Design, Implementation, and Improvement of a Methodology for Strategic Planning for Small and Medium Companies, Based on the Imaginary Construction of Concurrent Competitors

Abstract

This article shows the results of five (5) research studies carried out in the western extreme of Santa Catarina, financed with the resources of the Fund to Support Research at the Universidade do Oeste de Santa Catarina – Unoesc or by participating companies. Such research had as its central objective the construction, application, and improvement of a strategic planning methodology adjusted to small and medium enterprises, for which conventional methods have proved to have complex, expensive, and questionable results. Having as reference Fahey (2003), we inserted the construction of an imaginary competitor-like tool of analysis of external and internal environments, as well as the establishment of strategies and actions for the company itself, in a time horizon, which acquires features of a fictitious competitor. The methodological procedures are qualitative, the design is the case study, with the adoption of action research in collecting and interpreting data, and research subjects were employees. The surveys were conducted between 2004 and 2010 in firms of service, commercial, and industrial sectors. As result, this methodology demonstrated applicability and feasibility, being able to be adopted by other companies of similar size and characteristics of those tested empirically. The main advantages are the creative process that involves the construction of an imaginary competitor, the participatory nature and of the use of action research, as well as the attachment that focuses on quality choices based on the experiences of the participants, rather than in statistical series, although they are used.