Lead and manage organizational change

Section A:

Part1:

1. Analyzing organization's strategic plans and objectives

Strategic plan:

 Segmentation: CoffeeVille has divided the market into three target segments viz
Individual takeaways, Individual sit-down and Groups. Individual takeaways are between
age group of 20-60 who have an average income of $40,000 annually (Brooks, 2013).
 Targeting: CoffeeVille has targeted different consumer segments based on the income
level, interests and taste of the customers. Three categories targeted by CoffeeVille
include Individual takeaways, Individual sit-down and Groups (Ruiz, 2011).
 Positioning: CoffeeVille has uniquely placed itself and has adopted the strategy of
product differentiation. The products & price, service and ethics of the coffee restaurant
are exclusively placed. High quality coffee beans, freshly manufactured cakes by
CoffeeVille are competitively priced but the higher prices shows the superior quality of
the product (Brindley, 2009).

Objectives:

o To Increase the daily customers from 250 to 300

o To increase the brand recognition so that at least eight people in a distance of 500
m knows about the brand and take active part in the surveys conducted by the
company
o To increase the good will of the company so that people recognize CoffeeVille as
a socially responsible company
o To achieve the status of EOC i.e. Employer of the Choice award
o To increase the reputation of the company as to make it a top choice of candidates
o Positioning CoffeeVille as provider of superior coffee experience to consumers

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2. Reviewing existing policies and practices

 Adopting product differentiation to uniquely place products which are able to cope with
intensively competitive market

2.      Providing healthy working environment to employees so that they get engaged to work
more intensively and help the company achieve their targets

3.      Providing health and medical insurances to employees to make them feel secure

4.      Conducting training programs and staff retention workshops more frequently to make
employees compete in the market

3. Researching external events or trends

 Utility expenses have risen steadily over the last 18 months due to regular price rises. The
business is currently implementing cost saving measures.
 Wages have gone up 15% due to the need to pay higher wages for trained, experienced
baristas due to skills shortages.
 Rents for each of the properties has rise between 10 to 18% in the last 12 months and is
expected to rise again early in 2016.
 Coffee bean prices rose rapidly in early 2014 and stayed high until the end of the year.
Prices eased slightly in early 2015 but are expected to rise again later in the year due to
lower worldwide production and increased demand. The retail price for all coffee menu
items in all stores has been raised twice in the last 12 months.
 Recently, red meat prices have started to rise with increases of up to 20% in the last six
months. So far, these price rises have been absorbed but Emma and Rufus plan to raise
menu prices for meat-based hot dishes in the cafe and catering menus soon.

4. Reviewing performance gaps, business opportunities or threats, management decision

• Skills Gap
Analysing the performance of the organization may reveal a gap in employee

skills. When the organization uses review to compare its performance to that
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 of a similar organization, it can identify best practices for increasing
employee
performance.
• Customer Service Gap
Survey research is one way to identify a gap between the organization and its
competitors.
• Climate
Another key aspect of the organization that can reveal an important gap is its
organizational climate.
• Leadership
The organization may study in-depth how successful its managers are at leading
employees toward achievement of short-term and long-term objectives.
• Technological Resources
Organizations must stay technologically current.

5. consulting with relevant managers, specialists and experts.

Consulting with relevant managers, specialists and experts is the practice of

helping organizations to improve their performance. Organizations may draw upon the services
of management consultants for a number of reasons, including gaining external (and presumably
objective) advice and access to the consultants' specialized expertise.
Consultancies may also provide organizational change management assistance, development
of coaching skills, process analysis, technology implementation, strategy development, or
operational improvement services. Management consultants often bring their own
proprietary methodologies or frameworks to guide the identification of problems, and to serve as
the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing work tasks.

Part2:

6. Conduct a cost benefit analysis for the change

A cost-benefit analysis is a study to determine the relationship between the benefits and the costs
of changes to processes, policies, and/or procedures. The costs should be stated in financial units
(e.g., Dollars, Pesos, Euros, etc.).  Cost-benefit analyses are typically performed when there is a
change that is pending to ensure the benefits from the changes outweigh the costs.

1. Set the framework for the analysis. 

2. Decide whose costs benefits should be recognized. 
3. Identity and categorize costs and benefits. 

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4. Project costs and benefits over the life of the program. 
5. Monetize costs. 
6. Monetize benefits. 
7. Discount costs and benefits to obtain present values. 
8. Compute net present values. 
9. Perform sensitivity analysis. 
10. Make a recommendation.

7. Undertook a risk analysis and agreed mitigation strategies.

1. Characterize the root causes of risks that have been identified and quantified in earlier
phases of the risk management process.
2. Evaluate risk interactions and common causes.
3. Identify alternative mitigation strategies, methods, and tools for each major risk.
4. Assess and prioritize mitigation alternatives.
5. Select and commit the resources required for specific risk mitigation alternatives.
6. Communicate planning results to all project participants for implementation.

8. Identified potential barriers for each change requirements.

CoffeeVille is committed to identifying and eliminating the barriers that may be encountered by
staff, including the elimination of discriminatory selection criteria and providing equal access to
training and development, support and mentoring.

Barriers:

1. Lack of Employee Involvement

2. Lack of Effective Communication Strategy

3. A Bad Culture Shift Planning

4. Unknown Current State

5. Organization Complexity

9. Developed a change management project plan for your selected change requirement

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Change Management Plans are developed to support a project to deliver a change. It is
typically created during the planning stage of a Change Management Process.

1. ASSESS EXPERTISE TO LEAD CHANGE

The change management plan obtains advantage from an individual or firm with substantial
experience, objectivity, and sharp focus on change efforts without burdens of “regular” work
responsibilities.

2. APPOINT A CHANGE MANAGER

The change manager leads the organizational change management initiatives and works very
closely with the project manager to integrate task and people issues.

3. GAP ANALYSIS

Before mapping a road to the future, leaders of the organization must understand their current
situation and determine shortfalls in attitude, behavior, knowledge, and skills necessary to reach
their desired future.

4. BUILD THE CHANGE MANAGEMENT TEAM

The change manager develops the team to guide the change management process.

5. DEVELOP THE CHANGE MANAGEMENT PLAN

Working closely with the change management team, the change manager develops a detailed
plan. Key stakeholders review and provide input to the plan prior to its finalization

10. Obtained approval from the relevant authorities.

● implement policies on risk management and internal control where this is deemed appropriate

● identify and evaluate areas of significant risks potentially faced by CoffeeVille for
consideration by the managers and partners

● identify areas where risk management is not adequately addressed and advise the partners
accordingly

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● review and update the risk management strategy

● undertake an annual review of the effectiveness of systems of internal control and provide an
annual report for partners, including a summary review and respective recommendations.

 perform annual review of CoffeeVille’s approach to risk management and approval of

changes or improvements to key elements of its processes and procedures

11. Assigned resources to the project and agreed reporting protocols.

use resource management to estimate and allocate resources, and 36% of them do it often,

according to last year’s PMI’s survey.

At the same time, less than 60% of projects meet the original budget and barely 50% of

them are being completed on time, the same study says.

 It improves visibility of all resources across the company

 You can avoid under and over-utilization easier

 It helps to keep bookings more accurate

 It’s easier to negotiate bookings with other PMs

To effectively use resources:

1. Know the project and the team

2. Uncover risks early on

3. Keep track of the project

4. Analyze the project

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Part3:

12. Developed and implemented a communication/education plan to promote the change

and minimize loss.

1. Clearly define the change and align it to business goals.

It might seem obvious but many organizations miss this first vital step.

2. Determine impacts and those affected.

Once you know exactly what you wish to achieve and why, you should then determine the
impacts of the change at various organizational levels.

3. Develop a communication strategy.

Although all employees should be taken on the change journey, the first two steps will have
highlighted those employees you absolutely must communicate the change to.

4. Provide effective training.

With the change message out in the open, it’s important that your people know they will receive
training, structured or informal, to teach the skills and knowledge required to operate efficiently
as the change is rolled out.

5. Implement a support structure.

Providing a support structure is essential to assist employees to emotionally and practically

adjust to the change and to build proficiency of behaviors and technical skills needed to achieve
desired business results.

6. Measure the change process.

Throughout the change management process, a structure should be put in place to measure the
business impact of the changes and ensure that continued reinforcement opportunities exist to
build proficiencies.

13. Consulted with relevant groups and individuals for their input to the change process.
The plan should include the needs to be addressed, strategies to be used, how will you
measure the impact of the communication/education plan, a schedule of activities that will
be rolled out as part of the communication strategy.

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1. Set SMART objectives that can be attributed to CI

2. Jointly define indicators and measures of success with stakeholders

3. Establish a baseline

4. Focus on outcomes and impacts, not just outputs

5. Focus on qualitative, not just quantitative

6. Track changes in community perceptions

7. Make measurement participatory

8. Track results by gender

9. Integrate CI into the company’s broader monitoring and evaluation systems

10. Use monitoring and evaluation results to drive resource allocation for CI 

14. Identified the barriers you may face when implementing any intervention and the
strategies you will use in response to these barriers.

 Some programs have found that the recruitment strategies and materials they developed
needed to be modified to suit the needs of the particular individuals or families they were
working with in terms of culture, language, reading level, or other characteristics.
 Some have also found that while support has increased, their efforts have been
unsuccessful because of an absence of policies, environments, promotions, or programs
supporting healthy behaviors.
 Transportation may not be available to participants to activities.
 It is also important to consider that families have multiple responsibilities and stressors
that inhibit their ability to take part in activities. Interventions may need to consider
parental work schedules, religious holidays, and other commitments in developing their
schedule of activities. Therefore, it may be helpful to incorporate intervention activities
into existing family patterns and schedules and provide programs that meet the needs of
individuals of multiple ages. This may mean having the support interventions at
worksites, schools, or in community settings where participants may naturally gather.
 It is also helpful to remember that simply providing information to participants may not
translate into utilization of the materials. It may be necessary to clearly explain how these
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 materials may be helpful and to describe specifically how to use them. Opportunities for
dialogue and ongoing encouragement are strengths of supportive relationships
interventions.
 In providing telephone support, staff may not be comfortable in making supportive phone
calls to participants’ homes. Training may be helpful in providing staff with
reinforcements or strategies to overcome their discomfort.
 In some groups or communities, there may be social barriers to asthma prevention and
management. Supportive interventions work with community members and organizations
to develop strategies to encourage support for lifestyle behavior changes. 
 In faith-based organizations, pastors may not want to be involved in certain aspects of the
intervention or believe that it is inappropriate to share health messages across the pulpit.

15. Activated strategies needed to embed the change.

 Create Momentum
For change to happen, it helps if the whole company supports it and can see the benefits.

 Form a Powerful Coalition

Convince people that change is necessary. This often takes strong leadership and visible
support from key people within your organization. You have to lead the change from
within.
 Create a Vision for Change
Creating an overall vision that people can easily grasp and recall means that when you
first start thinking about change, you have something you can link the many great ideas
and solutions that inevitably arise. 
 Communicate the Vision
To ensure it stays front of mind, make sure you communicate it frequently and
powerfully, and embed it within everything that you do.
 Remove Obstacles
So you've been communicating your vision and getting buy-in for the change from the
organization

16. Evaluated and reviewed the change.

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Evaluation is when you assess whether what you have been doing is really making the
difference that you intended it to. It tends to happen less frequently, for example annually or
at the end of a longer-term project.

Review is when you look at the results of an evaluation and decide whether it needs to
change. Information from monitoring may also prompt a review of a small area of your work,
but a substantial review can only take place once a proper evaluation of your effectiveness has
taken place. Review may take place annually or at the end of a longer term project.

17. Modified the project plan when necessary.

Technical changes: These are the internal modifications in scope of the work of the project. 
Market changes: These are changes that are inevitable due to external market conditions such as
competitors’ product or service enhancements or regulatory changes. 
Contractual changes: Changes that are made on the contract with the stakeholder or supplier.
These changes include but not limited to the terms & conditions, scope of work, requirements,
schedule, costs etc.

Section B:

1. List and describe the 2 main types of change in the change management process or
cycle.

Exceptional change management – In ‘exceptional change’ an individual experiences an

isolated event in their life, it causes a difference, it may be important, but it does not spill over
into other parts of their life, so the impact is therefore relatively limited.

Incremental change management – A fairly common change experience for many people is
what is called ‘incremental change’. Often unnoticed at first, there is a persistent, gradual
introduction of factors and ‘newness’ that it may result in the complete replacement of a previous
state with a new one, but the insidious nature of the change means that defences to protect the
old way are never triggered.

2. What does a communication plan or strategy need to consider? Give 6 consideration.

 Perform a situation analysis.

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 Conduct an audit to evaluate where you currently stand in terms of communications. You

need to gather and analyze all relevant information within your company.

 Define your objectives.

After you collect and evaluate all information, define your overall

communications objectives. 

 Define your key audiences.

You need to know to whom you are delivering your messages. List all the key

audiences of your organization.

 . Identify media channels.

Plan to deliver your messages to your key recipients through multiple media channels.

 Establish a timetable.

In order to achieve your communications objectives, you need to plan and time your steps

for the best results.

3. Describe:

7 items that an organization can be affected by the external environment:

1. Economy and Market Fluctuations

2. Finance and Credit
3. Impacts from Severe Weather
4. Changes in Local Infrastructure
5. Changes to Laws
6. Changing Trends and Technology
7. Changing Customer Base

2 ways for an organizational behavior that can impact on change strategies.

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 1. Influence on Decision Making

Whether at the organizational or individual level, people make the decisions.

Organizational behavior influences the decisions that people make.

2. Response to Change Management

All companies must respond to changing markets, technical advances and customer
demands to survive. However, employees often prefer the familiar ways of doing
business, making change and adaptation difficult. 

4. Identify and describe 8 components of change management project plan

1: Urgency Creation.
2: Build a Team.
3: Create a Vision.
4: Communication of Vision.
5: Removing Obstacles.
6: Go for Quick Wins.
7: Let the Change Mature.
8: Integrate the Change.

5. List 4 potential barriers to change and describe the 4 key steps that managers can take to
respond to these barriers.

1. Lack of Employee Involvement

This is perhaps the most common barrier to change management.

2. Lack of Effective Communication Strategy

Some organizations have no effective communication strategy.

3. A Bad Culture Shift Planning

Sometimes the planning team totally has no idea that the change will affect people.

4. Unknown Current State

Change is always difficult for organizations that lack the idea of their current state.
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 4 key steps that managers can take to respond to these barriers are:

1. Clearly identify the business problem. 

2. Understand your culture. 
3. Recruit “friends.” 
4. Understand the comfort zone for your users.

Section C:

1.

 Change management: Change management is the process, tools and techniques to

manage the people side of change to achieve the required business outcome. Change
management incorporates the organizational tools that can be utilized to help individuals
make successful personal transitions resulting in the adoption and realization of change.

Three main elements that drive change are:

1 RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

Expecting resistance to change and planning for it from the start of your change

management progamme will allow you to effectively manage objections.

2 A SENSE OF URGENCY

Failure to create a strong sense of urgency causes a change movement to lose momentum

before it gets a chance to start. Establishing a true sense of urgency without creating an

emergency is the first objective achieved to overcome the routine of daily business.

3 BUILD AN EMOTIONAL AND RATIONAL CASE FOR CHANGE

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Many leaders excel at building the rational case for change, but they are less adept in

appealing to people’s emotional core. Yet the employees’ emotions are where the

momentum for real transformation ultimately lies.

 Change management cycle or process

Change Management Processes include a sequence of steps or activities that move
a change from inception to delivery. Change Management Plans are developed to support
a project to deliver a change. It is typically created during the planning stage of a Change
Management Process.
1. Identify What Will Be Improved
 2. Present a Solid Business Case to Stakeholders
 3 .Plan for the Change
4. Provide Resources and Use Data for Evaluation
 5. Communication
 6. Monitor and Manage Resistance, Dependencies, and Budgeting Risks
7. Celebrate Success
8. Review, Revise and Continuously Improve
 Strategies to implement for communicating and embedding change:
 Create Momentum
For change to happen, it helps if the whole company supports it and can see the benefits.
Opening an honest dialogue about what's happening certainly helps.
 Form a Powerful Coalition
Convince people that change is necessary. This often takes strong leadership and visible
support from key people within your organization.
 Create a Vision for Change
Creating an overall vision that people can easily grasp and recall means that when you
first start thinking about change, you have something you can link the many great ideas
and solutions that inevitably arise. 
 Communicate the Vision
How you communicate your vision will determine your success. You will find your
message may conflict with other day-to-day communications to begin with.

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  Remove Obstacles
So you've been communicating your vision and getting buy-in for the change from the
organization.
 Create Short-Term Wins
Nothing motivates more than success. Create short-term targets – not just one long-term
goal.
 Build on the Change
Launching one new product using a new system is great. But if you can launch 10
products, that means the new system is working.
 Anchor the Changes in Your Culture
Finally, to make any change stick, it should become part of the core of your organization.

2. Components of Change management project plan

1. Readiness Assessments

Assessments are tools used by a change management team or project leader to assess the
organization's readiness to change. Readiness assessments can include organizational
assessments, culture and history assessments, employee assessments, sponsor assessments and
change assessments.

2. Communication and Communication Planning

Many managers assume that if they communicate clearly with their employees, their job is done.
However, there are many reasons why employees may not hear or understand what their
managers are saying the first time around. In fact, you may have heard that messages need to be
repeated five to seven times before they are cemented into the minds of employees.

3. Sponsor Activities and Sponsor Roadmaps

Business leaders and executives play a critical sponsor role in times of change. The change
management team must develop a plan for sponsor activities and help key business leaders carry
out these plans. Research shows that sponsorship is the most important success factor.

4. Change Management Training for Managers

Managers and supervisors play a key role in managing change. Ultimately, the manager has more
influence over an employee’s motivation to change than any other person. Unfortunately,
managers can be the most difficult group to convince of the need for change and can be a source
of resistance. It is vital for the change management team and executive sponsors to gain the
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support of managers and supervisors. Individual change management activities should be used to
help these managers through the change process.

5. Training Development and Delivery

Training is the cornerstone for building knowledge about the change and the required skills to
succeed in the future state. Ensuring impacted people receive the training they need at the right
time is a primary role of change management. This means training should only be delivered after
steps have been taken to ensure impacted employees have the awareness of the need for change
and desire to support the change.

6. Resistance Management

Resistance from employees and managers is normal and can be proactively addressed. Persistent
resistance, however, can threaten a project. The change management team needs to identify,
understand and help leaders manage resistance throughout the organization. Resistance
management is the processes and tools used by managers and executives with the support of the
change team to manage employee resistance.

7. Employee Feedback and Corrective Action

Managing change is not a one way street; employee involvement is a necessary and integral part
of managing change. Feedback from employees as a change is being implemented is a key
element of the change management process. Change managers can analyze feedback and
implement corrective action based on this feedback to ensure full adoption of the changes.

8. Recognizing Success and Reinforcing Change

Early adoption, successes and long-term wins must be recognized and celebrated. Individual and
group recognition is a necessary component of change management in order to cement and
reinforce the change in the organization. Continued adoption needs to be monitored to ensure
employees do not slip back into their old ways of working.

9. After-Project Review

The final step in the change management process is the after-action review. It is at this point that
you can stand back from the entire program, evaluate successes and failures, and identify process
changes for the next project. 

3. Five barriers to change:

1. Lack of Employee Involvement

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This is perhaps the most common barrier to change management. Employees always have the
fear of change, and unless they are involved in the change process, it is highly likely that even
the most loyal member of your employees will resist the change.

2. Lack of Effective Communication Strategy

Some organizations have no effective communication strategy. In fact, some top leaders always
assume that once they announce the change, people will adjust and be ready to get started with
the new development. This is the silliest way to introduce change, hence forceful resistance to
the change.

3. A Bad Culture Shift Planning

Sometimes the planning team totally has no idea that the change will affect people. Of course,
the team at this state will only concentrate on planning administrative structure, work area
responsibilities, job responsibilities as well as work reporting structure.

4. Unknown Current State

Change is always difficult for organizations that lack the idea of their current state. Trying to
introduce and implement change without conducting an assessment and understanding the
current blueprint of the organization is a common habit by many entities.

5. Organization Complexity
There comes a time when organizations begin to develop complex processes, making the process
of planning and implementing change a bit more complex.

The mitigation strategies that you implement to address these barriers

The mitigation strategy is made up of three main required components: mitigation goals,
mitigation actions, and an action plan for implementation. These provide the framework to
identify, prioritize and implement actions to reduce risk to hazards.

 A simple and clear yet effective risk approach

 Technological Assistance
 Efficient manpower inspired by organizational risk culture
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  Achieving compliance is the natural outcome not the enforced goal
 Working towards a common goal

4. The process of identifying the strategic development needs of an organization

Step 1:  Write a Vision Statement

A Vision Statement is a statement (typically 2-3 sentences) that gives the reader (and more
importantly, the organization) a mental picture of what the organization hopes to become or what
the organization hopes to achieve.

Step 2:  Write a Mission Statement

A Mission Statement is an explanation of why an organization exists and the path it will take to
achieve its vision.

Mission statements are typically shorter than a vision statement but not always and are
organization specific.

Step 3:  Perform a Gap Analysis

A gap analysis is a process an organization goes through to identify the gaps between its current
state and what it hopes to achieve – its vision.

Step 4:  Write SMART Goals

Write SMART goals for 2-3 years out (some organizations choose to go shorter or longer
depending on the organization).

Step 5:  Monitor Progress

Goals should be monitored at least on a quarterly basis. This can be as simple as asking the
responsible person to give a status update on their goals for the quarter.

It is very important that this is done because all organizations are so busy today that the day-to-
day responsibilities can sometimes get in the way of completing long-term goals.

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 5. As manager it is important to review existing policies and practices against strategic
objectives

Policy review and revision is a crucial part of an effective policy and procedure management

plan. Regularly reviewing policies and procedures keeps your organization up to date with
regulations, technology, and industry best practices. Policy review ensures that your policies are
consistent and effective.

To implement effective policies and procedures at your workplace, importance of

company policies and procedures and why they need policies and procedures are realistic and
actionable on a daily basis. All supervisors and managers must 'lead by example' in
implementing policies and procedures 

6. To seek assistance from stakeholders, experts and specialized when identifying major
change requirements and opportunities

Stakeholder consultation involves the development of constructive, productive relationships over

the long term.  It results in a relationship of mutual benefit; it enables us to identify trends and
emerging challenges which are currently or will in the future impact on the business.  Listening
to stakeholder concerns and feedback is a valuable source of information that can be used to
improve project design and outcomes, and help a corporation to identify and control external
risks.  It can also form the basis for future collaboration and partnerships.

Consultation enables us to identify and monitor trends, challenges and perceptions over time
with specific groups of stakeholders.  It therefore helps us to:

 Identify and track needs and expectations

 Identify and track perceptions and attitudes
 Provide feedback on specific planned developments
 Evaluate implementations and actions
 Establish the brand values and positioning of the corporation as seen by others

7. 5 events or trends in external environment

 The Political and Regulatory Environment.

 The Economic Environment.
 The Competitive Environment.
 The Technological Environment.
 The Social and Cultural Environment.

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Impact each can have on achieving business objectives are:

3. Economic situation
Economy is one of the most determining factors to the success of the company even
though it is an external element. Within the economy, some contributing factors such as
the fluctuation of interest rate, economic crisis, and so on directly and strongly affects the
consumption of buyers, and consequently, the profits of businesses.
4. Laws
The rules and regulations from local government play an integral role in the development
of the company. There are some countries which their laws prevents the development of
some certain industries.

5. Technological factors
Artificial intelligence, smart internet searches, and other high tech functions- all kind of
technology has been at the forefront of many business for ages. For instance, American
Airlines started using a computerized flight booking system and Bank of America took
on an automated check-processing system. No matter what the size of your enterprise is,
both tangible and intangible benefits of technology are well-known.
6. Customer demands

One of the most fundamental factors we learn in economics is that satisfying customer
demand is a must for every business survival. It is obvious that your product is served for the
needs of customers then under any circumstance, your business can develop without
following this mission.

7. Competition
Competition exists in any field of our life, even in business. When it comes to
competition, entrepreneurs may thrive to be successful or be hurt to lose its position in
the marketplace.

8. To identify major operational change requirements:

Performance gaps:

 It required to evaluate all employees’ professional knowledge, ensuring all trainers

acquired the minimal requirements.
 Required to complete at least 20 CECs (Continuing Education Credit) every two years.
 Need to ensure all members to maintain such education needs. Main threat arising from
this change was existing trainers without qualifications will resist change. In

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 several cases, when change occurred, two type of forces appeared to reshape an
organization equilibrium, known as driving force and restraining force.

Business opportunities/ threats and management decisions:

 Business opportunities or threats, or management decisions for this

change management initiative. Harmonizing organizational resource capabilities with
the threats and opportunities.
 Apart from these benefits, firms that engage in strategic management are more aware of
the external threats, an improved understanding of competitor strengths and weaknesses
and increased employee productivity. They also have lesser resistance to change and a
clear understanding of the link between performance and rewards.

9. Components of a communication or education plan:

1. A process

This is crucial. If you just scrawl some goals on a whiteboard and call it a day, it won’t work.

Instituting a step-by-step process will force you to confront challenges and contradictions that
could hinder progress. Hammer out exactly how and when you plan to achieve your goals.

2. The objective

To drive real business results, your communication objective should be to increase conversions.

3. Goals

Communicators often struggle to set clear, cohesive goals. Home in on a handful of measurable,
achievable goals. For instance, how will you reach your objective of increasing conversions?

4. Strategy

Your strategy helps you achieve your objective. If that is to enhance your reputation to attract
more clients, your strategy should briefly describe how you’ll do that.

5. The plan

You must get input from your client or your executive team to complete this step. What, exactly,
do your leaders hope to achieve? You cannot create change in the organization unless you know
where the business is going and how you can help it get there.

6. Executive summary

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Create a one-page recap of everything in your plan. It should include:

 Mission
 Vision
 Core values

7. Key challenges

What are your biggest obstacles? It could be anything from a lazy salesperson to a commoditized
business. Perhaps your organization’s reputation is less than stellar, or maybe your chief
competitor has a stranglehold on a market you covet.

Whatever it is, create a description of the products or services you want to market, and establish
which challenges you might face in doing so. List every obstacle you foresee.

8. Situation analysis

This clarifies key industry metrics.

9. Customer analysis

Who are the three or four customer types you want to attract? How many customers do you want
to have by year-end? What are your targeted customers’ values?

Include an overview of the process those prospects use to hire an organization like yours (or your
client’s).

10. Competitor analysis

Clarify your own marketing position, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of your closest
competitors.

Analyze the domain authority of your competitors to see where they rank for your priority
keywords. Moz and SEMRush will both let you do this automatically—if you have $99 a month
to spend.

Keep tabs on any weaknesses that could curtail your efforts to compete.

11. Implementation summary

This analysis of how you will use the above information to achieve your goals should be as
specific as possible to enforce accountability.

12. Positioning statements

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These are the key messages you’ll use in marketing materials to stand out from competitors;
highlight your key service mission and qualitative skill sets.

13. Cost strategy

It might seem odd to add a cost strategy into your communication plan, but it’s important to look
at the overall business. Costs can affect your ability to deliver results, right?

Include an overview of the organization’s pricing structure, and compare your prices against
those of relevant competitors. Consider posting pricing on your website.

14. The PESO model

Now you’re ready for tactics. That’s where most communicators start, but you can see how much
must be clarified before you get here. Don’t put the cart before the horse.

Who should be involved in the development of one

Manager should involved in the development

References:

MSG Management  Study  Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2019, from

https://www.managementstudyguide.com/strategic-management-benefits.htm.
B2B International. (n.d.). Stakeholder Consultation: Keep Your Ears To The Ground. Retrieved
December 4, 2019, from https://www.b2binternational.com/publications/stakeholder-research/.
Oitadmin. (2012, August 14). Comprehensively Reviewing Existing Administrative Policies.
Retrieved December 4, 2019, from https://policy.umn.edu/operations/upolicy-proc03.
Policy. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2019, from
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/informing/events/201605/astrid_henningsen_measur
ing_evaluating_inform.pdf.
Software, P. A. (n.d.). Pizzeria Business Plan. Retrieved December 4, 2019, from
https://www.bplans.com/pizzeria_business_plan/management_summary_fc.php.
Read "Reducing Suicide: A National Imperative" at NAP.edu. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4,
2019, from https://www.nap.edu/read/10398/chapter/11.

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