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During the life every person is more or less connected with various organizations; there is no organization without people, there no people which are not connected with an organization. Here we will speak about a business organization (a commercial enterprise), exercising the function of managing production, distribution and sale of goods and services for the buyers’ benefit and sellers’ profit. If a group of people wants to form of an organization, they should consider the following conditions: a) presence of at least two persons; b) presence of at least one general goal; c) presence of a team of members who have intention to work together in order to achieve this general goal.
Unit 4 Planning
1. Goals. Goals are specific accomplishments that must be accomplished in total, or in some combinations, in order to achieve some larger, overall results preferred from the system, for example, the mission of an organization.
2. Strategies or activities. These are the methods or processes required in total, or in some combination, to achieve the goals.
3. Objectives. Objectives are specific accomplishments that must be acco0mplished in total, or in some combinations, to achieve the goals in the plan. Objectives are usually “milestones” along the way when implementing the strategies.
4. Tasks. Particularly in small organizations, people are assigned various tasks required to implement the plan. If the scope of the plan is very small, tasks and activities are often essentially the same.
5. Resources (and Budgets). Resources include the people, materials, technologies, money, etc., required to implement the strategies or processes. The costs of these resources are often depicted in the form of a budget.
No doubt, planning plays a vital role in company management. Any company has objectives and it plans to achieve then. One of the key tasks of the top management of a company is to make major decisions affecting the future of the organization. Before planning its future, every company should define its strengths, what it can do best of all. For example, top management must decide which markets to enter and which to pull out off; how expansion is to be financed; whether new products will be developed within the organization or acquired by buying other companies.
Before doing any kind of strategic planning, the management must decide what is the mission and purpose of their organization, what it should be in the future. Deciding the mission and purpose is the foundation of any planning process.
Having decided on its mission and purpose, an organization will have to work out certain more specific objectives. As soon as it has established its more specific, medium-term objectives, the company can draw up corporate plan. Its purpose is to indicate the strategies the management will use to achieve its objectives.
Usually, a company plans, conducts research and controls to minimize its risk, found out its customers’ needs and take important decisions; all this is the essential part of running the successful business.
Planning takes into consideration:
- objectives;
- ways to achieve them;
- resources needed;
- timing and control.
Planning must be based on reliable data of marketing research. There are strategic, operational and tactical types of planning, they impact on each other, but there effects differ: operational and tactical plans can be changed without changing strategy, but if the strategic plan is altered, the tactical and operational plans are to be changed as well. In most cases plans should be modified according to the relevant market situation.
It is worth noting that sometimes planning is based on the following:
- good understanding of your firm’s future;
- precise marketing planning
- passion;
- all ideas must be reasonable and clear cut.
In fact, passion can make damage to strategic planning. Someone else can invent the same thing while you test your invention again and again. Additionally, many executives who try to think reasonably and directly are short of silly ideas. These ideas might look stupid just at the first glance, but they prove to be clever in the course of time, having been used in marketing policy.
In reality, in the process of planning we are often wrong not about the conclusions, but about the intentions. Realistic results can be received from a mixture of facts and figures, calculations and discussions to ensure the effectiveness. Whatever parts of marketing planning we use, we can see that every part plays its own important role.
In fact, planning is a continuous process; it needs a lot of information. The purpose of planning is to show where a firm is at a given moment and where it is going if it faces no big changes. Moreover, it must show where a company should go in the light of market changes, and when it should get there.
The purpose of strategic planning is vary wide and includes thorough analysis.
There are various kinds of analyses, which help a company to plan its activity.
The situational analysis examines the company’s positioning in a market with regard to internal and external marketing environment. It deals with the factual market position, customer behavior, competitors, suppliers and intermediaries. It is a kind of “a snap-short” of company’s actual activity
STEEP analysis investigates the social-demographic, technological, economic, ecological, ethical and political factors; in other words, it is the analysis of company’s macro- environment.
SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, reveals the strong and weak features of a company, its market opportunities and threats. The Strengths and Weaknesses represent the internal characteristics, which a company can control, whereas the Opportunities and Threats represent the external characteristics; these factors are beyond company control.
All these analyses prepare the process of planning. The environmental analysis and marketing audit lead to the objectives as the starting point of the marketing plan.
Some examples of objectives are as follows:
- profitability objectives;
- objectives for survival;
- market share objectives;
- objectives for growth, etc.
All of them must be very SMART:
- Specific;
- Measurable;
- Achievable;
- Realistic;
- Timed.
Whether the system is an organization, department, business, project, etc. the basic planning process typically includes similar nature of activities carried out in similar sequence. In a large corporation, the following phases would be carried out in the corporate offices, in each division, department, group, etc. However, these phases do not comprise the complete, ideal planning process.
1. Reference Overall Singular Purpose (“Mission”)
During planning, planners are to have in mind (consciously or unconsciously) some overall purpose or result that the plan is to achieve. For example, during strategic planning it’s critical to reference the mission, or overall purpose of the organization.
2. Take Stock Outside and Inside the System.
This “taking stock” is always done to some extent, whether consciously or unconsciously,. For example, during strategic planning, it’s important to conduct an environmental scan. This scan usually involves considering various driving forces, major influences that might effect the organization.
3. Analyze the Situation. For example, during strategic planning, planners often conduct “a SWOT analysis”. During this analysis, planners also can use a variety of assessments, or methods to “measure”, for example, the health systems.
4. Establish Goals. Based on the analysis and alignment to the overall mission of the system, planners establish a set of goals that build on strengths to take advantage of opportunities, while building up weaknesses and warding off threats.
5. Establish Strategies to Reach Goals. The particular strategies (or methods to reach the goals) chosen depend on matters, affordability, practicality and efficiency.
6. Establish Objectives Along the Way to Achieving Goals. Objectives are selected to be timely and indicative of progress toward goals.
7. Associate Responsibilities and Time Lines With Each Objective. Responsibilities are assigned, including for implementation of the plan, and for achieving various goals and objectives. Ideally, deadlines are set for meeting each responsibility.
8. Write and Communicate a Plan Document. The above information is organized and written in a document which is distributed around the system.
9. Acknowledge and Celebrate Accomplishment of the Plan. This step is frequently forgotten, which can lead to increasing frustration and skepticism on the part of those people who are responsible to carry out the plan.
Text 4. How to Ensure Successful Planning and Implementation.
Guidelines
A common failure in many kinds of planning is that the plan is never really implemented. Instead, all focus is on writing a plan document. Too often, the plan is put aside collecting dust on a shelf. Therefore, most of the following guidelines help to ensure, that planning process is carried out completely and is implemented completely.
1. Involve the right people in the planning process. It is critical that all parts of the system continue to exchange feedback in order to function effectively. Get Input from everyone who will be responsible to carry out parts of the plan, along with representative from groups who will be affected by the plan.
2. Write down the planning information and communicate it widely. Even if managers do communicate their intention verbally, chances are great that others won’t completely hear or understand what the manager wants to be done. Also, as plans change, it’s extremely difficult to remember who is supposed to be doing what and according to which version of the plan. Therefore, it’s critical to write plans down and communicate them widely.
3. Goals and Objectives should be SMARTER. A SMARTER goal or objective is:
Specific: For example, it is difficult to know what someone should be doing if they are to pursue the goal to “work harder”. It’s easier to recognize “Write a paper”.
Measurable. It’s difficult to know what the scope of “Writing a paper” really is. It’s easier to appreciate that effort if the goal is “Write a 30-page paper”.
Acceptable. If I’m to take responsibility for pursuit of a goal, the goal should be acceptable to me.
Realistic. Even if I do accept responsibility to pursue a goal that is specific and measurable, the goal won’t be useful to me if, for example, the goal is to “Write a 30-page paper in the next 10 minutes”.
Time frame. It will mean more to others if I specify that I will write one page a day for 30 days, rather than including the possibility that I’ll write all 30 pages in last days of the 30-day period..
Extending. The goal should stretch the performer’s capabilities. For example, I might be more interested in writing a 30-page paper if the topic of the paper will extend my capabilities.
Rewarding, I’m more inclined to write a paper if the paper will contribute to an effort in such way that I might be rewarded for my effort.
4. Regularly review who’s going what and by when? Plans should specify who is responsible for achieving each result, including goals and objectives. Dates should be set for completion of each result, as well. Responsible parties should regularly review status of the plan.
5. Note deviations from the plan and replan accordingly. It’s OK to deviate from plan. The plan is not a set of rules. It’s overall guideline. So it’s important to notice any deviations and adjust them to the plan accordingly.
6. Evaluate planning process and the plan. During the planning process regularly collect feedback from participants. During regular reviews of implementation of the plan, assess if goals are being achieved or not. Finally, take 10 minutes to write down how the planning process could have been done better, file it away and read it next time you conduct the planning process.
7. Recurring planning process is at least as important as plan document. Far too often, primary emphasis is placed on the plan document. This is extremely unfortunate because the real treasure of planning is the planning process itself. During planning, planners learn a great deal from ongoing analysis, reflection, discussion, debates and dialogues around issues and goals in the system.
8. Acknowledgement and celebration. It’s easy for planners to become tired and even cynical about the planning process. One of the reasons for this problem is likely that far too often, emphasis is placed on achieving the results. The process can seem like having to solve one problem after another, with no real end in sight. Acknowledge that the process at this stage has really come to end and celebrate your accomplishment!!
Executive support in strategic planning implementation is critical to its success. Executives must lead, support, follow-up, and live the results of the strategic planning implementation process. These are additional ways executive leaders can support the strategic planning implementation process. .
- Sponsor portions of the planning or the strategic planning process, as an involved participant, to increase active involvement and interaction with other organization members.
- If personal or managerial actions or behaviors require change for the vision statement, mission statement, values, and goals to take hold in the organization, “model” the new behaviors and actions. (Senior managers must walk the talk.)
- Establish a structure which will support the move to a more strategically thinking and acting organization. This may take the form of a Steering Committee, Leadership Group, Core Planning Team or Guiding Coalition.
- Change the measurement systems, reward, and recognition systems to measure and reward the accomplishment of the new expectations established through the strategic planning process.
- Develop a performance development planning process within your performance management system to communicate, reinforce, and provide a structure that supports the articulation and accomplishment of the strategic planning goals.