Strategic planning is a management tool used to analyze fundamental issues and changes and to aid managers in effecting organizational response to change. Strategic planning has been implemented and refined by most major corporations and some public-sector organizations, including a few transit properties. The authors' objectives in this paper are to review the literature and explain how strategic planning works, to present the results of case studies of strategic planning in the transit industry, and to recommend a framework for strategic planning. The authors concentrate on the recognized steps or elements of strategic planning. The major findings are that (a) management must make an early and serious commitment of time and resources to the strategic planning effort; management must participate; (b)the situation audit should be the basis for establishment of mission, goals, and objectives; objectives should be measurable; (c) management should select the audit's appropriate depth; (d) the establishment of mission, goals, and objectives and development of strategy should have a marketing perspective; (e) there should be strong linksbetween strategy implementation, program planning, and the budget cycle; implementors should have responsibilities, objectives, and incentives to implement; and (f) a planning staff should be selected early to monitor the progress of programs, agency performance, and environmental change. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1229, economics, finance, planning, and administration.
Abstract