foundations of planning

Question 1

what is planning?

Answer 1

planning is the primary management function. it involves defining the organisations objectives or goals, establishing an overall strategy for achieving these goals and developing a hierarchy of plans to integrate and coordinate activities.

Question 2

criticisms of formal planning

Answer 2

• may create rigidity
• can’t replace intuition and creativity
• focuses attention on today’s success, not tomorrow’s survival
• reinforces success, which may lead to failure

Question 3

managing for sustainability formal planning

Answer 3

• enables shared understanding of goals and coordinates effort
• improves capacity to deal with change
• reduces overlap and waste
• facilities continuous monitoring for improvement

Question 4

formal planning and organisational performance (does it pay to plan?)

Answer 4

• higher profits
• higher return on assets
• improved quality of planning
• appropriate implementation

Question 5

what is strategic management?

Answer 5

what managers do to develop and organisation’s strategies.

Question 6

what is the importance of strategic management?

Answer 6

• it has a positive impact on organisational performance
• it prepares managers to cope with changing situations
• it guides managers to examine relevant factors in planning future action

Question 7

what are the steps in strategic management?

Answer 7

1. identify the organisations current mission, goals and strategies
2. SWOT analysis
   - external analysis: opportunities and threats
   - internal analysis: strengths and weaknesses
3. formulate strategy
4. implement strategies
5. evaluate results

Question 8

growth strategy

Answer 8

an organisation expands the number of markets served or products offered

• vertical integration
• horizontal integration
• diversification

Question 9

what is the stability strategy?

Answer 9

organisation continues to do what it’s doing

Question 10

what is the renewal strategy?

Answer 10

organisation addresses declining organisational performance

• retrenchment
• turnaround

Question 11

what is a competitive strategy?

Answer 11

a competitive strategy is a strategy for how an organisation will complete in its business

Question 12

functional strategy

Answer 12

those strategies used by an organisation’s various functional departments to support the competitive strategy

• research development
• manufacturing
• marketing
• human resources-finance

Question 13

what are the strategic weapons

Answer 13

1. customer service
2. employee skills and loyalty
3. innovation
4. quality
5. social media
6. big data

Question 14

social media as a strategic weapon

Answer 14

• helps people connect

- reduces costs and/or increases revenue

Question 15

big data as a strategic weapon

Answer 15

translates business knowledge into improved decision making and performance

Question 16

management by objectives

Answer 16

1. goal specificity
2. participative decision making
3. explicit time period
4. performance feedback

Question 17

what are the two types of plans?

Answer 17

• strategic (long term, directional and single-use)

- tactical (short term, specific and standing)

Question 18

what types of planning do top executives do?

Answer 18

mainly strategic a little bit of operational planning

Question 19

what type of planning do middle-level managers do?

Answer 19

half and half of strategic and operational

Question 20

what types of planning do middle-level managers do?

Answer 20

mostly operational planning with a little bit of strategic planning

Question 21

managing for diversity- planning

Answer 21

• setting targets for increasing workforce diversity
• creating strategies to attract diverse workers
• adapt existing strategies to improve workforce diversity