes and values of the society, and these to a great
extent, shape behavior. Changes in socio-cultural factors also impact the business enterprise in
its internal relations with employees within the context of changes in attitude to work changes in
political awareness, and cultural norms, among others. In sum, the impact of the social forces is
felt in changing needs, tastes, and preferences of consumers, in relation with employees, and in
expectations of society form the company with regard to its social responsibility.
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UNDERSTAND THE STRATEGIES THAT
ORGANIZATIONS USE TO ACHIEVE
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE:High-performance organizations consistently outperform competitors and realize bottom-line
impact from their human capital functions. To outperform the competitors an organization can:
1. Set clear growth and profitability goals. Not just a fuzzy idea of where you want to be
next week, next month or next year – your goals must be much more specific. What are
your sales targets? What steps do you need to take each week to meet your sales goals?
Break it down into small steps. The problem most small businesses face is too much
distraction, too many projects at once, too little focus. It’s a lot easier to beat the
competition when you are focused on it.
2. Know your customers’ needs and wants better than your competitors. If you haven’t
done a customer survey within the past 12 months, it’s time for one. And communicate the
results widely through your company – a survey is no good unless you use the data
gathered. Most companies do not share their survey results widely internally – you’ll be
better than average if you do. Or go on customer visits. Call on your customers to see how
they are doing, or whether they have any problems you can help them with. You’ll get a
chance to see them in their working environment, which will help you understand their needs
better.
3. Find out why customers leave. Are you spending more time bringing a customer into your
sales process than figuring out why they left? You’re not alone – many companies
(including competitors) put their efforts on filling the sales funnel, but never bother to track
or analyze lost sales or lost customers. This dooms you to an endless replay of the same
mistakes over and over, like something out of the movie Groundhog Day. Put in place a
formal process to ask customers why they are cancelling your service or why they chose a
competitor’s product. This can be done by phone or by online questionnaire. Compile the
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results into a report that is shared with managers and other key personnel each month.
You’ll soon spot patterns suggesting weaknesses to fix.
4. Focus outside the 4 walls – and use social media to help. Know your competitors, what
they are offering, their marketplace reputation and their weaknesses and strengths. Insist that
your product development, sales, marketing and customer service personnel become and stay
familiar with competitive offerings. Comparisons should be to external standards – i.e., how
your company stacks up against competitors. Don’t compare progress to internal standards.
Checking out what competitors are doing…and even their reputation in the marketplace…
has never been easier with social media.
5. Know your “customer numbers.” Do you know your customer retention rate? Do you
know your acquisition cost for new customers, i.e., how much it costs to get each new
customer? These metrics can be eye-opening, and may cause you to rethink how much
effort you place on getting new customers once you realize the typical high cost. Companies
that track these two metrics better appreciate the value of keeping existing customers happy.
6. Benchmark. Have you measured your progress against others in your industry? Sure, you
want your business to be unique/original/one of a kind. But it makes sense to measure how
your business performs compared to others with roughly similar products, services or
business models. Knowing how your business stacks up can tell you how much and where to
improve.
7. Review, review, review. None of this stuff will be any good to your business if you don’t
track your results and review your findings, not just day to day in the beginning while it
remains a shiny new priority but monthly/quarterly/yearly to determine whether you’re on
the right path.
A firm positions itself by leveraging its strengths. Michael Porter has argued that a firm's
strengths ultimately fall into one of two headings: cost advantage and differentiation. By
applying these strengths in either a broad or narrow scope, three generic strategies result: cost
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leadership, differentiation, and focus. These strategies are applied at the business unit level. They
are called generic strategies because they are not firm or industry dependent. The following table
illustrates Porter's generic strategies:
Cost Leadership Strategy
This generic strategy calls for being the low cost producer in an industry for a given level of
quality. The firm sells its products either at average industry prices to earn a profit higher than
that of rivals, or below the average industry prices to gain market share. In the event of a price
war, the firm can maintain some profitability while the competition suffers losses. Even without
a price war, as the industry matures and prices decline, the firms that can produce more cheaply
will remain profitable for a longer period of time. The cost leadership strategy usually targets a
broad market.
Firms that succeed in cost leadership often have the following internal strengths:
Access to the capital required to make a significant investment in production assets; this
investment represents a barrier to entry that many firms may not overcome.
Skill in designing products for efficient manufacturing, for example, having a small
component count to shorten the assembly process.
High level of expertise in manufacturing process engineering.
Efficient distribution channels.
Differentiation Strategy
A differentiation strategy calls for the development of a product or service that offers unique
attributes that are valued by customers and that customers perceive to be better than or different
from the products of the competition. The value added by the uniqueness of the product may
allow the firm to charge a premium price for it. The firm hopes that the higher price will more
than cover the extra costs incurred in offering the unique product. Because of the product's
unique attributes, if suppliers increase their prices the firm may be able to pass along the costs to
its customers who cannot find substitute products easily.
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Firms that succeed in a differentiation strategy often have the following internal strengths:
Access to leading scientific research.
Highly skilled and creative product development team.
Strong sales team with the ability to successfully communicate the perceived strengths of
the product.
Corporate reputation for quality and innovation.
Focus Strategy
The focus strategy concentrates on a narrow segment and within that segment attempts to
achieve either a cost advantage or differentiation. The premise is that the needs of the group can
be better serviced by focusing entirely on it. A firm using a focus strategy often enjoys a high
degree of customer loyalty, and this entrenched loyalty discourages other firms from competing
directly. Because of their narrow market focus, firms pursuing a focus strategy have lower
volumes and therefore less bargaining power with their suppliers. However, firms pursuing a
differentiation-focused strategy may be able to pass higher costs on to customers since close
substitute products do not exist. Firms that succeed in a focus strategy are able to tailor a broad
range of product development strengths to a relatively narrow market segment that they know
very well.
Businesses that survive the shakeout face new challenges as market growth stagnates. As a
market matures, total volume stabilizes; replacement purchases rather than first-time buyers
account for the vast majority of that volume. A primary marketing objective of all competitors in
mature markets, therefore, is simply to hold their existing customers—to sustain a meaningful
competitive advantage that will help ensure the continued satisfaction and loyalty of those
customers. Thus, a product’s financial success during the mature life-cycle stage depends heavily
on the firm’s ability to achieve and sustain a lower delivered cost or some perceived product
quality or customer-service superiority. Some firms tend to passively defend mature products
while using the bulk of the revenues produced by those items to develop and aggressively market
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new products with more growth potential. This can be shortsighted, however. All segments of a
market and all brands in an industry do not necessarily reach maturity at the same time. Aging
brands such as Adidas, Johnson’s baby shampoo, and Arm & Hammer baking soda experienced
sales revivals in recent years because of creative Marketing Strategies. Thus, a share leader in a
mature industry might build on a cost or product differentiation advantage and pursue
a Marketing Strategy aimed at increasing volume by promoting new uses for an old product or
by encouraging current customers to buy and use the product more often. Thus, success in
mature markets requires two sets of strategic actions: (1) the development of a well-implemented
business strategy to sustain a competitive advantage, customer satisfaction, and loyalty; and (2)
flexible and creative marketing programs geared to pursue growth or profit opportunities as
conditions change in specific product-markets.
Eventually, technological advances, changing customer demographics, tastes, or lifestyles, and
development of substitutes result in declining demand for most product forms and brands. As a
product starts to decline, managers face the critical question of whether to divest or liquidate the
business. Unfortunately, firms sometimes support dying products too long at the expense of
current profitability and the aggressive pursuit of future breadwinners. An appropriate marketing
strategy can, however, produce substantial sales and profits even in a declining market. If few
exit barriers exist, an industry leader might attempt to increase market share via aggressive
pricing or promotion policies aimed at driving out weaker competitors. Or it might try to
consolidate the industry, as Johnson Controls has done in its automotive components businesses,
by acquiring weaker brands and reducing overhead by eliminating both excess capacity and
duplicate marketing programs. Alternatively, a firm might decide to harvest a mature product by
maximizing cash flow and profit over the product’s remaining life. When the market
environment in a declining industry is unattractive or a business has a relatively weak
competitive position, the firm may recover more of its investment by selling the business in the
early stages of decline rather than later. The earlier the business is sold, the more uncertain
potential buyers are likely to be about the future direction of demand in the industry and thus the
more likely that a willing buyer can be found.
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No organization is immune to risk. Moreover, each organization's business risks change
constantly. The nature and consequences of business risks facing organizations are becoming
more complex and substantial. The speed of change, higher customer expectations, increased
competition, rapid changes in technology, and countless other factors affect organizations in
ways that managers are often unprepared to handle. Risk is inherent in operating a business or
running a program; an organization cannot eliminate business risks. Management has to decide
how much risk is acceptable and to create a control structure to keep those risks within
appropriate limits. The key to business risk management is achieving a proper balance of risk
and control. An organization must expose itself to a certain level of risk to satisfy the
expectations of its customers and stakeholders. A balance is achieved when the risk and reward
expectations of stakeholders are understood and a system of controls that appropriately responds
to the organization's risk exposure is in place. Therefore, a research institution's strategic
management process should be designed to reduce business risk and attain its goals and
objectives by implementing an appropriate and effective control environment.
If management fails to identify a significant risk or does not adequately consider business risks,
the organization is unlikely to have in place control activities to manage those risks.
Alternatively, if management does not consider environmental changes carefully, its existing
control activities may no longer be adequate or appropriate. However, if an organization has a
strong risk-management process, including an effective control environment, management can be
reasonably sure that it has identified the significant business risks and responded to them
appropriately.
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