- While every person in your organization cannot make their voice heard on every issue within the strategic planning, you must solicit and act upon feedback from other members of the organization. Integral in the strategic planning process must be the commitment of each executive to discuss the process and the plans with staff members. Too often,   executives hold information closely and consolidate their own dysfunctional power within the organization at the expense of other company employees’ feelings. (And then they ask: how can I get my staff to “buy-in” to these new expectations?)

- Recognize the human element inherent in any change – the change from reactionary to strategic thinking is a huge leap. People have different needs and different ways of reacting to change. They need time to deal with and adjust to change.

- If training is part of the strategic plan, senior leaders must participate in the training that other organization members attend, but, even more importantly, they must exhibit their “learning” from the sessions, readings, interactions, tapes, books or research.

- Lastly, and of immense significance, be honest and worthy of trust.

Throughout the strategic planning process, treat people with the same respect you expect from them. And you will enjoy the 29 percent greater return than non-strategic planning companies, predicted earlier. With your vision statement, mission statement, values, strategies, goals, and action plans developed and shared, you’ll all win, both personally and professionally.

Answer the questions to Unit 4

1. Name some basic terms used in the process of planning and explain their meaning.

2. Explain why does the planning in company management play a vital role?

3. What should planners take into consideration before starting the planning process?

4. What types of planning do you know an what are their effects?

5. What are the main points of different types of analyses?

6. Name some typical phases in planning process.

7. What are guidelines to successful planning?

8. How can executives support planning implementation process?

 

 

Vocabulary to Unit 4

1. accomplishment C, n.  достижение, успех

Syn.: achievement, progress

2. overall results   общие, суммарные результаты

3. milestone  C, n  веха, верстовой столб

4. assign tasks давать задания, поручения, 

5. scope  C, n  масштаб, размах, область действия

Syn.: range, scale, size

6. depict v изображать

Syn.: describe, to picture

7. pull out  v  выйти из к-либо предприятия, отказаться от участия

   8. expansion  C, n расширение, рост, развитие

   9. acquire v  приобретать, покупать

   Syn.:  get, obtain.

   10. medium-term adj.   среднесрочный

   11. impact  v  сильно воздействовать, влиять

   12. passion C, n   здесь: энтузиазм, страстность

   13. think reasonably  мыслить здраво

   14. in the light of… в свете ( чего-либо)

   15. market positioning  позицирование товара, компании на рынке

   16. with regard to относительно, в отношении, касательно

   Syn.: with respect to, in respect of, concerning

   17. snap-shot   C, n моментальный снимок

   18. strength C, n  сила, достоинство, сильная сторона

   19. weakness C, n слабое место, недостаток

   20. opportunities Pl, n  возможности, перспективы

21. reveal  v обнаруживать, показывать

22. beyond  prep по ту сторону, за пределами

23. sequence  C, n последовательность, очередность

24. reference v   делать ссылку на что-либо, упоминать

25. overall singular purpose единая всеобъемлющая цель

26. have in mind  помнить, держать в уме

27. take stock    1)критически оценивать; делать переучет товара

28. to some extent   до некоторой степени, в некотором роде

29. conduct a scan провести исследование, внимательно изучить

30. driving forces  движущие силы

31.alignment  C, n выверка, выравнивание, регулировка

Syn.: adjustment

32. build up weaknesses  здесь: устранить, заблокировать слабые

                                                  слабые места, недостатки

33.ward off threats отражать /отвращать опасности/угрозы

34.affordability   доступность, возможность позволить себе

35. frustration C, n   чувство неудовлетворенности, срыв (планов)

Syn.: disappointment

36. pursue a goal   преследовать цель

37. pursuit   C, n  стремление, поиски

38. to stretch capabilities  увеличивать/усиливать способности,

                                                   потенциальные возможности.

39. guideline  C, n общий курс, направление, генеральная линия

40. deviate from… v отклоняться от чего-либо

41. recurring process   периодический, повторяющийся процесс

42. reflection   здесь: размышление, обдумывание

43. acknowledgement  n  подтверждение, признание

44. Steering Committee   организационный, подготовительный комитет

45. guiding coalition  руководящая группа, коалиция

46. expectations  pl, n  надежды, ожидаемые результаты

47. reinforce  v   укреплять, усиливать

Syn.: strengthen, intensify

48. solicit v   требовать, запрашивать

Syn.: demand

49. act (up)on  v   действовать в соответствии с чем-либо

 

Unit 5.  On Management and Managers.

Text 1. What is management?

Nowadays the English word “management” is well known all over the world. It means “управление” in the Russian language. The definition of management is the central point of discussion today. It is undoubtedly that there is the difference between what is meant by “management” and by administration. Harold Koonz, the theorist of management, gives the following definition: “Managing is the art of getting things done through and with people in formally organized groups”. E.F.L Brech offers another definition: “Management is a social process entailing responsibility for the effective and economical planning and regulation of the operation of the enterprise”.

Some authors view management as a skill whereas the other theorists state that it is an art. What is not a doubt is the fact that management is both: the skill and the art of directing human activities by the achievement of predetermined goals. It deals with the process of making decisions.

As for “administration”, it is not easy to define and made clear the distinction between that and management. “Administration” is used in the field of narrower activity of regulation day-to-day operations of any organizational section. It is also used to describe the various top functions in public service; it is the part of management and it is rarely taken to be involved in decision policy-making. Finally, it should be noted that “management” and “administration” are in close interrelation.

A structure of management

Owners (shareholders)

Directors

Chief Executive officer

Senior executive officers ( general and top functional managers)

Middle management (departmental managers)                        

The purpose of management follows from the main objective of business activity: that is the profit maximization. The desire for money obliges entrepreneurs look for new management techniques or use the better from the old ones to protect their business interest.

But it isn’t the sole management objective; the other objectives are subservient to this. There is a number of interested parties to formulate the objectives: not only managers and stock holders but also: consumers, suppliers, employees etc. Therefore, management must unite the interests of all these groups. So, management objectives can be seen to be socio-economic. The organizational policy is shaped out of the combination of objectives and social factors. It is true to say that top managers develop the policy and objectives, according to the accepted firm’s philosophy, so, the agreeing and policy formulating are the important responsibilities of any objectives executives.

It is sufficient to say that the objectives represent what a company has to achieve and policy is how to go about achieving them.

In a traditional company there are policy committees: the finance committee, the marketing committee, the personnel committee, the production committee and so on. They coordinate all the efforts for successful policy-making process. In the modern rapid technological development and change, any organization must have specific and clear goals to be profitable and successful.

According to Peter Drucker, success is the result of doing the right thing, whereas the effectiveness is caused by doing things right. Taking into account that management concept, a team of executives ensures the complete way of running business.

It is commonly stated that the theorists consider management in many aspects:

MANAGEMENT:

AS FUNCTIONS (ACTIVITIES);

AS PROCESS;

AS MANAGEMENT ORGAN;

AS CATEGORY OF PEOPLE;

AS SCIENCE AND ART

Experience shows that the main management components are as follows:

Organizational structure, HRM, Finance, Business plan, Marketing economy, Logistics. 

Text 2 Strategic management versus operational management

Strategic management is one of the special parts of management. It is aimed at the mission, external environmental problems, long-range planning, people, information technologies, at strategy development and its implementation in the market in the situation of changing environment.

One of the main aims of strategic management is to make people to things efficiently, the essence of its functions is coordination of all individual efforts fro the achieving company’s strategic objectives.

The five major goals of strategic management are shown below:

 

As for the five functions of strategic management, they are as follows:

- Strategy planning;

- Organization of strategic plans implementation;

- Coordination of actions by strategic plans implementation

- Motivation by results achieving;

- Control of strategy implementation.

In fact, for any company it is vital to have its strategic vision, so the executives have to answer the basic questions: How do we see our company? What are we going to do and to achieve? In What way can we achieve our objectives?

The strategic management principle, known in the best-managed companies, is: to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, which contributes to a company performance better than the short-term profitability.

It is obviously that at first a company conducts the analysis of the environment, formulates its vision, mission and objectives, then it determines its strategic priorities, in other words it forms the mini-strategy of a company (MOS – mission, objectives, and strategic priorities).

The next step is the choice of techniques a company uses to achieve goals.

Doing so, a company determines the chain of actions for its staff for its successful operation into the market..

Taking all this into consideration, a company forms the strategic plan, formulates its strategy and starts its implementation. This plan represents the so-called “time schedule” of the company for a long period. The strategy implementation is a dynamic process, and the firm should control it continuously, taking into account the current situation. A company, willing to succeed, should analyze and estimate the results of its strategic plan, and include the proper changes in its implementation.

All these steps are of vital importance and they are in close interaction with each other. In no doubt is the fact that strategic management determines the company policy in a whole.

Additionally, it is well known that company uses the operational management considering the internal resources, and the entire company activity is based on the results of strategic management. Strategic management and operational management can be viewed as the two sides of the same coin. The main differences between them are as follows:

The main goal of a strategic management is the company survival in the long-term perspective, whereas the main task of the operational management is producing of product to ensure its profitability.

The strategic management is concerned at (with) the external resources; the operational management is concerned with (at) company’s internal recourses.

The basis of a strategic management includes personnel, information system and market; the basis of the operational management involves functions, organization structure, technologies etc. As it was said above, despite the differences, these two kinds of management are closely connected and necessary; they interact continually.

For the successful running of business, strategic management must be implemented by skilled and professional managers, who:

- Upgrade their skills in the strategic planning, strategy development, implementation and evaluation;

- Create the enabling environment for organizational growth and staff development;

- Apply their knowledge from the policy to practice.

In fact, the quality of company’s activity depends on the professionalism of its managers, and the significant improvement in management sometimes contributes more than any other factor.

In Conclusion, let us list some of the necessary managerial qualities and competences needed to master the strategic management:

- professional competence;

- good interpersonal and communication skills;

- analytical thinking;

- ability to manage people and time;

- knowledge of foreign languages;

- ability to compete efficiently.

Those are the most important competence, which any manager must master.

As for a span of control, it refers to the number of subordinates of a manager; six is the optimal number here. Six subordinates can be supervised by a manager most effective, but it depends on the business situation.

However, it is fair to say that managers are known to call innovative, daring, imaginative and even geniuses, if their decisions lead to the great results, but when their predictions haven’t come true, they can be called reckless, talentless and even charlatans. In making decisions, managers have to deal with huge numbers of unknown and uncertain factors and risk by conducting research of the competitive market. Nevertheless, they must exercise thought and judgment in order to introduce staff to support the company policy.

The ability to develop and implement effective strategies, procedures and work processes turned top management into the ruling business class of the 21^st century. The traditional economies consider managers become the driving force in a global business environment.

Text 3. The managers’ job.

Our society is made up of all kinds of organizations, such as companies, government departments, unions, hospitals, school and the like. In all these organizations there are people carrying out the work of a manager although they do not always have that title. They have responsibility to use the resources of their organizations effectively and economically to achieve objectives.