HR Strategic Planning

Question 1

Organizational strategy

Answer 1

focuses on the future of the organization as a single unit—a general vision of the future it seeks and its long-term goals.

Question 2

Business unit strategy

Answer 2

Business unit strategies address questions of how and where the organization will focus to create value.

Question 3

Operational strategy

Answer 3

reflects the way in which organizational and business unit strategies are translated into action at the functional level through functional strategies

Question 4

Strategic planning

Answer 4

Setting goals and designing a path toward a competitive position.

The strategic plan helps create alignment of efforts and provides a layer of control.

Question 5

Strategic management

Answer 5

Actions that leaders take to move their organizations toward the goals set in strategic planning and to create value for all stakeholders.

Question 6

Strategic alignment

Answer 6

Each business unit examining their strategic plan to align with organization’s.

Necessary to maintain focus on defined goals

Question 7

Strategic drift

Answer 7

Failure to recognize and respond to environmental changes that necessitate strategic change

Often caused by an organizational culture that is too deeply rooted in “the ways things have always been done”

Question 8

Core competencies

Answer 8

unique advantages an organization possesses, abilities that are integral to creating customer value and are difficult for competitors to imitate

Question 9

4 steps of strategic management and planning process

What happens during each step

Answer 9

Formulation: leaders analyze internal and external information to determine the organization’s capabilities, opportunities, and constraints.

Development: of strategic plan

Implementation: of tactics—the process of strategic management. This requires clear communication of objectives to teams, coordination and support of their efforts, and control of resources.

Evaluation: continually and at designated intervals to determine the effectiveness of the strategy itself and the need for change or improvement.

Question 10

Systems thinking

Answer 10

One tweak in one area of company can affect entire strategy

Challenge is to coordinate interacting and interdependent parts to achieve strategic goals (beer situation with MIT)

Question 11

Input Process Output model

Answer 11

Quality input is best way to get quality output

Inputs: all the factors that can affect the outcome.

Process: all the methods the organization can apply to maximize its opportunities

Output: desired strategic effect—for example, expansion or redefinition of markets, increased sales or profitability, increased diversity, or enhanced environmental sustainability.

Question 12

Environmental scanning

Answer 12

Process of systematically surveying and gathering data, from both internal and external sources, that can be analyzed to identify opportunities and threats and to strengthen strategic plans and goals.

Question 13

PESTLE analysis

Answer 13

Political
Economic
Social
Technological
Legal
Environmental

Question 14

Growth share matrix

Answer 14

Used for larger organizations to find greatest value

vertical axis: rate of growth in this area, (larger rate of growth predicts greater value)

horizontal axis: size of market share, (larger market share predicts stronger competitive position)

Star: high growth rate/high market share. A business line that is growing and has a dominant share

Cash cow: low growth rate/high market share. A static but dominant business line that creates value reliably but shows little opportunity for growth

Dog: low growth rate/low market share. Consuming resources without offering strong value or future growth.

Question mark: high growth rate/low market share. could be winners or losers; their future is unclear.

Question 15

Balanced Scorecard
What are the quadrants
Where looking to achieve balance

Answer 15

Purpose is to have KPIs in each of the four quadrants - shouldn’t be putting performance assessment all in one bucket:

Finance
Customers
Internal business processes
Learning and growth

The purpose of a balanced scorecard is to achieve balance in three key areas:

Between financial and non-financial indicators of success

Between internal and external constituents in the organization

Between lagging and leading indicators of performance

Question 16

What does benchmarking do? What does process involve?

Answer 16

Allows for an understanding of best practices

compares performance levels and/or processes of one entity with those of another to identify performance gaps and set goals aimed at improving performance.

The benchmarking process includes the following steps:

Defining KPIs - find biggest gaps and focus on those first

Measuring current performance

Identifying appropriate benchmarks and securing their performance data

Identifying performance gaps between oneself and the benchmark organization

Setting objectives and implementing any necessary support activities

Question 17

Strategic fit

Answer 17

Compatibility of an organization’s strategy with its external and internal environments

Happens when activities are:
Consistent with strategy
Interact with/reinforce each other
Are optimized to reach strategic goal

Question 18

Blue ocean v. red ocean strategy

Answer 18

blue ocean strategy create a completely new arena, often within an existing industry, untainted by competition.

Red ocean competes within existing marketplace.

Question 19

Strategic alliance

Answer 19

agree to share certain aspects of company but not equity

Question 20

Joint venture

Answer 20

Two or more companies invest together in forming a new company that is jointly owned. Requires each company to contribute equity

Question 21

Equity partnership

Answer 21

One firm acquires partial ownership through purchase of shares.

Question 22

Merger/acquisition

Answer 22

A firm purchases the assets of a local firm outright, resulting in expanding the acquiring company’s employee base and facilities.

Significant cultural, systems, and management challenges.

Data privacy can be a big issue.

Question 23

Franchising

Answer 23

A trademark, product, or service is licensed for an initial fee and ongoing royalties.

Often used in the fast-food industry.

Similar to licensing, but control over franchisee behavior is greater.

Question 24

Licensing

Answer 24

A local firm is granted the rights to produce or sell a product.

Low risk because it avoids tariffs and quotas imposed on exports.

Little control of the licensee’s activities and results.

Question 25

Contract manufacturing

Answer 25

A firm arranges for a local manufacturer to produce components or products as a means of lowering labor costs.

Question 26

Management contract

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

Turnkey operation

Answer 27

Needs no work.

An existing facility and its operations are acquired and run by the purchaser without major changes.

Question 28

Greenfield operation

What is HR’s role?

Answer 28

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.

HR: risk analysis, staffing, authorities, policies and procedures, audit workplace practices

Question 29

Brownfield operation

Answer 29

A company repurposes, through expansion or redevelopment, an abandoned, closed, or underutilized industrial or commercial property.

Question 30

Divestiture

Answer 30

selective “pruning” of parts of the organization that are underperforming or that are no longer in line with the organization’s strategy.

Challenges: making sure that the organization retains key talent during and after the process

Question 31

Steps for divestiture

Answer 31

Identify the candidate for divestiture: ID risks, participate in SWOT analysis

Identify a target buyer: Provide accurate info about value of workforce.

Restructure: ID and prepare strong leaders, design incentive offers.

Execute the deal: assemble a balanced transition team, facilitate exit of departing employees

Question 32

Differentiation strategy

Answer 32

Setting a product or service apart from its competition by giving it unique characteristics that consumers value.

Comes from a variety of factors, including product/service features, marketing approach, and delivery system.

ex.: Apple

Question 33

Critical success factors in strategic planning

Answer 33

Alignment of effort (organization, business unit, operation)
Control of drift
Focus on core competencies

Question 34

Mission Statement

Answer 34

Destination for our strategy (point B)

What organization intends to pursue and charted management course. Provides focus and purpose of strategy

Question 35

Vision Statement

Answer 35

Aspirational - desired future state (ex. “a world without HIV”) Helps guide the mission.

Question 36

Values Statement

Answer 36

What beliefs the organization/function supports through behaviors and actions
Provides guidepost for decision making

Question 37

Lagging/Leading performance indicators

Answer 37

Lagging: indicator that is measured after the fact/effects that already occurred and cannot be changed
ex. turnover

Leading indicators: describe predictive actions that can help change future success
ex. employee satisfaction can indicate future retention rates/cost of hiring

Question 38

Smart-ER objectives

Answer 38

S-pecific
M-easurable
A-ttainable
R-elevant
T-imebound
E-valuated
R-evised

Question 39

Porter’s competitive strategies

Answer 39

You can either employ cost leadership or differentiation to create competitiveness. Apply either strategy in segment or niche.

Cost leadership: lowest price, economy of scale, efficient production (ex. Walmart)

Differentiation: higher price for unique offering (ex. Apple)

Focus: apply either strategy in segment or niche

Question 40

Critical path analysis

Answer 40

uses information about start or mandatory end dates, the logical relationship of tasks (e.g., whether task C must be completed before task F can begin), and the length of each task to find the earliest completion date (or latest start date)

Question 41

Gantt charts

Answer 41

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.

Question 42

Lean project management

Answer 42

Eliminating waste

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.

Question 43

Six sigma project management

Answer 43

Reducing errors

Level of quality is so high that very few errors occur.

Focus on projects with a quantifiable return of value, commitment to quality and involvement in problem solving, measuring results in a manner that allows empirical analysis, and fact-based decision making.

Question 44

Agile project management

Answer 44

used when the assumptions on which a project is based are unclear or may evolve as project work proceeds.

focuses on iterations of the deliverables—completing one iteration and then using customer input to plan the next iteration.

Question 45

Critical chain project management

Answer 45

Used when resources cannot be increased to meet deadlines. 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.

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.

Question 46

Operational budget

Answer 46

Ongoing activities to provide HR to internal customers - talent acquisition costs, comp, benefits

Question 47

Strategic budget

Answer 47

Funds aligned with strategic goals - ex. development of mentoring program, cultural alignment initiatives

Question 48

Project Stage: Planning

Answer 48

Work with stakeholders, define deliverables, Scheduling, assembling team

Question 49

Project Stage: Executing

Answer 49

Communication, removing obstacles, managing stakeholders, monitoring and controlling

Question 50

Project Stage: Closing

Answer 50

assessment and evaluation, team debriefing, continuous improvement and learning

Question 51

What to do when communicating strategic results

Answer 51

Create a narrative, visualize with charts/graphs, acknowledge disappointments and successes, invite reactions/feedback, describe next steps

Question 52

PESTLE process

Answer 52

list (focus groups, experts),
identify impacts,
research impacts (causes, dimensions, connections),
assess (importance, strength of data)