CORPORATE POLICIES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR BETTER USE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING BY COMPANIES: "THE CAHORA BASSA CASE"

Strategic planning is a management tool in which an organization defines where it wants to go and provides evidence of the means to achieve its objectives.When drawing up the strategic plan, the values and mission of the business are highlighted.They guide the entire strategy that will be used.Many organizations mistakenly imagine that they are planning, but what they are actually doing is not planning at all.They end up confusing it with other processes of perceiving the future, which can wrongly influence the path to success.The study presented here is the result of doctoral research and aims to understand the relevance of corporate policies and propose suggestions for better use of strategic planning in the context of improving corporate economic performance.As this is a qualitative study of an exploratory nature to interpret reality within a complex vision, we used a case study, making a bibliographical analysis for theoretical support and a documentary analysis of the company Hidroeltrica Cahora Bassa (HCB).The results indicate that HCB's strategic plan is well structured and has underlying corporate policies.However, it has some flaws that could compromise its effective implementation.The study therefore proposes: an analysis of the behavior of equipment suppliers and the surrounding market; greater involvement of senior management in the process of controlling the implementation of the strategic plan and drawing up a periodic control matrix, preferably to be analyzed at meetings of the Board of Directors; clear identification of the priorities of the problems to be solved; and drawing up a communication plan and involving employees in the implementation of the Strategic Plan.