Techniques Employed by Managers in Ensuring Success of Plans in their Firms

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Strategy formation
Strategy evaluation
Project management approach
Conclusion
Works Cited

Abstract

The leadership of any organization is always tasked with the responsibility of effecting ventures or projects that are aimed at making their firms grow on various fronts. To achieve this, various resources are at their disposal and what is expected of them is to utilize these resources effectively to attain the set objectives (Blaxill & Eckardt, 7).

As a result, chief executive officers and other managers need to be armed with techniques and skills which are vital for various plans and ventures to succeed. These techniques range from planning/strategizing to the implementation stage where workforce and other resources form a major part.

Introduction

Managers of various entities have the task of ensuring that whatever plans and schemes that are put in place for their organizations to move forward are achieved. In order to realize this, they need to be armed with the most adequate and effectual stratagems, generally referred to as strategic management skills (Mintzberg and Quinn, 4).

Strategic management refers to a division that involves itself with the main projected and developing programs taken by chief executive officers, technical managers and other business and enterprise leaders in the place of owners and/or shareholders.

It involves exploitation of the various resources that are available in an effective manner so as to increase the performance of companies or firms and realize the goals or objectives that have been set.

Strategic management involves spelling out the firm’s mission, vision and goals, and expansion course of actions (Markides, 55). All these need to be specified in relation to plans and schemes that are set out to realize these goals, and most importantly, allotting the necessary resources to achieve the aims.

During the course and at the end of the projected period(s) of time, an evenhanded scorecard is always used to weigh up the by and large performance of the firm and its standing in terms of advancement toward the realization of set goals (Markides, 56). Management approaches need to start with the prospects of the stakeholders, with the evaluation or scorecard processes also taking all the stakeholders into account.

Effective management is an unending undertaking that assesses and directs a firm and the businesses in which the entity has a part, evaluates its challengers and lays objectives and stratagems to counter them, and then reviews these strategies regularly to establish the progress and effect any changes that may be required (Abell, 21).

Strategy formation

Once a plan(s) aimed at given results have been put in place, the leadership of any entity needs to come up with approaches to be utilized in realizing this. There are three main procedures that are normally used to form required strategies. The first involves conducting a situation study, self analysis and challenger evaluation in the case of business entities (Abell, 21).

Such an analysis needs to be thorough and comprehensive, entailing both in-house and external, considering both micro and macro elements of the environment.

In line with this evaluation, goals to be met are then set. The most important thing to remember here is that these objectives need to be matching with a time-line that is, involving both short-range and long-standing (Blaxill & Eckardt, 7).

This is where long-standing vision(s) of a probable future, the responsibility that the firm assigns itself in the general public, and by and large company goals are crafted. Also important at this stage are tactical industry unit goals and calculated objectives.

The objectives set above need to make the implication of a tactical plan, in relation to the situation evaluation. The plan offers the fine points on how the set goals are to be achieved (Abell, 21)..

The procedures used in strategy formation make a pointer to project management, and over time, it has been shown that employing project management skills in running organizations often yields positive results (Markides, 57).

Strategy evaluation

In the course of determining the effectiveness of any strategy that has been crafted, it is imperative that an all-encompassing analysis is carried out by the management. A tool used by many managers is what is commonly referred to as the SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the idea at hand. Strengths refer to the worth or power to induce the taking of a course of action or the embracing of a point of view (Handy, 21).

It basically refers to what makes a given plan or undertakings hold the water in terms of its end outcome and benefits. For instance, in the case of a business dealing with production of consumer merchandise, strengths may include high demand, reduced costs of production, supportive legislation, among others.

Weaknesses are the flaws or weak points of a given plan or undertaking. Evaluation of weak points is an important tool for managers if they are to realize set objectives for their entities.

With a comprehensive definition of weak points, then one is able to come up with counter strategies for them (Handy, 21). Examples of weaknesses in the case of businesses include restrictive legislation, stiff competition, and unavailability of capital or credit facilities, among others.

Opportunities refer to possibilities as a result of a favorable combination of circumstances which support the undertaking of a given plan. An important tool for managers is being able to spot opportunities where others cannot and go ahead to effectively utilize such opportunities for the gain of their companies (Handy, 22).

Opportunities that normally arise include demand for given commodities or services, favorable legislation, availability and/or accessibility of resources, among others.

Threats are the things that are a source of danger for a given plan or course of action. Threat analyses as a tool enables the leadership of a given entity establish what can be safely carried out and find ways around various threats in a bid to achieve the laid down objectives (Handy, 23).

With a comprehensive SWOT analysis, a balance is struck between the strengths-opportunities and weaknesses-threats of given plans. Thus, deterrent measures are undertaken to uphold worthwhile plans or alteration of the whole plan.

Other than the SWOT analysis, there are other tools used to assess tactical options by managers. Suitability of the option is one of them and it seeks to find out whether it would work.

The thing to check here is the underlying principle of the plan and reflection is on whether the plan would attend to the main issues set to be attended to. Other things to find out here include; if there is a cost-effective aspect to it, if it is appropriate in matters of environment and abilities and if the company would achieve economies of scale (Markides, 59).

A given plan needs to be assessed for feasibility, which seeks to find out whether it can be made to work. It also seeks to find out if the resources needed to put into operation the plan are obtainable or can be built up (Markides, 60). Examples of resources here include money, labor, time and data. Important tools under feasibility analysis are cash flow assessment and estimation, break-even scrutiny and resource allocation.

A chosen plan needs to be acceptable, which means it has to work. Acceptability seeks to address the prospects of the concerned stakeholders who may include organization owners, shareholders and its clients, with the anticipated performance results.

Under acceptability one looks at return, risk and stakeholder responses. Return is concerned with the gains anticipated by the stakeholders, be they monetary or otherwise (Mintzberg and Quinn, 11). For instance, owners or shareholders of an entity would look forward to a rise in their means while the workforce would look forward to advancement in their careers and clients would anticipate enhanced worth for money.

Risk is concerned with the likelihood and end result(s) of the letdown of a line of attack. Likely letdowns need to be addressed before the whole implementation exercise commences. Stakeholder responses look at the likely rejoinder of various stakeholders.

For instance, shareholders could be in opposition to the making out of new shares, the workforce could be up in arms against outsourcing for uncertainty in employment, and clients could have issues with unification as they may be uncertain about quality. What-if evaluation and stakeholder plotting are some of the tools that managers utilize in this.

Project management approach

Change takes place constantly in the day to day lives of people but when it comes to an organization, it has to be effected in a progression of steps (Markides, 61). New procedures, marketplace necessities, administration enterprises, emerging knowledge and machinery all form ventures that require sound management, often encompassing departmental or disciplinary sectors.

Project management as a discipline is most of the times responsible for bringing about noteworthy gains to entities by four main approaches. The first one is normally making certain that inadequate resources are utilized on the appropriate undertakings. This is made possible by a clearly defined goal(s) which are to be realized at the end (Markides, 61).

With well defined objectives then the necessary undertakings are brought to the fore and thus assigned the required resources, be it in the form of money or labor(Abell, 25).

With project management skills, effectual harnessing of contributions of various workers/players toward attaining set objectives is ensured.

In instances where the plans to be carried out are complex in one way or another, project management knowledge always comes in handy as it covers management of whichever form of changes in a well thought-out manner (Abell, 25).

Project management as a field, normally evaluates threats to whatever that is to be carried out, classifies objectives and main success areas and lays down worthwhile goals.

Several organizations have limited resources and, thus, a restriction to the amount of undertakings it can commence and effectively manage. Beginning many projects or plans in an organization with such limited resources is futile since they will grind to a halt soon or later (Abell, 26).

Consequently, being in the know on what an organization is able to afford at a given time is an important tool for it leadership. After it has been established how much the entity is worth, sound management of these resources then comes in.

Since most plans for organizations entail new initiatives and learning, plan/project management has developed as an order to deal with the new and extraordinary. The most effective approach to succeeding in these plans is to break down the tasks to be carried out as illustrated here (Markides, 63).

The first step or undertaking is to broadly describe the plan that is to be carried out. A well defined objective(s) or project will chart the way toward achievement of the aims since what is required is available to all players.

The second step involves reduction of the larger plan or project into a set of convenient and handy undertakings. With such manageable chores, allocation of resources and evaluation of progress as time goes by and at the end will be much easier.

After the whole plan has been broken down into manageable tasks, it means that the quantity of the resources required has also been established (Blaxill & Eckardt, 14). Thus, the next step is to find these resources, be it financial, labor, time, among others.

A panel or panels to carry out the planned work should be set up after the plan has been broken down and resources allocated. In allocation of teams to carry out required duties, importance should be pegged on the ability of all the players to carry out duties to the expected levels (Blaxill & Eckardt, 14). The right number of people should be allocated the correct amount of work.

The next stage is that of mapping the work to be carried out and allot the resources to the tasks appropriately. For effective work to be carried out there should be no under-allocation or over-allocation.

With all the above in place, it means work has commenced. For managers to succeed in various undertakings it is imperative that they keep an eye on and be in charge of the work (Handy, 27). This means that everything will run in course since any rectifications involving going off track will be rectified as soon as noticed.

It is also equally important that advancement is reported to the highest administration and/or the venture guarantor. This is in a bid to ensure that any queries are addressed as their earliest. Issues of accountability are also well addressed with this form of arrangement.

When the venture has been completed it should be closed down. This is then followed by a thorough evaluation to make certain that vital lessons are drawn from the whole exercise for future use (Mintzberg and Quinn, 19).

Conclusion

The main aspects that emerge from effective carrying out of by the top leadership ventures within an organization are setting up of appropriate objectives, crafting a scheme to attain these objectives and allotting resources necessary for such achievement (Abell, 28). On the other hand, what comes out clearly is the fact that these three key aspects are mutually dependent.

The process of coming up with strategies and achieving the aimed goals must be iterative. It has to entail going back and forth amid questions concerning objectives, execution preparation and resources.

For really complex undertakings, a broad evaluation is next to impossible. In such case all that is required is a situation whereby formulation and execution of tactics occurs alongside each other rather than one after the other (Markides, 63). This is for the simple fact that tactics are established on hypotheses which, in the nonexistence of faultless information, will on no account be entirely accurate.

Strategic management and its associated tools is unavoidably a recurring learning process rather than a one-dimensional advancement on the way to a plainly defined final end. At the same time as suppositions can and should be assessed in advance, the definitive test is accomplishment.

The top brass will as one might expect need to fiddle with company aims and/or their move toward chasing results and/or hypotheses about requisite resources. As a consequence, a tactic will be made over at some stage in execution.

The thing that counts for the reasons of tactical administration is having an apparent view based on the best obtainable verification and on justifiable hypotheses (Markides, 63). Such a view needs to be of what it seems probable to achieve within the restraints of a given set of conditions.

Works Cited

Abell, Derek. “Strategic windows”, Journal of Marketing, Vol 42, pg 21–28, July 1978.

Blaxill, Mark & Eckardt, Ralph. “The Invisible Edge: Taking your Strategy to the Next Level Using Intellectual Property” (Portfolio, March 2009).

Handy, Charles. “The Age of Unreason.” Hutchinson, London, 1989.

Markides, Constantinos “A dynamic view of strategy” Sloan Management Review, vol 40, spring 1999, pp55–63.

Mintzberg, Henry and Quinn, J.B. “The Strategy Process” Prentice-Hall, Harlow, 1988. pp4-19.

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