Strategic Planning: Why do we need it?

This paper is a synopsis of a panel session at the 1983 IEEE Summer Power Meeting. The panel defined strategic planning, emphasizing that by adopting a strategic planning philosophy, utilities can increase control of their destinies. An actual utility strategic plan was presented and the underlying philosophies were discussed. Two strategic decision support tools were presented and recent applications were illustrated. Both are capable of representing tradeoffs between conflicting objectives, a hallmark of strategy analysis. The panel session concluded that strategic planning is essential for utilities in today's environment.