Business planning: can the health service move from strategy into action?

Advances the case for the use of one particular business planning technique within a National Health Service Trust. At the present time, NHS trusts are required to write strategic direction statements. Evidence suggests that these documents provide an accurate account of past performance and present position of the trust, but do not express the future position intended to be achieved. These documents also tend to be lengthy and lack strategic focus, which means that they are not helpful to managers who want clear organizational goals and objectives to which to work. Attempts to address the difficulties associated with determining how existing skills and resources can be used as the platform for future growth strategies by using the Ansoff Matrix and SWOT Analysis planning tools, given the external changes in the marketplace. Also attempts to shed light on some of the important links between busines strategy and management development by extending planning theory into practice.