Assessment Task 1

Provide answers to all of the questions below:

1. Explain the purpose of a Strategic Plan and an Operational Plan, and the role of an
Operational Plan in achieving the organisation’s objectives.

Strategic plan of an organization is a broad framework and guidelines that shows a direction for
organizations and its departments. Strategic plan is a long term plan. The purpose of strategic plan is to
provide a long term path and direction to an organization and state the focus of organization that would
provide the organization with competitive advantage in relation to the other firms in the industry. Strategic
plan states the strategy company pursue such as low cost strategy, differentiation strategy and so on, and
thus sets the direction for developing other plans. On the other hand, operational plan is more specific
and detailed plan, which provides information and plan of how the day to day activities would be
conducted in the operations or production department. Operational plan develops a short term and
detailed action plans that helps the organization attain the strategic plan or objectives. The Role that the
operational plan plays is to provide the clear guideline regarding how the departments or functions, work
teams and individuals in the organization can contribute to the achievement of strategic objectives and
priorities.

2. Outline the information that is generally included in the operational plan.

Operational plan includes several contents including the strategic objective, the actions required to attain
those objectives, the resources required to attain or complete that action, the person responsible toward
the action and the monitoring actions and processes for the action. The operation plan has to be based
on the strategic objectives set by the organization. Based on the strategic objectives of the firm, the
actions to be done by each of the departments are set. After deciding each of the actions, the resources
are determined, which in turn helps in developing the budget for the relevant period. Deciding who will be
responsible for the action sets the accountability of the action and helps to make sure that the tasks are
completed in the stated time. Operational plan can be developed in two ways: one is developing
operational plan for the overall organization and another is developing the operational plan for a specific
strategic objective or a specific department.

3. Explain a typical process for developing the operational plan.

The typical process followed in developing the operational plan are:

 Understand the strategic objectives: The operational plan is developed based on the
strategic objectives. Thus, the initial process is to understand the strategic goals.
  Determine the actions: Next step in the process is to determine the actions that need to be
done in order to achieve each of the strategic objectives.

 Determine the resources: Another task is to determine the resources required in order to
complete each of the task.

 Determine the timeline: The timeline has to be set for each of the actions.

 Determine the person responsible: The person responsible to complete the actions has to
be determined.

 Determine the monitoring actions: The actions to be conducted to monitor each of the
actions are to be set.

4. Explain the purpose of a budget.

A budget is a statement prepared by organization in order to provide an estimate of the expenditure and
revenue in a coming period. The budget provides a systematic way of reviewing estimated with actual
results, coordinating future activities and setting realistic targets 1. Thus, in this sense, the budget serves
the purpose of providing a framework to develop the operation plan for organizations.

5. Explain typical budgeting processes.

A typical budgeting process involves the following steps:

 Reviewing the previous period: In the initial step, the expenditure and revenue in the previous
period are overviewed. The deviation between the actual and estimated budget are assessed.
 Assess the current costs and revenues
 Forecast additional spending and revenue: The additional revenue and spending to be expected
in the coming period are identified based on the expected events in the period.
 Develop the budget statement: The budget statement is prepared considering all the activities
to be conducted during the year, expected cash inflow and the outflows.

6. Explain the purpose of key performance indicators.

Key performance indicators serves a special purpose of clearly defining the indicators to look for
when measuring an organization’s or a specific action’s performance. Without setting the key
performance indicator, the monitoring of the performance becomes difficult and confusing, as
1
https://www.appliededucation.edu.au/whats-the-purpose-of-a-budget/#:~:text=Budgeting%20provides%20a
%20systematic%20way,cashflow%20shortages%2Ffinancing%20requirements%20etc.
the reviewer becomes unsure regarding what to look at, and what counts as a good performance.
With key performance indicators, it becomes easy to track the performance and to make sure if
the project is going in the right direction or needs any modifications.

7. List four different approaches to developing key performance indicators.

The four possible approached of developing key performance indicators are as below:

 Consulting with the industry experts, experienced operational managers on what they
see as success and what are the measurement metrics.

 Consulting with the client about what are important outcomes to them when
completing their projects.

 Describing intended outcomes, understanding the alternative measures, selecting the

appropriate measure and defining the composite indices as needed2.

 Determining the strategic objectives, defining success, deciding on the measurement,

and writing the smart KPIs3

8. Describe the concept of a balanced scorecard as an alternative approach to measuring

business performance through key performance indicators.

Balance scorecard is an alternative approach to measuring the business performance and the
success on various strategic goals. Key performance indicators provides the indicators to look at
in order to measure the performance in a specific action or project. However, the balance
scorecard sets or notes down the goals from financial perspective, consumer perspective, internal
business perspective and the innovation and learning perspective. For each of the goal, the
measures are also defined. Thus as an alternative to the key performance indicators, balance
scorecard provides a broader and multi-faceted performance measure in order to track and
measure the performance.

9. Explain the concept of benchmarking as a way of assessing business performance.

Benchmarking is one of the ways companies use to assess their business performance.
Benchmarking involves comparing the company’s performance and business practices with the

2
https://kpi.org/KPI-Basics/KPI-Development
3
https://www.cascade.app/blog/how-to-write-kpis
industry’s best competitor or the best practices in the industry. In benchmarking the standards are
set for performance, which are the bests in the industry and company targets to achieve those
standards. After a certain period, the company measures the performance with those benchmarks
and tries to establish how the company is performing. The dimensions in which the benchmarks
are set are in terms of the quality, time and the cost. In benchmarking as well, the performance
indicators are used to measure and compare the performance.

10. Provide a definition of a PCBU and outline their key responsibilities.

A ‘person conducting a business or undertaking’ (PCBU) is a broad term used throughout work
health and safety legislation to describe all forms of modern working arrangements, which we
commonly refer to as businesses4. The key responsibilities of a PCBU can be outlines as below:

 Providing and maintaining a safe and sound working environment

 providing and maintaining safety in the plant and structures
 Ensuring safety in the systems of work
 Ensuring safety in usage, handling and the storage of structures, plant and substances
 Making the adequate facilities available and accessible
 Providing required instructions, information, supervision and training   
 Monitoring the health and safety of workers

11. Outline the aim and scope of the Fair Work Act 2009.

 The aim of the Fair Work Act 2009 is to introduce a national workplace relations system that
sets minimum standards and conditions for employees and provides the legal framework for
employer-employee relations for the majority of workplaces in Australia5. It aims to provide
the protection of rights such as workplace rights, the right to engage in the industrial
activities, the right to be free from the unlawful discrimination and the right to be free from
the undue influence or pressure in negotiating the individual arrangements6. The scope of the
act is the employment which lie in the national workplace system; in other words, the scope
of the act covers the majority of workplaces in Australia.
4
https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/about-us/glossary/glossary-acordion/pcbu
5
https://employsure.com.au/guides/fair-work-australia/what-is-the-fair-work-act/#:~:text=What%20is%20the
%20purpose%20of,majority%20of%20workplaces%20in%20Australia.
6
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/fact-sheets/rights-and-obligations/protections-at-
work#:~:text=The%20Fair%20Work%20Act%202009,be%20free%20from%20unlawful%20discrimination