Planning and Strategy

MAN101: Principles of Management Class 6

What is Planning?
 Textbook:
 “Defining the organisation’s goals,
establishing strategies for achieving
those goals, and developing plans to
integrate and coordinate work
activities.”
 American Psychological
Association:
 “A mental representation of an
intended action.”
 The Management Planning Process

The role of the planner is to identify a desirable future and to

prepare a course of action to achieve this goal.
The plan itself is the record of this course of action.
 Perception of Opportunities

What market trends could positively affect our industry?

Are there high-potential, talented people available that we could hire?
Is there a niche in the industry that we are not currently exploiting, but could?
Could we package our products or services differently and charge a higher price for them?
Do our competitors have any significant weaknesses or obstacles that we could take advantage of?
Are there changes happening to our target market which could help us?
Is there something our customers are demanding, which we don’t offer but could?
Could we acquire our competitors’ market share by offering their customers something they don’t have?

11-4
 Establishing Objectives

What are our revenue objectives? How do we maintain consistent profitability?

What are our operational objectives? How do we ensure our logistics are operating effectively?
What are our productivity and performance objectives? How can we ensure our employees are properly
motivated to meet their goals?
What are our customer objectives? How can we acquire new custom while maintaining existing loyalties?
What are our growth objectives? Where do we see ourselves in the short- and long-term?

11-5
 Planning Premises

What are the internal factors which will determine the conditions under which our
plans will be implemented? (e.g. our available resources; employee talent.)
What are the external factors which will determine the conditions under which our
plans will be implemented? (e.g. market climate; legal, social, cultural factors)
Are these premises controllable, semi-controllable, or non-controllable?

11-6
 Identification of Alternatives

Can the objectives we have established be achieved through different

means or a different course of action?
What are the minimum criteria by which we would even establish an
alternative plan as being a viable and suitable plan?

11-7
 Evaluation of Alternatives

How will we evaluate the various advantages and disadvantages of the

various plans we are considering?
What weighting or importance are we attributing to each aspect of each
alternative? And what is our rationale for these attributions?
Which of the alternatives is the most consistent with our mission and vision?

11-8
 Choice of Alternative Plans

Once we have committed to a plan, and understand its

possible downsides and potential for failure, which of the other
alternatives could be used as a contingency (backup) plan?
How do we ensure a full understanding of Plan A and Plan B?

11-9
 Formulating Support Plans

With the overall (macro) plan(s) established, what are the individual (micro) plans which need to be made?
How will we apply the same planning process to these micro plans?
Which micro plans are each employee, team, or department responsible for?
How will we ensure that the right resources and personnel are devoted to each micro plan?
How will we determine the success or failure of each micro plan within the macro plan?
If a micro plan is failing, does the macro plan need to be reviewed or revised?

11-10
 Establishing Sequence of Activities

How can we translate the macro and micro plans into concrete action steps
based on a clearly-defined timeline?
How will we prioritize when resources and personnel will be assigned to each
requirement of the plan?
Do we have the flexibility to alter the timeline without compromising the plan
or its primary objectives?

11-11
What is Strategy?
 Textbook:
 “How the organisation will do whatever
it’s in business to do, how it will
compete successfully, and how it will
attract and satisfy its customers in
order to achieve its goals.”
 American Psychological Association:
 “A program of action designed to
achieve a goal or accomplish a task.”
The 5 P’s of Managerial Strategy
 Strategy as a Plan
 A strategy is a plan for
accomplishing a particular objective
or dealing with a particular situation.
 Sound strategy ensures that plans
are followed consciously and
effectively. It enables managers to
give their teams clarity, so that they
can work towards both intermediary
milestones and final results.
 As a plan, strategy becomes
actualized as a course of action.

11-14
 Strategy as a Ploy
 As a ploy, strategy is used to out-smart,
out-manoeuvre, and ultimately out-
compete the competition.
 Strategic ploys can not only be used to
eliminate competitors and increase
market share, but also to change
fundamental aspects of the marketplace
and wider business environment in an
organisation's favour.
 Part of strategy as a ploy is a
recognition that competitors will
develop counter-ploys.

11-15
 Strategy as Pattern
 When viewed in terms of patterns,
strategy is used to determine what has
already worked before and what hasn't,
and to establish what the commonalities
are.
 Patterns could include various
quantifiable results (e.g. productivity
and profitability metrics), but also
qualitative observations about employee
behaviours, decision-making processes,
and team efficiency or effectiveness.

11-16
 Strategy as Position
 As positioning, strategy is concerned
with the fit between an organisation
and its environment (i.e. its position in
its particular marketplace or domain).
 But position is not just about relative
competitive advantage, it also concerns
the organisation’s image, presentation,
impression among consumers, and its
place within society and the world.

11-17
 Strategy as Perspective
 As perspective, strategy
concerns maximizing the
breadth and variation of
available information from as
many sources as possible.
 To fulfill strategic objectives,
organisations need to pursue a
multi-perspectival approach to
understanding their business
(e.g. employees; customers;
competitor’s customers).

11-18
20 Strategic Planning Models To Consider
1. Balanced Scorecard 11. Hoshin Planning

2. Strategy Map 12. Issue-Based Strategic Planning

3. SWOT Analysis 13. Goal-Based Strategic Planning

4. PEST Model 14. Alignment Strategic Planning Model

5. Gap Planning 15. Organic Model Of Strategic Planning

6. Blue Ocean Strategy 16. Real-Time Strategic Planning

7. Porter’s Five Forces 17. Scenario Planning

8. VRIO Framework 18. Ansoff Matrix

9. Baldrige Framework 19. 7s Model

10. OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) 20. Constraints Analysis (Theory Of Constraints)