Chapter 4 - Planning Flashcards
Benefits of Planning
- Intensified effort
- Persistence
- Direction
- Creation of task strategies
Planning Pitfalls
- Can impede change and prevent or slow needed adaptation
- Can create a false sense of certainty
- Detachment of planners
How to make a plan that works
- Set goals
- Develop commitment to goals
- Develop effective action plans
- Track progress towards goal achievement
- Maintain flexibility in planning
S.M.A.R.T Goals
Goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, result-oriented, and time-bounded.
Goal Commitment
The determination to achieve a goal.
Developing commitment to goals
- Set goals participatively
- Make the goal public
- Obtain top management’s support
Action Plan
The specific steps, people, and resources needed to accomplish a goal.
Tracking goal progress
- Through proximal goals and distal goals
- Gather and provide performance feedback
Proximal Goals
Short-term goals or sub goals.
Distal Goals
Long-term or primary goals.
Maintaining flexibility in planning
- If plans fail, it is best to scrap the plan and start over.
- Options-based planning
- Learning-based planning
Option-Based Planning
Maintaining planning flexibility by making small, simultaneous investments in many alternative plans.
Learning Based Planning
Learning better ways of achieving goals by continually testing, changing, and improving plans and strategies.
Plans top managers are responsible for developing
Strategic plans which consist of the:
- Vision - Mission
Strategic Plans
Overall company plans that clarify how the company will serve customers and position itself against competitors over the next two to five years.
Vision
Inspirational statement of an organization’s enduring purpose.
Mission
Statement of a company’s overall goal that unifies company-wide efforts toward its vision, stretches and challenges the organization, and possesses a finish line and time frame.
Companies can set missions in four ways:
- Targeting
- Common-enemy mission
- Role-model mission
- Internal-transformation mission
Targeting
Mission stated as a clear, specific company goal.
Common-Enemy Mission
Company goal of defeating a corporate rival.
Role-Model Mission
Company goal of imitating the characteristics and practices of a successful company.
Internal-Transformation Mission
Company goal of remaining competitive by making dramatic changes in the company.
Plans middle managers are responsible for developing
Tactical plans which consist of:
- Management by objectives
Tactical plans
Plans created and implemented by middle managers that specify how the company will use resources, budgets, and people over the next six months or two years to accomplish specific goals within its mission.
Management By Objectives (MBO)
A four step process in which:
- managers and employees discuss and select goals
- develop tactical plans
- meet regularly to review progress toward goal achievement.
Plans first-line managers are responsible for developing
Operational plans which consist of:
- Single-use plans
- Standing plans
- Policies
- Procedures
- Rules and regulations
- Budgeting
Operational Plans
Day-to-day plans, developed and implemented by lower-level managers, for producing or delivering the organization’s products and services over a 30 day to 6 month period.
Single-Use Plans
Plans that cover unique, one time only events.
Standing plans
Plans used repetitively to handle frequently recurring events.
Policy
Standing plans that indicates the general course of action that should be taken in response to a particular event or situation.
Procedure
Standing plan that indicates the specific steps that should be taken in response to a particular event.
Rules and Regulations
Standing plan that describe how a particular action should be performed, or what must happen or not happen in response to a particular event.
Budgeting
Quantitative planning through which managers decide how to allocate available money to best accomplish company goals.
Special purpose plans
- Plans for change
- Plans for contingencies
- Plans for product development
Plans for change
- Stretch goals
- Benchmarking
Stretch Goals
Extremely ambitious goals that, initially, employees don’t know how to accomplish.
Benchmarking
The process of identifying outstanding practises, processes and standards in other companies and adapting them to your company.
Plan for contingencies
- Scenario planning
Scenario Planning
The process of developing plans to deal with several possible future events and trends that might affect the business.
Breaking down scenario planning
- Define the scope of the scenario
- Identify the major stakeholders and the roles you expect them to play in the scenario
- Identify basic political, economic, societal, technological, competitive, and legal trends that you expect to occur in the scenario
- Identify key uncertainties and the likely outcomes associated with them
- Using steps 1 through 4, put together your initial scenarios
- Check for consistency and plausibility of facts and assumptions in each scenario
- Write the final scenarios and conduct a series of planning sessions for management teams to develop contingency plans for each scenario
- Develop measures or signposts for each scenario that allow managers to know when the events predicted in this scenario are occurring
Plans for product development
- Aggregate product plans
- Product prototype
Aggregate Product Plans
Plans developed to manage and monitor all products in development at any given time.
Product Prototype
A full-scale, working model of a final product that is being tested for design, function and reliability.
