Planning to Achieve
French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery gave us a great quote about planning, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”(as cited in "Last word," 2009, p. 27) Goals are important for any business. To avoid failure, businesses have a crucial need to plan. Strategic and operational planning with proper execution would greatly increase their odds of success. Strategic plans set the foundation by defining goals, establishing objectives and bringing an organization together under a common vision. Operational plans help a company achieve objectives and are critical in the everyday functions of an organization, utilizing a company’s most valuable resource, its people. In the following essay I will discuss these two types of planning, their importance in achieving organizational goals and the apposite time of implementation.
Strategic Planning Mission and vision statements are fundamental pieces of a strategic plan, but what are their purposes? I believe that they are meant to answer the “what(s)” behind an organization. What are we trying to achieve, what is our purpose, what are we planning for? This is where the need for a leader/leadership team to establish a mission and vision for their organization comes into play. How can you plan for something with no direction? A leader needs to inspire their followers by clearly communicating their vision for the organization (Colorado State University-Global Campus [CSU-Global], n.d.). Some important factors
For most organizations, the principal representation of their strategic dimension is their written strategic plan. The plan articulates the organization mission, vision, values, goals, and objectives and the motives behind its decisions and actions. However, written plans should be used as strategic guidelines not as a blueprint that has to be followed. Although there are many ways to construct a strategic plan, to be useful and effective it must answer the following questions:
“Organizational Management and Leadership” defines planning as “the development of goals, which leads to the development of an overall strategy for achieving those goals. Planning can be performed at all levels of an organization. Supervisors are planning when a weekly work schedule is put together for hourly staff. Top executives are planning when they define the mission statement of the company and determine how the organization can maintain its competitive advantage.”
An operational plan can be defined as a strategy planned by an organization that clearly defines action that it will take to support objectives of upper management.
The structure and design of organizations have drastically changed over the last twenty-five years. Organizations develop new goals at the beginning of the year or after the completion of previous goals, and heavily depend on planning to help achieve these goals. Planning is an integral part of organizational success, as upper management receives substantial information on various needs such as risk uncertainty, available resources, employee development, and unforeseen changes in technology (Daft, 2013). Most importantly, successful planning allows management to make effective decisions when unforeseen events arise within the organization. Not participating in planning is equivalent to taking a road trip across the country without a
Strategic planning within a company is a tool used in companies that help mature areas in total quality management. This type of planning creates a cohesive management system for lower level employees to better adapt in. “Strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more and how it 's going to get there. Typically, the process is organization-wide, or focused on a major function such as a division, department or other major function”(McNamara, 2008). In order to plan effectively one must first make a clear assessment of the plan and have an analysis on the corporations mission statement and objective.
An operations plan is a manual for operating your organization. Designed, to ensure that you or me accomplish the goals. By using a process of determination in advance of setting short-range objectives. What, and how, will the steps will be accomplished? It’s a major or minor key piece of a puzzle, for any goal-oriented team.
Both statements make sure that the leadership team, management, and employees know the current, present, and future goals of the organization. Having substantial mission and vision statements will inspire employees to support and promote the organization’s goals. “Strategic direction is a course of action that leads the achievement of the goals of an organization’s strategy” (“WebFinance, Incorporated” 2011, para 3).
For a goal-oriented person, a strategic plan can set direction and serves as a template for consistent decision making that moves the organization toward its envisioned future (Zuckerman, 2013). On the other hand, Zuckerman (2013), poses a different perspective that states that strategic planning may not be strategic after all, becomes as I explained before, it can become a checklist technique that lacks innovative practices. However, the outcome of the strategic planning process relates further to the mission and vision of those who are developing the strategies than in the planning within itself. Therefore, the reality is that strategic planning can be as straightforward and complex as an organization wants it to be. Therefore, if an organization envisions growth, the proposal needs to provoke that, and if a team is only planning to organize itself; then, the plan can be subtler. Therefore, organization can review plans as often as yearly and can last as long as five
A carefully designed plan is the key to the successful completion of organizational goals. Whether you are a leader or a follower, you will be responsible for helping an organization to achieve its goals.
In your own words, describe the purpose of the operational plan and its relationship to the strategic plan.
Planning is considered to be a primary function of management. All organisations operate in a complex, dynamic and competitive business environment, and therefore, have to plan their actions without which they may not be able to survive.
Planning is a process of establishing a mission with clear goals as a means to achieve them. Good planning requires special skills and perspectives allowing decision-makers to understand the challenges they are facing and apply the most effective solution to a problem. In order to achieve success, one must plan accordingly. Planning can be short term or long term. Short term plans are done on daily basis and are easier to achieve than long term plans. Long term plans are also known as strategic plans and are used to achieve a long range vision or mission of a company. In both methods of planning, short term and long term, is necessary to achieve top notch results. Like in any other process, there are both benefits and pitfalls to a
Bladen et al (2012:79 ) ,state that, “ Operational planning takes place after the strategic plans have been put in place .” and say that these are a set of plans which detail the skills and resources needed to manage an event.
The previous quote shows just someof the struggles that can come with leadership. An organization needs a successful leader thatcan promote a specific vision and mission and provide a clear direction of what their managers and staff are expected to follow. Often, a leader is in a position that they need to be politically correct and not offensive; leaders must have both verbal and non-verbal communication skills that exude confidence so that their followers trust in their abilities to lead them in the right direction. Their world can feel lonely at the top but the right leader will create a network of ‘elite leaders’ to assist in running a successful organization(Gorkman, 2009).Beyond the characteristics required, a leader needs to be able to maintain the overall success of the business. In order to do so, planning is vital to the future success because it helps to establish a vision and mission; levels of performance that employees need to achieve. Because a successful leader must focuses on the big picture of the organization and the desired overall goals, this essay will explain the importance of two major types of planning that will assure success: operational and strategic planning.
Organizational planning is a fine art; it is the most intricate phase of an organization’s start-up and implementation process and the most important. One can have a vision for a business; however without proper planning it will not reach its full potential. This concept paper will discuss the necessity of proper strategic planning for an organization, by examining three key components of planning; organizing, leading and controlling. Organizational planning starts with a vision, the leader must create a mental picture of the final product; this is followed by defining the mission of the organization and the goals of the organization. Once these are established the executive management team begins strategic planning. “Strategic