| Chapter 1: | Africa's 21st-Century Renaissance in Higher Education: The Need for Strategic Planning |
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In figure 1.1, the big arrow pointing out of area A is meant to signify two things. First is that Victoria Falls Business School is only one of what may be several schools or faculties making up VFU. The second point is that each school's strategic plan should originate from—and closely resemble in important respects, including planning horizon—the parent institution's strategic plan, in this case the 2008–2013 strategic plan for VFU.
Phases B and C: Victoria Falls Business School
Areas B and C in figure 1.1 depict strategic management and strategic planning in the business school itself, including the focal committee structure that makes planning and implementation possible. As with the parent institution, at the heart of strategic management at the business school level are its mission, vision, guiding principles, goals, objectives, action items or action steps (strategies to achieve objectives), and assessment processes to assure achievement of major goals and student learning outcomes. The feedback loop in area B is necessary to ensure that efforts to achieve improvements are made continuously.
The committee structure (area C in figure 1.1) recognizes that some business schools indeed have nonbusiness departments in their ranks, such as journalism and mass communications or computer science and information systems. Strategic management at the level of a given school within the broader institution, it is vital to point out, is for and by all departments in the school, not just for the typical business departments. The critical committees engendering strategic planning in any business school usually consist of the following: