The people who are parties to an organization can all benefit from strategic planning in tangible ways. This includes those who are directly involved such as leaders and employees, and those who are indirectly involved such as customers and clients, and partners, suppliers, investors, and funders. Discussing the people-related benefits of the planning process is rather tricky because many of the benefits are not orthogonal. In practice, this is not a bad thing because advantages in one area will typically mean advantages in other areas.Strategic planning will save you time, get you and your management team focused, and provide a road map to reach your business and personal visions. In any business activity, one looks for benefits. This is especially true in the case of strategic planning and the benefits derived from that process that will flow to your business or organization.Priority number one is clearly established. This ensures the most effective use of the organization’s resources and it provides a framework for decision making throughout the organization. Example: Effervescence To illustrate these points, imagine an organization whose mission is to deliver soft drinks with the longest-lasting fizz in the most artistic bottles. Let’s call them Effervescence. Effervescence may find that they are never wanting for artistic designs, but problems with fizzy-ness have recently come to bear that should have been caught months ago.

The Action Plan. A strategic plan involves generating an Action Plan that specifies the actions required for an organization to achieve its goals, and operationalizes its progress toward those goals. Throughout each year progress is tracked, helping the organization assess its achievements in an organized manner and keeping it on track. For example, an organization may wish to increase their public profile. They may set a goal to increase their coverage in the local newspapers by 30% in the first year. Activities around this goal are specified such as forming a PR Committee or designating an individual with this role.

Can the GOP afford to ignore Ron Paul and his supporters, he has many supporters .
idget_50—— Ron Paul has already endorsed someone and it’s not Mccain….he has endorsed Bob Barr. He has stated that he will not endorse McCain.

“The first priority is Resource Management. As a resource-scarce city-state, it is not surprising that a key focus for us is to enhance resource security. Land is a precious resource for us,” said Mr Mah.

Mr Mah said a prime example could be seen in Marina Bay today. Built in reclaimed land from the sea 40 years ago, Marina Bay now hosts a Universal Studios theme park, a world-class casino, waterfront homes, the Marina Barrage, the Waterfront Promenade, and the Gardens by the Bay.

“We have evolved an integrated and long term land use planning system to ensure that we have enough land set aside for current needs, as well as to support future growth,” said Mr Mah.

“Water is another key resource that is in short supply. To maximize the local catchment water, almost two-thirds of our island is used for water catchments; every single drop of rain which falls on these areas will flow through our network of drains, canals and rivers, and end up in our 17 reservoirs.”

The water supply is further supplemented by imported water and desalinated water. The government has also invested heavily into membrane filtration technologies to recycle wastewater into drinkable water.

In addition, the government has also launched an Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters (ABC Waters) programme to turn water bodies into clean lakes and rivers that will service as recreational spaces for residents to inspire them to keep the water clean.

While actively wooing industrialists to set up their companies in Singapore, the government also launched an Anti-Pollution Control Unit to keep the quality of air clean.

Through careful land planning, Singapore now has a zoning system in which industrial areas are separated from residential and recreation areas.

Mr Mah said that another important priority is to provide quality living spaces for residents.

“In the 1960s, most of our population was living in slums and overcrowded dwellings, which lacked proper sanitation and were a fire hazard. To tackle this problem, we formed the Housing Development Board (HDB) to build large numbers of public flats,” Mr Mah.

“These towns were planned as high-density estates that provide a total living environment for residents, with educational, social, recreation and community facilities. Then we added greenery to improve the quality of the living spaces.”

Currently there are several government projects focusing on building more parks, nature reserves and open spaces.

However, creating more open spaces for Singapore residents does not stop at just adding green.

“We also enhance the liveability of our city by making it congestion free. We realized upfront that extensive car usage is not sustainable in a land scarce city,” said Mr Mah.

So far, Singapore has invested S$40 billion to increase the length of Singapore’s urban rail network by 50 per cent in 2020 and implemented a vehicle quota system as well as road pricing in which drivers pay as they drive.

“We plan for high density residential and commercial uses at key public transport nodes to encourage greater use of public transport.”

Mr Mah also said employment centres and industries will be decentralised in order to bring jobs closer to homes and reduce commuting times.