HR Strategic Planning Flashcards
Represent the scheduling of tasks visually, showing the length and timing of specific activities. They can help identify problematic conflicts in activities or gaps that can be exploited to condense the schedule. They are also a primary way to communicate expectations to the team and coordinate activities.
Gnatt charts
List and outline the 3 Project Stages
Planning: work w/stakeholders, define deliverables, create a schedule (use Gnatt chart or critical path analysis), assemble team
Executing the Project Plan: establish & maintain communication, provide leadership, manage stakeholders, monitor & control progress, clear obstacles
Closing Project: evaluate project, review use of time and resources
project management that focuses on eliminating waste by:
Maintaining a tight focus on the intended value of the project.
Empowering the team to make decisions.
Analyzing and solving problems rather than working around them.
Emphasizing continuous learning.
Lean project management
Refers to a level of quality so high that very few errors occur. It emphasizes focusing on projects with a quantifiable return of value, encouraging team commitment to quality and involvement in problem solving, measuring results in a manner that allows empirical analysis, and fact-based decision making.
Six Sigma project management
Used when the assumptions on which a project is based are unclear or may evolve as project work proceeds. The project focuses on iterations of the deliverables—completing one iteration and then using customer input to plan the next iteration.
Agile project management
Used when resources cannot be increased to meet deadlines.
For example, an HR department may be able to allocate no more than 10 hours per week of staff time to do project work. Project activities are scheduled accordingly. Buffers are built into the schedule both to account for dependencies (i.e., having to wait for another task to be completed) and to allow some room for variance for the estimated task requirement. Once the buffers are set, however, they are strictly enforced.
Critical chain project management
A phenomenon in which an organization fails to recognize and respond to changes in its environment that necessitate strategic change.
Control of drift
Like a ship bound for the rocks, the organization fails to make necessary course corrections. It beats on against the current of external forces that drive it further and further from its goals. Drift is often caused by an organizational culture that is too deeply rooted in the past, in the ways things have always been done.
Mistakes to avoid in strategic planning
Shortcuts, little follow-through, overreliance on the comfortable + familiar, insufficient commitment from management + involvement from the rest of the org & inadequate communication
Growth-SHARE Matrix
- what are the vertical + horizontal axis’?
- what are the 4 quadrants?
The assumptions are that a growth trend (rather than stasis or decline) predicts greater value and a larger market share indicates a stronger competitive position. A business line that is growing and has a dominant share (a “star”) has high value. A static but dominant business line (a “cash cow”) creates value reliably but shows little opportunity for growth. “Dogs” are consuming resources without offering strong value or future growth. “Question marks” could be winners or losers; their future is unclear.
actions, processes, or results that are needed to deliver a desired value.
Value drivers
Companies agree to share assets, such as technology or sales capabilities, to accomplish a goal. The relationship may have varying degrees of tightness and formality. Some alliances involve customers, partners, or competitors.
Strategic alliance
Two or more companies invest together in forming a new company that is jointly owned.
Joint venture
One firm acquires partial ownership through purchase of shares. The relationship may be general (sharing proportionally in control, profits, and liabilities) or limited (no managerial authority, liability limited to investment). Partnership agreements define such issues as leadership and division of profits and losses.
Equity partnership
A firm purchases the assets of a local firm outright, resulting in expanding the acquiring company’s employee base and facilities. Integration of acquired companies often involves significant cultural, systems, and management challenges. Data privacy can be a big issue.
Merger/acquisition
A trademark, product, or service is licensed for an initial fee and ongoing royalties. Often used in the fast-food industry. Similar to licensing as a low-risk entry strategy, although control over franchisee behavior is greater.
Franchising
A local firm is granted the rights to produce or sell a product. A low-risk entry strategy; avoids tariffs and quotas imposed on exports. However, there is little control of the licensee’s activities and results.
Licensing
A firm arranges for a local manufacturer to produce components or products as a means of lowering labor costs.
Contract manufacturing
Another company is brought in to manage and run the daily operations of the local business. Decisions about financing and ownership reside with the host-country owners.
Management contract
An existing facility and its operations are acquired and run by the purchaser without major changes.
Turnkey operation
A company builds a new location from the ground up. This represents a major task and a commitment to completely staff and equip the new location.
Greenfield operation
A company repurposes, through expansion or redevelopment, an abandoned, closed, or underutilized industrial or commercial property.
Brownfield operation
3 levels of strategy
Organizational, business unit, operational
3 skills organizations must focus on in order to achieve strategy
Alignment of efforts, control of drift, and focus on core competencies (workforce skills and processes)
Name tools used to complete environmental scans
PESTLE, SWOT, growth-share matrix, scenario
Balanced scorecard evaluates these 4 areas
Finance, customers, internal business processes, learning & growth
A balanced scorecard approach focuses on finance, customers, internal processes, and learning and growth. Therefore, it goes beyond a traditional financial approach to managing the organization. It takes into consideration such intangibles as whether a business process has been improved or employees have learned new skills. It can be used in a single department or throughout the organization.
SMARTER
Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound, evaluated, revised
Benchmarking purpose & characterisics
compares performance of entity w/those of another
can be internal (historical/past performance) or external (w/other companies in industry)
must employ realistic benchmarks that are not culturally biased
2 ways organizations create competitive advantages
change external environment or their internal one
Blue ocean vs red ocean strategy
Blue = innovation/opportunity
Red = conventional/ competetative market
Explain divesture and its steps
Selective “pruning” of parts in an org that underperforms or no longer a part of the strategy
Steps:
ID candidate for divesture (parent company/acquiring role)
IT target buyer
Restructure
Execute a deal
2 types of HR budgets
Operational and strategic
How to communicate the strategic result
Effectively & efficiently
Use narrative and data
5 elements needed for the effective implementation of strategy
Communication outward to the entire team. Leaders must communicate a clear sense of the actions individuals must take and the decisions they are empowered to make. A strategy may require reorganization to support this.
Communication inward to leaders. Communication works best as a loop. Leaders need to know what’s working and what isn’t, but they also need rapid sharing of competitive information from the field. Changes in the external environment may require adjustments to strategy.
Leadership support of decisions made by subordinates, rather than second-guessing.
Free flow of information across organizational boundaries, which can support collaboration.
Enough information to allow team members to connect their work to the strategy. Field managers and employees must be able to connect strategic goals with daily decisions and effort. Knowing the strategic relevance of work is empowering and motivating.
