Category: Strategic Planning

Executive Summary

This paper is a project review report on a small business which deals with supply of fitness equipment and accessories. The business uses internet to sell its products, a move that is highly expected to combat the intense competition that is typical of this industry. It is believed that online sales have become extremely popular and hence the project viability is likely to be pretty promising. The company which is referred to as Fitness Express Pty Ltd will be based in Australia and is slated to start in 2012. The company is envisioned to deliver sporting and fitness outfit to its customers, as efficiently and quickly as possible; in both New Zealand and Australian markets. Fitness Express Pty Ltd has undertaken an extensive market research and revealed that the opportunities in the industry are extremely vast as most of the Australians own computers as well as unlimited access to internet. In addition, the company is expected to register substantial revenue and market share growth within 3 years (Larson and Gray, p. 56).

Attainment of feasibility is a primary goal of this project, something that calls for justification of all costs which includes wages, distribution, marketing/advertisement, and warehousing and maintenance costs. As such, the establishment intends to reach an agreement and obtain at least four operations related contracts in order to meet these outcomes. Relationships with reliable and cost effective suppliers from China are one of these contracts among others.

Project objectives

• To offer middle class quality, affordable and fit for purpose products with a customized approach that delivers fast.
• To achieve a growth rate of 3% in revenue and market share.
• To conduct an extensive advertisement in order to establish a leading brand name.
• To use online platform to establish a strong fitness and sports outfit sales destination.
• Penetrating the market by offering low priced products without compromising quality.

Achievement of planned objectives

• quality and outfits supplied with customized approach to the targeted clients
• online used successfully to market the company products
• Extensive advertisement enables impressive popularization of companys products across the world.
• The company manages to offer quality products that satisfy the needs of the clients.

The assumptions that affected the realization of objectives

We anticipated that the cost of production could not increase drastically in the near future, and hence hoped to produce and supply products at relatively low prices to our middle class customers. Unfortunately, several factors which triggered inflation increased the cost of our input hence failing to supply our products at very low prices as expected. As such, some customers could not afford the products due to high cost (Larson and Gray, p. 56).

Factors in realization and non-realization of objectives

Ideally, the high market potential and opportunities for this kind of business contributed to its success. Furthermore, adequate market research had been conducted hence enabling the company to produce products that meets the customer needs. Above all, the abled and knowledgeable team of management that offers visionary leadership steered the company to tremendous growth.

Particularly, the achievement of the set goals did not go without obstacles. For example, the integration of web based aspects into the business created many complexities in terms of target marketing through a new medium and advertising. In addition, the company is entering an industry that has some established competitors with well established brand names. Consequently, Fitness will have to contend with stiff competition which is particularly costly to maneuver. Finally, the company has been troubled by lack of adequate funds and resources to carry out its operations, especially because it is still in its initial stages where profits are not forthcoming (Longenecker et al. 20).

Time

Tasks operated on and ahead of schedule

Tasks operated behind schedule

The assumptions that affected the schedule

There was an assumption that all the members will attend all the group members. However, at some stage, some members became uncooperative hence resulting to program lagging behind schedule. On the other hand, the presumption that the meetings will be organized on specified days and time without giving allowance for extension possibility saw some tasks being finished ahead of the schedule.

Costs

Costs that exceeded estimates

Costs that is lower than estimates

Details of incorrect assumptions that affected actual costs against estimates

We had estimated that the cost of most of the items could remain constant but unfortunately the skyrocketing inflation that hit the country during that particular time led to substantial discrepancies in the estimated figures.

Details of patterns/common factors in exceeding/reducing costs

Radical increase in market price of most inputs was the major factor that caused differences between the planned and the incurred costs. On the other hand, factors such as unexpected changes in Tax policies, overestimation of human labor, and overestimation of equipment requirements resulted in reduction of costs.

Lessons learned

Review of the project shows that there are considerable number of unexpected outcomes as a result of implementation of the project proposal. Most notable deviations are experienced in the amount of resources set aside as well as time scheduled for completion of different tasks. Most of these deviations have been found to result from both external and internal factors.

In future, it is important to gather enough information on the general status of the economy so as to predict frequent changes such as those that results from inflation more accurately. In addition, it is important to apply the modern models of estimating the labor requirement so that estimation of resources can be more accurate.

Recommendations

The progress of the business shows that it is a pretty viable project, despite some few challenges. In particular, most of the positive indications of business opportunities have realized positive results. As such, the business should be steered forward, only that the management needs to learn lessons from the current mistakes so that they can improve things in future. Most encouraging is the fact that the anticipated demand has virtually been satisfied and even exceeded. Previous anticipation that there could be high demand of our products and services from business such as gyms and other associations has been proved positive and hence the future is perhaps promising (Larson and Gray, p. 56).

Fitness Express has been proved viable for web-based fitness and sports goods as a results of extensive primary data research, though there were some hitches that resulted in slight differences between the actual and the planned. To improve this in future projects, it could be advisable to integrate secondary data to supplement the primary data (Larson and Gray, p. 56).

Works cited

1. Larson, Eric and Clifford, Gray. Project Management: The Managerial Process. NY: McGraw-Hill Education, America, 2008. 56. Print
2. Longenecker, Justin, et al. Small business management: launching and growing entrepreneurial ventures. NY: Cengage Learning, 2008. 768. Print.

Introduction

Air Arabia is one of the largest and most popular low-cost companies based in the United Arab Emirates, which operates air transportation. Its main advantages are low prices for tickets, quality service, and wide geographical coverage, as it offers flights to 50 countries and more than 170 destinations, which brought it 15% revenue in 2019 (Air Arabia, 2020). The purpose of this paper is to determine the development strategy for Air Arabia, according to the Anstroff Matrix, based on an analysis of its internal and external environments. In particular, onboard connectivity will be discussed in terms of its appropriateness for Air Arabia. It is hypothesized that the implementation of the mentioned idea into the operation of Air Arabia would be beneficial to both customers and the company.

PESTLE Analysis

The concept of onboard connectivity refers to the opportunity to use the Internet during the flight for connecting with the crew and accessing the necessary information. With the exponentially growing technological development, the demand for such innovation can be identified as high. Among a variety of operational benefits, it is possible to note passenger empowerment and personalization  the key issues that impact customer choices and preferences.

Political Issues

Speaking of the mentioned innovation in terms of the political factors that are present in the UAE, one should stress that political instability in the Middle East region is the main challenge. The introduction of onboard Wi-Fi connectivity may be violated under the impact of ongoing conflicts, extremism, and terrorism. At the same time, the UAE assigns the safety of flights a top priority to protect its passengers by using sophisticated threat detection systems. Nevertheless, the stability or instability of politics can change rapidly, which makes it essential to constantly monitor this issue during onboard connectivity implementation. The latter is likely to improve political stability due to the increased potential to timely identify and address the emerging threats.

Economic Issues

In terms of economics, Air Arabia is a low-cost airline that operates flights to various countries of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Given that the target customers of this airline are composed of people who want cheap and comfortable flights, the company strongly depends on the number of passengers. The fact that Air Arabia is the first low-cost airline makes it a pioneer in introducing onboard connectivity. The example of Etihad, another UAE-based airline, illustrates that customers are ready to pay for the Internet to stay connected. In this connection, it is possible to offer a limited amount of traffic for free and design a set of plans for further access. Currently, 80 percent of passengers carry a smartphone or another gadget onboard (Air Arabia, 2020). Considering the economic growth and the average income of customers, the demand for this idea would be high, which is likely to increase the companys profits.

Social Issues

The population trends include great reliance on technology and smartphones to communicate with friends, resolve business issues, and access new information. The passengers who choose Air Arabia prefer low-cost flights for tourism and business purposes, while their lifestyle attitudes are closely associated with being connected to the world. Therefore, if the airline would introduce onboard Wi-Fi, it would meet customer expectations, making them more satisfied with their experience, which would also improve customer retention.

Technical Issues

The technical aspects are equipping the airplanes with the necessary technology and establishing satellites or air-to-ground (ATG) in various locations. More to the point, the very approach of Air Arabia limits its investments in technological development that can set an extra burden to the company. From this perspective, the technical issues can be associated with significant challenges, which are the core issue that should be resolved by the company before implementing this technology.

Legal Issues

Legal factors relate to agreements between countries on airport taxes and a ban on the use of specific aircraft models. The first risk is the growth of the fees of airports or countries that Air Arabia might face as it will either force them to increase the price of tickets or lose profits. Besides, each state has the right to prohibit the use of certain aircraft models, if there are good reasons for this. For example, after the disaster in Ethiopia, many countries suspended or banned the use of Boeings 737 Max (Kaplan, Austen & Gebrekidan, 2019). A similar risk exists for other airplanes, so the company will experience significant losses if the model of its airplanes is prohibited by the countries of its operation.

Environmental Issues

Environmental factors also sharply affect the companys operations, especially in light of recent ecological trends and the environmental crisis. Airplanes are harmful to nature, so there is a possibility that in the coming decades, their popularity may decrease, and taxes on their use will grow. However, the introduction of onboard connectivity can be used to attract customers attention to the problem of climate change. For example, Air Arabia can design a short video that explains the need to resolve this problem and simple steps that can be taken by any person. This video can be shown before entering the Internet as a social responsibility initiative. Accordingly, the company would demonstrate its responsible approach to the environment while also increasing customer satisfaction via a new service.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Air Arabia is one of the most successful airlines in the UAE because it uses its strengths, such as low ticket prices, high quality, a variety of services, and a wide selection of destinations. Low ticket prices make it possible for the middle and lower-middle classes in all countries to afford flights. Consequently, the number of customers is statistically higher than for business and luxury airlines. The company also offers a wide variety of services both during flights, for example, amenities for children and entertainment, and as an addition to them, hotel reservations or car rental. The high quality of services is reflected both in the increase in the number of company transportations and honors.

In 2019, Air Arabia received the award as the best low-cost airline in the Middle East and Africa, and one of the evaluation criteria was customer reviews (Air Arabia, 2019). A large number of destinations is also an advantage of the company since it allows it to attract more customers and reduce the risks associated with economic or political instability.

Weaknesses

The weakness of the company is an insufficient fleet, which cannot satisfy the demand of passengers. Today, Air Arabia has 52 aircraft that operate scheduled flights. At the same time, the Etihad low-cost airline has a fleet of 102 aircraft, and the largest company in the UAE Emirates has 278 airplanes (Our fleet, n.d.; The Emirates A380, n.d.; The Emirates Boeing 777). However, Air Arabia is already dealing with this issue and replenishes its fleet. The companys official website has repeatedly mentioned that Air Arabia made the largest order in the region for the purchase of 120 Airbus A320 Family aircraft (Air Arabia, 2019). Therefore, the company is aware of its shortcomings and tries to correct them to satisfy customer demand.

Opportunities

The main opportunities of the company are expanding the market to other countries, increasing the frequency of flights, as well as offering new services. Although the company flies already in 50 countries, there are still many states where Air Arabia does not operate, and its profitability and high organizational level make this expansion possible. Besides, if the purchase of aircraft is successful, the company will be able to increase the number of flights to current popular destinations. Air Arabia can also expand its range of services, for example, build its hotel with low room prices. Thus, Air Arabia has many options for product and market development.

Threats

The company also continually faces threats from other airlines, and there are always risks of changing external political and economic conditions and environmental initiatives. The first threat is current as the competition is high due to such local airlines in the UAE as Etihad and Emirates, and foreign companies, for example, Qatar Airways, British Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Lufthansa. Besides, in 2019, the Indian company SpiceJet signed an agreement, which could lead to the emergence of new airlines, and Wizz Air low-cost aims to expand its network to the east (Dudley, 2019). However, cooperation with Etihad is a profitable solution for Air Arabia as this allowed it to occupy part of the market without significant investments.

Moreover, any changes in the legal, political, or economic situation of one of the 50 countries where Air Arabia flies threaten to reduce profits. For example, in the Air Arabia report, the outbreak of the coronavirus in China did not affect the companys operations (Air Arabia, 2020).

However, if it made flights only to China and neighboring countries, this epidemy would significantly reduce the companys profit. Another possible threat to the future is the need to reduce air travel due to aircraft pollution of the environment and increase taxes due to these changes. A possible solution to the problem is to invest in the development of more environmentally friendly aircraft. Although such a project can cost vast amounts of money, if it is successful, the company will receive increased demand from customers, as well as profit from the invention. Therefore, PESTLE and SWOT analyses demonstrate that Air Arabia has many advantages that open different development opportunities for it.

The Strategic Model: Product Development

Ansoffs Matrix is one of the most convenient tools for determining a development strategy since it uses the main features of the external and internal environment to select a model and evaluate its risks. The Matrix offers four strategies, such as market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification (Planellas & Muni, 2019). One can conclude that the company needs to use a product development strategy by assessing its weaknesses and opportunities.

Since onboard connectivity is not yet implemented into Air Arabia, product development is the main strategy that should be adopted in terms of the current market. Paying attention to the PESTLE analysis that was provided earlier in this paper, this idea can be evaluated as a viable option to research and introduce by Air Arabia to improve customer satisfaction and, at the same time, increase the positive impact of the company on the environment along with greater profit.

Extensive research in the field of the onboard Internet should be conducted to better understand the current position of the company on the market. Considering that the investment and technical aspects are the key challenges, the partnerships and agreements can be considered to seek support from other organizations and the UAE government. In addition, the experience of competitors should be explored to learn about their strengths and avoid potential mistakes.

Consequently, the company will receive significant profits and will be able to compete successfully with other strong airlines by increasing the market, the number of aircraft, and passengers. In addition, this extension will allow the company to minimize the risks associated with environmental trends and possible political and economic instability in countries. After becoming a leader in its Air segment, Arabia will be able to use a product development strategy or even diversification.

Conclusion

Air Arabia is a successfully developing company that offers excellent services in the low-cost aviation segment, which is its advantage over many competitors. Its main weakness is a small fleet, but management is aware of this problem and makes efforts to correct it. The current economic, social, and environmental factors allow the company to use the product development strategy according to the Ansoff Matrix since onboard connectivity is relevant for many people. Even though there are certain political and technical challenges, partnerships with other companies and governments are likely to resolve this problem. Therefore, researching and developing onboard Internet access for passengers should be the companys primary strategy, which will help it to develop and become leaders among the regional airlines.

References

Air Arabia named as Middle East and Africas Best Low-Cost Airline. (2019). Air Arabia. Web.

Air Arabia. (2020). Results presentation Q4/FY 2019. Web.

Dudley, D. (2019). Will the future of Middle East aviation be dictated by low-cost carriers?Forbes. Web.

Kaplan, T., Austen, I., & Gebrekidan, S. (2019). Boeing planes are grounded in U.S. after days of pressure. The New York Times. Web.

Our fleet (n.d.). Etihad. Web.

Planellas, M., & Muni, A. (2019). Strategic decisions: The 30 most useful models. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Rahman, F. (2020). UAE Cabinet approves Air Arabia Abu Dhabi as national airline. Web.

SkyTime. (n.d.). Air Arabia. Web.

The Emirates A380. (n.d). Emirates. Web.

The Emirates Boeing 777. (n.d). Emirates. Web.

It is important to note that the given analysis will primarily focus on the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence (OAESV). A quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) will be used in order to determine the most plausible and effective strategic direction for the organization. It is stated that QSPM provides an analytical method for comparing feasible alternative actions (Maxi-Pedia, 2017, para. 1). However, in order to proceed with the selected methodological approach, it is critical to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for three possible strategic alternatives.

OAESV has limited resources and time to make meaningful changes, which is why it cannot afford to pursue all of its goals. The organization can either focus on its external network through alliances (prevention), work internally to expand its capacity (advocacy), or use the existing resources to serve the victims exclusively (service). The first strategy is to focus on alliances and connections, which are needed to accelerate advocacy and outreach, expand capacity, and shape policy and resource development (Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, 2019, p. 14). The second pathway is to expand the capacity of prevention and intervention service providers, which is more internal than the first route (Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, 2019, p. 14). The third option is to work with survivors and victims as well as those working on their behalf (Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, 2019, p. 14). All of these efforts are worthwhile to pursue, but strategy requires prioritization.

The strengths of OAESV include reputation, visibility, leadership, partnerships, volunteers, and advocacy. The weaknesses are low media presence, inaccessible online resources, weak prevention curriculum, limited service capacity, low number of attorneys, and a low array of survivors served. The core opportunities are policy-making influence and lobbying, greater citizen involvement, state-level voice increase, practice reforms, leadership training, and expanded capacity. However, the threats are decreased accessibility of OAESV for communities, loss of outreach, reduced visibility, lowered awareness, labor shortage, and operational cost increase.

The application of the QSPM matrix on three identified strategic options demonstrated rather interesting and insightful results. All three strategies had scores in a similar range with values of 4.67, 4.44, and 4.93 for the first, second, and third strategies, respectively (Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix, 2022). Comparatively analyzing the outcomes makes it evident that working with victims directly is the most plausible strategic alternative. At this point, OAESV already has sufficient capabilities and partnerships to make a significant difference. By focusing on the facilitation of direct cooperation with the victims and survivors, the organization will be able to maximize the use of its existing strengths. In other words, they are enough to achieve and realize the most important opportunities while avoiding or minimizing the risks of threats.

In essence, the bottom line is to make the State of Ohio free of sexual violence. Building external alliances and expanding internal capacities are necessary to serve the victims and prevent such cases in the future. Although partnerships are better for policy influence, expanded work with survivors will demonstrate tangible results to improve practice and increase citizen involvement since they will see that the organization is making a difference. For threats, alliances spread the word further, but word-of-mouth is still potent for retaining visibility and outreach. For strengths, the real impact is equal to a rigid reputation, and greater citizen engagement means more volunteers and visibility. Lastly, many weaknesses can be mitigated by working with victims directly.

References

Maxi-Pedia. (2017). Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM). Web.

Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence. (2019). There is power and strength in a collective [PDF document]. Web.

Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix [EXCEL document]. (2022).

Peter Spaans in Holland started Spaans Cookie Co in 1896; later in 1912, he moved to USA and in 1922 opened a bakery selling donuts, potato chips, and pastries. The bakery was formed with the intention of providing the customers their preferences. The company has, in the time of operation, merged with other businesses.

It was designed to be a premium priced bakery, which targeted customers of a higher income level. The success of Spaans Cookie Co is not only in terms of having smooth operations throughout the company but also in the fact that in this industry, there is a very large margin for premium pricing if the company is able to develop a strong value with its customers.

Creating such value is very difficult because they have to cater to the cultural needs of the area they are operating in so that the food provided to the customers is acceptable.

Spaans Cookie Co caters on providing the experience to the consumers, and for that experience, we need the right people for the job. The company, just like any other business, has faced tests in its operations but has emerged stronger. This paper will explore the strategic plan to be implemented by the company to improve its services.

Vision, mission, values

Vision statement: the long-term plans of the company are to increase value in such a manner that they remain market leaders. Due to this reason, the mission statement is such that it allows them to progress globally without any problems.

The vision statement guarantees success in the long run as it allows future progress in such a manner that it is acceptable to stakeholders. Unless such windows of opportunities are utilized, it would be very difficult for the company to be in the industry in the long- run. For Spaans Cookie Co, the customers are the most important aspect and providing a value for their money their primary objective.

Mission statement- Spaans Cookie Co has a productivity mission statement that has been issued to all employees, the employees actively carry out the tasks in fulfillment of the goals in the mission statement, and the management gives high priority to the achievement of those goals.

The productivity norms are integrated with the organizations productivity plans because productivity improvement plan is most effective if it is integrated into the organizations strategy planning. The results of such plans are not evaluated the overall cost of production as far as Spaans Cookie Co is concerned.

Value Facet Analysis There is a number of workers of different cultures working in Spaans Cookie Co and as such, cultural issues is a problem in Spaans Cookie Co. However, managers have been trained to handle cross-cultural teams and to deal with cultural issues within their teams.

The top recommendations given have a lot to do with the current organizational culture in Spaans Cookie Co, banking more on complacency, inefficiency, poor communication, less teamwork etc. This trend has to be halted and a new culture of efficiency, competence, effective communication, teamwork etc is brought in. The recommendations suggested would be able to bring in all these traits among the workers as well as in the management.

Most of the employees of Spaans Cookie Co seem not to be interested in aligning their values with that of the organizations values. The recommendations suggested would align the values of the employees with that of the organizations values and if any employees values cannot be aligned with that of the organization, then he or she should be forced to leave the organization.

There is a good understanding of supplier values in Spaans Cookie Co but the understanding can be hampered if supplies of materials are not made on time as agreed upon due to employee negligence and poor productivity at Spaans Cookie Co. There is need to have understanding of supplier values and provide more consideration to their values by Spaans Cookie Co.

Any organization should have a better understanding of what the customer values. In the case of Spaans Cookie Co, the customer looks up to company to deliver taste cookies. This goes a long way in meeting those customer values.

Spaans Cookie understands the values of third parties like labor unions, the government regulatory agencies etc. If regular employees were sacked for their inefficiency and poor productivity, the labor unions and regulatory agencies would react and from their reactions appropriate steps can be taken that would push Spaans Cookie Co to greater productivity levels and increase efficiency.

The Spaans Cookie Co management is unyielding in front of the labor unions and the regulatory agencies in their determination to make it a productive and efficient organization.

Currently the employees of Spaans Cookie Co who are shepherds of the owners assets do seem to be interested in increasing the value of their owners assets. However, some of them do work but their complacency hampers their productivity and therefore the increase in value for the owners assets is hampered.

External and Internal Environmental SWOTT Analysis Table

Business environment

Spaans Cookie Company has continued with growth in sales and remained profitable in the past five years. While it has gained market share in the last few years, some flavors have tended to struggle because of market depression. The whole industry has had to put up with, rising fuel costs and a dampened consumer demand. Spaans Cookie Company has however continued thriving, mainly due to its business model, which dwells on cost control and product quality.

Competence in management has enhanced efficiency of operations in the company. In addition, the company has a good capital base that facilitates investments in new technologies to diversify the business activities. There are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities threats, and trends that have affected the company both internally and externally. This paper addresses comprehensive factors that affect operations including the Economic, Technological, Legal & Regulatory, Social, Goals, Resource, and Innovation.

External forces

Economic- The Companys unique cookies are of many flavors. As a result, Spaans Cookie Company determines the volume of output and the prices at which the products are sold. This increases the market demand significantly and therefore products are sold at prices that maximize the profits of the organization and hence the welfare of shareholders.

The economic power that the organization has enables it to control the marketing of its products and maintain a competitive advantage. Customers are usually willing to purchase highly priced products especially if the products are of high quality and if they are of unique types (Gitman and McDaniel, 2008).

Spaans Cookie Company has adopted this strategy since it provides high quality products in the market to maintain its market power. This has facilitated the efforts of the company to meet the market demand and maximize the welfare of its stakeholders including the customers, the employees, and the shareholders. Spaans Cookie reduces inefficiency by producing the maximum units of products possible in a day.

Technological- The Company has invested in innovation to facilitate adoption of the most sophisticated technology in production of different flavors that meets the needs of customer. This has led to production of high quality products that are highly demanded in the market.

Technology enhances the efficiency of production, which further minimizes the costs of production under the concept of scale economies. Economies of scale refer to the benefits that accrue to a firm as it increases in size. The marginal costs of production keeps on decreasing as production continue ((Sadler and Craig, 2007).

Creativity and innovation is paramount to realization of goals and objectives in an organization. The management of Spaans Cookie has recognized this element and therefore measures have been adopted to facilitate efficiency of operations in the organization. Technological advancements have enabled the company to expand its business through invention of new brands to diversify the portfolio of the organization.

Legal & Regulatory- The Company is also faced by certain legal threats that may hinder development and realization of the set goals and objectives. It is a requirement of the government of the United States for all companies to pay taxes proportionately to the amount of corporate income received.

There are fines that are imposed when the company violates the payments of certain taxes. It is possible for errors to occur in the accounting department of the organization and therefore the taxes could be underestimated. Auditing by the government officers could implicate the organizations to tax omissions whose impacts can be to taint the name of the organization in the general society.

Environment There are social threats that face the company, which can have negative implications in the future if they are not addressed. During production of cookies, there is emission gases that are said to harmful to environment and therefore they are likely to have negative implications on people in the future.

Internal forces

Goals: Spaans Cookie is planning to boost its biggest brands in the United States by producing more advertisements and setting limitations for other new product development. With this initiative, the company is expecting an increase in their profit (Spaans Cookie, 2011).

This year, the company is acknowledging its plan to give emphasis on cookies. For Spaans Cookie, their goals are aligned with their current strategies against the soaring price of energy and other ingredients. Along with this, the company aims to increase more its advertisements for the next two years looking forward that it will generate sales growth along with their expansion. In assessing the goals of Spaans Cookie, it shows that most of them are straightforward emphasizing what really they want to happen.

The goal of Spaans Cookie is very clear, easy to understand, and measurable. Somehow, they are attainable in a sense that the company already identified certain products where they could have opportunities. Finally, their goal is realistic and with timetable, they mentioned realistic strategies on how to achieve their goals and set a period.

Resource  Efficiency of production is enhanced by the capability of an organization to allocate the resources efficiently. Resource allocation depends on the effectiveness of the company to mix the inputs of production to facilitate efficiency. The inputs include capital and labor in addition to entrepreneurship and land as factors of production. The company has not been able to meet the market demand due to the inefficiencies associated with resource allocation.

The market demand is large to the extent that the resources available in the company cannot meet it. It is therefore important for the management of the organization to increase resource endowment to facilitate increased production in the organization. The inputs of production such as capital and labor should be increased and be combined in the best rations to facilitate efficiency of operations in the organization.

Improved efficiency in resource allocation will increase the competitive advantage of the organization, which will lead to coverage of a wider market base (Pearce and Robinson, 2009). In addition, the organization will able to meet the needs of the customers by offering the required units of output to facilitate maximization of the welfare of the employees (Sadler and Craig, 2007).

Resource allocation is conducted internally under the productions department and therefore when the organization cannot effectively meet the anticipated demand, then the problem becomes a weakness, which should be rectified to facilitate the smooth running of operations in the organization. It is important for the productions manager to seek the knowledge of economists on the best methods to facilitate resource allocation in the organization.

Innovation: Venturing into new markets will require the company to develop new flavors since different customers have different tastes and preferences. In addition, the customers could be willing to consume some products but they can be constrained by several factors for example income.

Such constraints means that the customers will not be able to maximize their utilities subject to the incomes they have. It is therefore important for the organization to provide a variety of products some of which should be relatively cheap to enhance affordability of different customers.

Implementation Stage- The Balanced Scorecard

The strategy implementation stage is considered as the most critical stage in the strategic management process (Dess, Lumpkin, & Eisner, 2009). The importance of this stage is because the companies face a number of challenges in making sure that the strategy is properly implemented, and unless these challenges are effectively managed, it will be very difficult for the companies to make sure that they are able to get the maximum results out of the strategic plan.

In order to make sure that the strategies are rightly implemented, we would be using the balanced scorecard. The balanced score card works by allowing the company to divide its strategy into a number of concerned areas of operation and then set measurable targets, which have to be, achieved (David, 2008). These targets also define the roles required by the company in order to achieve them.

The balanced scorecard is a strategy implementation tool, which works on the concept of developing objectives based on the companys strategy in four areas: finance, customer, process, learning, and growth. The scorecard helps in defining the management what needs to be done in order to make sure that the strategy is able to turn tides for the company (Kaplan & Norton, 1996).

In the case of Spaans Cookie Company, they must realize it is highly essential to make sure that they are able to come up with the right strategy as well as the right implementation of the strategy so that the improve growth. The resources are highly limited and a failure in the implementation of the strategy would make it difficult for the company to grow (Wheelen & Hunger, 2010). To make it easier to understand, each of the factors of the balanced scorecard is discussed separately.

Financial Perspective:  Finances of the company are very important as they help in creating the resources that would be required for the smooth operation of the company. The Company would find it difficult to continue growing if finances are not kept in check. The appropriate strategies to make sure that the company is financially stable are

• Increase in the market share of the company to an overall 20%. This would be done through increasing the market share of the company, which would help to attract more investors.
• Maintain a profit margin of 12.3% so that future investors are attracted. Cost saving is essential as well as a continuous check on the books of accounts while marketing would help in attracting more customers

Customer Value Perspective: Customers are the most important asset for the company and therefore it is important to make sure that the customers are taken into consideration in all areas of operations. The customer perspective is therefore very important, as it would tell what to do in order to make sure that service is able to add value in the customers life. In this regard, the following strategies objectives are set:

• Maintain a customer turnover to an annual 4% of the overall market. Compensations to be given to customers with negative feedbacks in order to retain customers
• Achieve and maintain a 90% customer satisfaction in the business. Customer values to be created on what the company can deliver so that gap between customer expectations and the service are reduced.
• Increase customer value by increasing marketing to communicate the true value of the company. Further, to increase customer value to be done by making the service tangible.

Process Perspective: The processes, which the company takes in delivering the right product to the customers, determine how the company is communicating value to the customers. Delivering the value to the customers depends upon the processes that are employed by the company. The following objectives therefore have to be achieved to make sure that the processes of the company are in line with the strategies:

• Application of efficient production methods for quality cookies, this would be done through the understanding of the ingredients that make good flavored cookies.
• Increasing production by 10% every year in order to match market demand, this would also good marketing.
• Expanding the market by 25% through market development into other surrounding countries and all US states would help to attract more customers.

Learning and Growth Perspective: The employees especially the drivers are the only human aspect of the company, which the customers can actually see and interact. It is therefore very necessary to make sure that the employees have the right skills to perform their respective jobs. Employees are one of the main driving factors of the company and it is therefore necessary to make sure that the employees are involved in the strategic planning process.

• Maintain a 90% employee satisfaction rate at all times through the development of employee programs, which help, in developing employee skill as well as in understanding the needs of individual employees.
• Keep the employee turnover rate to at most 3% a year. Employee has to be interacted with at all times to make sure that the employees needs are being well understood.
• Increasing efficiency by 15% every year through the implementation of modern technology

Understanding the Balanced Scorecard

The balanced scorecard is a mere reflection of the companys strategies which have been developed through the understanding of the companys mission statement, vision statement, the external and the internal factors which would affect its operations as well as the SWOTT analysis that was conducted in setting up the business.

Unless these parts of the strategic plan are not considered, it would be very difficult to make sure that right strategy is formulated. The vision statement determines where the company wants to be and the mission statement further helps in clarifying the methods that the company would be using in order to achieve its vision (David, 2008).

However, while the mission statement tells what needs to be done in order to achieve this vision, it cannot tell how this vision can be achieved. The company therefore needs to develop a strategy, which will determine the right path to pursue the companys vision.

The strategies that have been formulated by Spaans Cookie Company are developed through the companys vision. In fact, it included in the whole process, which starts with the evaluation of the external and internal factors and then led to the SWOTT analysis.

In this way, the opportunities as well as the industry trends of the company are highlighted which identified what strategies should be made in order to grasp these opportunities. At times, it is also necessary for the company to make sure that it operates outside the industry trend creating a blue ocean for itself (Spaans Cookie, 2011).

In the balance scorecard that has been developed above is the clear representation of the SWOTT analysis, which was conducted before. This includes areas of opportunity such modern technology and understanding the quality production methods to have been integrated into this scorecard. The measures that have been taken in each of these objectives are also created with the understanding of the capability of the company given its resources.

The period that has been put in this balanced scorecard also helps to identify when do the objective needs to be achieved so that the company does not falls behind time. When the employees know about the objectives that are to be achieved in a particular timeframe, they themselves start to make sure that they play their role in the achievement of these objectives (Hrebiniak, 2005).

Thus, balanced scorecard is a useful tool for any company as it helps to determine the right approach to be used by the company. A strategy implementation tool, this scorecard helps in the development of the right set of objectives, which the company would pursue in order to make sure that the companys vision is achieved. Strategic management is a very delicate process, and usually takes time from the development of the strategy to the implementation of it (Pearce and Robinson, 2009).

Managers must make sure that while developing the objectives for the scorecard, they have a complete understanding of the companys capabilities otherwise the objectives developed would be unreachable by the company.

Communication plan

The communications mix is comprised of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and publicity or public relations. The company combines these four elements with different emphasis on each. More focus has been given on advertising and sales promotion, as they are the most suitable for an industry.

Advertising and sales promotion Personal selling and public relations are important for creating brand equity. Each staff member has a sense of responsibility and capability while being attentive to the needs of the customers. Word of mouth is free but it means ensuring a good reputation.

Managing Risks

This business is prone to both internal and external risks. The management of these risks has been made possible by the company through preparation. One of the major risks that the company has faced is from the employees who are not be able to perform up to expectations. In order to cope up with this risk, motivational strategies have been used such that the employees are kept motivated at all time.

The risk of a very strong competition is also very high simply due to the fact that a new competitor may come up in either one or all of the business locations which would negatively impact the revenues. In order to minimize such a risk, the company has come up with specific operational strategies and also resorted in high levels of marketing so that it is able to communicate brand values with the customers.

While these risks are controllable, the company has kept in mind the probability of an uncontrolled risk which may have a very significant impact on the business. Similarly, the economic disasters such as inflation and other economic crisis will significantly impact the costs of operations as well as the overall purchasing power of the customers.

Conclusion

The successful operations of any business depend upon a number of reasons, each of which has to be understood carefully so that the right strategies can be developed. For existing companies like Spaans Cookie Company, it is very important to make sure that all the industrial factors are carefully analyzed and understood in so that the right operational strategies are developed.

It must also be kept in mind that the success of the business is not only in the generation of the right strategies but also in the fact that the strategies should be applied in an effective manner. In this regard, the balanced scorecard will be used to make sure that the strategy is applied as it has been intended to be and generates the maximum result expected from it.

References

David, F. R. (2008). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. New York: Prentice Hall.

Dess, G., Lumpkin, G., & Eisner, A. (2009). Strategic Management: Creating Competitive Advantages. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Gitman, L. J., & McDaniel, C. (2008). The Future of Business: The Essentials. New York: Cengage Learning .

Hrebiniak, L. G. (2005). Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change. New Delhi: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (1996). The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action. Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Pearce, J. A. II, & Robinson, R. B. (2009). Strategic management: Formulation, implementation, and control. New York: McGraw-Hill

Sadler, P., and Craig, J. (2007). Strategic Management. London: Kogan Page

Spaans Cookie, (2011). Spaans Cookies. Retrieved from <http://spaanscookies.com/>

Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, D. J. (2010). Concepts in Strategic Management and Business Policy. New York: Pearson Prentice Hall.

What is strategy and why is it important? Find here the answers to these questions. The strategic planning essay below explains the impact of strategy on the spheres of marketing and logistics as well as on small businesses in general.

1. What Is Strategy
2. The Importance of Strategy for Businesses
3. Improving Business Performance
4. The Main Problems
5. Conclusion

Introduction

Strategic planning is a process of making certain choices within an organization. It can be defined as a designed process that is meant to support organizational leaders both locally and internationally in terms of operations methods, goals and objectives. Alternatively, strategic planning can be defined as a management tool used for the purpose of enabling an organization to work effectively and efficiently towards achieving its goals and objectives.

The process of managing the operations of a business is referred to as strategic because it entails how best a business organization respond to the circumstances arising from a dynamic and in other cases hostile business environment.

Meanwhile, Small business is a kind of business entity that is owned privately by an individual or a group of partners and that which operates with a small number of labor forces. Small business may include privately owned partnerships, sole proprietorships and corporations. Nonetheless, it is important to note that the legal definition of a small business varies greatly according various nations of the world; this also depends on the type of industry in which a business entity may be categorized into.

This research paper will examine strategic planning; with regards to this, the essay will examine the strategic planning, practices, importance of strategic planning and the pitfalls of strategic planning amongst small businesses and finally provides a conclusion about strategic planning in small businesses.

What Is Strategy in Business?

It has always been falsely thought strategic planning is only for big and multinational corporations. It is important to note that strategic planning is crucial for every organization, both for profit and non-profit organizations. In this case, strategic planning is very crucial for small business organizations.

Small business organizations require to be more committed to strategic thinking and actions more than the large scale established business entities. In the process of conducting strategic planning, small organizations are preparing to meet future business challenges as they remain focused in meeting their strategic goals and objectives.

Strategic planning prepares small businesses to deal with the future in five steps. The first one is that the firm foresees both potential opportunities and threats in order to meet its vision and mission. The second step is that the small businesses make decisions on how best they can respond to potential business opportunities and threats that they will encounter.

The third step is for the small businesses to single out the likely sources from which the opportunities and threats will originate from. The fourth step entails examining the viability of an opportunity and the likelihood of the risk occurrence. The last step calls for measures in potential threats alleviation or seizing available opportunities (Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness, 2010).

While performing strategic planning, it is important to review the small businesses past performance, the current and the projected or expected future performance. Knowing where the businesses have come from, where they are now and where they expect to go is very important during strategic planning process (Neely, 2002).

An example of a small business entity is Ann Taylor, an American business for a group of women specializing in apparel retail chain stores. The business makes use of its expert personnel resources in formulating strategic planning. In the process, the business anticipates issues, identify latent problems and establishing strategies to address the problems and take advantage of arising opportunities.

Strategic Planning & Its Importance for Small Businesses

One of the most important functions of strategic planning is that it assists a small business organization to set the direction of its future. In this case, strategic planning is like a map clearly outlining how a business destination is to be reached (Marien, 1990).

The strategic planning process helps small business organizations to identify their available resources and hence plan on how to appropriately and effectively utilize the resources for maximum benefit of the small businesses. Besides, it provides a framework within which a small business organization can operate so as to realize both of its short-term and long-term objectives.

For instance, compared to those that do not plan, small businesses that engage in strategic planning have been found to register higher sales growth and financial performance; this implies that strategic planning is necessary for accelerated business growth (Hodgetts, 1992).

Strategic planning is also away of communicating information about the small businesses. Through strategic planning, small business entities get to inform its employees and other significant stakeholders on the position of the business and where the business anticipates going in terms of growth.

It also communicates the input employees have contributed and hence enable them to understand the role they play in the organization. Moreover, strategic planning also helps the small businesses to set clear strategies on how to tackle the future possible challenges and take advantage of the potential opportunities that are likely to arise. The success of these strategies requires the commitment of all stakeholders who must be provided with necessary and sufficient resources (Hodgetts, 1992).

Strategic Planning as a Way to Improve Business Performance

The link between strategic planning and performance of small business organizations has been a theme of rising interests in relation to strategic management. It is important to note that strategic planning is a process that provides a long-range strategic schedule which includes a statement about a business objectives and mission statement.

Besides, strategic pan also entails strategies showing how the business objectives will be achieved. It also provides the yard stick by which all the business performance can be monitored and checked or controlled (Watson, 2007).

Going by the above points, it is therefore important to mention that strategic planning is crucial for organizational performance. Several research studies have indicated that there is strong relationship between strategic planning and the performance of a given small business organization; in fact, more research findings have shown that small business organizations that engage in strategic planning perform more than those that do not do strategic planning. For this reason, the value of strategic planning cannot be wished a way.

The process of doing formal planning forces individuals involved to bring out ideas that are essential in propelling the organization towards its goals and objectives (Watson, 2007).

The importance of strategic planning in improving the performance of small businesses is reinforced by recent research findings that indicate that the more complex the strategic plan the higher the performance of a small business organization; it is noteworthy to mention that these findings are not only applicable to small businesses, but also to any business entity or organization that is involved in strategic planning (Watson, 2007).

However, it is of significance to mention that formulating and putting into place strategic planning process is one thing of its own and implementing it is another. Failure to implement strategic plan may make strategic planning process unproductive.

It is also crucial to mention that the success of strategic planning in improving business performance is greatly dependent on the available resources and whether the stakeholders, especially the employees, understand fully the content of the business strategic plan. Otherwise, the process of strategic planning does not guarantee improved business performance as its positive impact still depends of steps taken by the business organizations in implementing the strategic plan.

The Problems of Strategic Planning

As much as strategic planning has a lot of benefits to business organizations, it is a process that has its own negative side. One of the problems associated with strategic planning is that it is costly, especially with small businesses. The process may require the hiring of strategic planning consultants who may need to be paid large amount of money.

The big problem with strategic planning is that the planning process may not be completed; strategic planning is more detailed and in most cases requires a level of commitment that may prove to fatigue planners (Kerzner & Rea, 1997). This may leave the general plans already put into place to appear as white elephant projects.

Strategic Planning Conclusion

Strategic planning is an important process of small businesses. Small businesses undertake strategic plans in order to determine where they have come from, their current position and projected future position in terms of business performance. Strategic planning also helps a small business to formulate strategies to meet future business challenges and take advantage of potential opportunities.

Besides, it also assists the business organizations in determining the amount of resources they have and hence decide on how to best allocate them for the benefit of business organizations.

Strategic planning can actually be described as a management tool used in managing the business operations of a given business entity. In this case, it used to manage the future of the business organization and hence position the businesses at positions where they can strategically meet their business goals and objectives effectively and efficiently (Marien, 1990).

Strategic planning improves the overall performance of small businesses. In relation to this, it is important to note that research findings point out that the more complex the strategic plan the higher the performance of a business organization.

However, it is important to be aware of the fact that the process of strategic planning is not a guarantee that a business entity will enhance its performance. The successful implementation of strategic plan requires sufficient resources and also that all the stakeholders understand the contents of the strategic plan.

Strategic planning process does not only have its good part; it has a number of problems associated with it. Strategic planning process is elaborate and sometimes may get complex and hence may be left unfinished due to lack of motivation to complete the planning process. Besides, strategic planning is relatively costly in terms of finances and time.

This is one of the reasons many business entities, especially the small businesses fail to be involve in strategic planning. The consequence is that such small businesses may not have strong and effective strategies to tackle future business challenges and take advantage of beneficial opportunities that are likely to arise in the business process (Marien, 1990).

Reference List

Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness. (2010). Strategic Planning is for Small Businesses Too-Part1. Retrieved from: https://cmoe.com/blog/strategic-planning-is-for-smaller-businesses-too/.

Hodgetts, R. (1992). Effective Small Business Management. U.S: Harcourt.

Kerzner, H. & Rea, P. (1997). Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.

Marien, M. (1990). Future Survey 1990: A Guide to the Recent Literature of Trends, Forecasts, and Policy Proposals. United States: Transaction Publishers.

Neely, A. (2002). Business performance measurement: theory and practice. London: Cambridge University Press.

Watson, G. (2007). Strategic benchmarking reloaded with six sigma: improve your companys performance using global best practice. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.

Introduction

In the hiring process, as well as other human resource management practices, discrimination is prohibited. However, there are cases when the bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) doctrine is applied, and the focus on peoples certain differences and characteristics can be required for a specific job position (Cavico & Mujtaba, 2016). Consequently, each company is interested in developing a strategic workforce planning process that addresses its goals and allows for hiring the best employees to correspond with the corporate strategy. However, when trying to select the most appropriate employees in the context of the workforce planning approach, it is important to avoid discriminating against applicants and violating their rights. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the hiring practices of Abercrombie & Fitch and Hooters and to determine how each company organizes its strategic workforce planning process and addresses the issue of discrimination.

Court Cases Related to Abercrombie & Fitch and Hooters

Both Abercrombie & Fitch and Hooters were sued because of denying employment and discriminating against potential employees.

Abercrombie & Fitch is a U.S. chain of clothing stores that is famous for its look policy, prescribing a certain dress code for its employees. Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores (2005) was associated with a class-action lawsuit filed by several minority representatives, who applied for positions at Abercrombie & Fitch, but they were refused or received undesirable positions. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores (2015) was a case, according to which Samantha Elauf, a Muslim-American woman, was refused to take a position at the company. She used a headscarf, but the dress code did not allow that.

It is also important to mention the cases related to Hooters, a restaurant chain. Latuga v. Hooters Inc (1994) was the case, in which a male applicant filed a lawsuit against Hooters because of not being hired due to sex discrimination. In 2009, there was a similar lawsuit against Hooters, Grushevski v. Texas Wings, Inc (2009), as Nikolai Grushevski was not hired as a waiter. These four cases are related to discrimination in the hiring process, but the outcomes were different.

Outcomes of the Court Cases

To analyze the success of the workforce planning process at Abercrombie & Fitch and Hooters, it is necessary to discuss the outcomes of the mentioned court cases. In Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores (2005), the rejected applicants received compensation, and Abercrombie & Fitch had to develop diversity policies to hire minority representatives. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores (2015) was resolved in favor of Samantha Elauf as she was not required to request the accommodation related to the dress code in advance to have the protection against religious discrimination. In these cases, it was determined that Abercrombie & Fitchs actions and policies were discriminatory. In Latuga v. Hooters Inc (1994), Savino Latuga received compensation, but the company was allowed to continue hiring only women as waitresses, providing additional jobs for men. In Grushevski v. Texas Wings, Inc (2009), the parties settled, but Hooters argued the BFOQ defense. In this and other similar cases, the BFOQ defense protected Hooters because their selection of employees of a certain gender was determined by the characteristics of their business.

The Companies Strategic Workforce Planning

Having analyzed the strategies taken by Abercrombie & Fitch and Hooters and lawsuits against them, it is possible to state that Abercrombie & Fitch did not follow a proper hiring strategy in contrast to Hooters. Abercrombie & Fitch had an ineffective strategy in recruiting employees as its policies directly and indirectly promoted discrimination. In the discussed cases, inappropriate policies and practices that led to racial and religious discrimination did not address applicants needs and negatively affected the companys reputation (Richards, 2016). On the contrary, Hooters accentuated their necessity of hiring only female waiters as the component of their strategic development. As a result, although the company could not avoid discrimination-grounded lawsuits, it was able to argue the BFOQ defense.

The Strategic Workforce Planning Process for Strengthening the Company

Hooters is the company, in which its strategic workforce planning helped to strengthen its position in the market. The reason is that their selection of only female waiters is reflected in their policies and strategy, and this approach is protected according to the BFOQ doctrine. This doctrine allows discrimination on sex, race, or religion if certain employees characteristics are necessary for the business. In the case of Hooters, the company actively promotes the image of Hooters Girls which is part of their competitive advantage (Cavico & Mujtaba, 2016). Therefore, hiring only women as waiters is important for the strategic workforce planning process, and it is not discrimination against men according to the BFOQ doctrine.

Conclusion

Strategic workforce planning associated with addressing a companys hiring needs can provoke certain issues, including discrimination ones. In the case of Abercrombie & Fitch, the company was not able to organize workforce planning effectively to meet strategic needs and avoid discrimination issues. However, in the case of Hooters, lawsuits made the company pay more attention to claiming Hooters Girls as part of their business strategy. This approach to strategic hiring allowed Hooters to gain a competitive advantage and avoid negative effects on reputation.

References

Cavico, F. J., & Mujtaba, B. G. (2016). The bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) defense in employment discrimination: A narrow and limited justification exception. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 7(4), 15-29.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, 575 U.S. 14 (2015).

Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, 03-2817 SI 19 (2005).

Grushevski v. Texas Wings, Inc, C.A. 09-cv-00002 S.D. Tex. (2009).

Latuga v. Hooters Inc, WL 113079 93 (1994).

Richards, K. (2016). EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc.: Religious discrimination. Oklahoma City University Law Review, 41(1), 53-81.

The action plan is an instrumental part of any project because this method provides a person with a certain idea of what he or she is obliged to do to accomplish a particular goal. The final version of an action plan makes the implementation process more effective and clear. Therefore, the following paper is to develop an action plan for the Indian Creek Foundation campaigns strategy.

Identifying Tasks

The strategic plan will imply a list of things and goals that are essential to accomplish during the project of the Indian Creek Foundation. The first thing that has to be done in a strategic plan is the creation of an accepting and inclusive mission and a vision statement (Grunig & Kuhn, 2015). The second goal for the aforementioned project lies in creating a self-promotion campaign on social media and other resources on the World Wide Web. Another goal is to organize various community engagement activities to raise awareness about this project among citizens. All the actions listed above are crucial to be accomplished and supported during the next three years for the projects maximum results and efficiency.

Analyzing and Delegating Tasks

As it was mentioned above, the project of the Indian Creek Foundation has particular time limits that are essential to follow for the effectiveness of this work. To meet these requirements, all the campaign members are obligated to be occupied with separate responsibilities and tasks (Hill, Jones, & Schilling, 2014). Moreover, some actions might be disregarded due to their ineffectiveness.

The first goal (to create a mission and a vision statement) does not require any investment but asks for some critical thinking skills instead. As this remains one of the most fundamental tasks in the entire campaign because it lets all the members see the primary objectives, it must be developed and revised according to each members wishes and perspectives (Homan, 2016). The mission has to be realized and understood by every member of this project. Otherwise, without seeing the mutual goal, the whole work might be useless. This task is crucial to be accomplished during the first month of the teams work because this period gives people enough time to get acquainted with one another and to understand their mates values as well.

The second goal (to create a self-promoting campaign on social media) might require some extra knowledge and investment. To have a successful profile on one of the social media platforms, it is crucial to delegate this task to a competent person. If there are no people on the team who can take responsibility for this, it would be proper to hire a freelancer that already has long-term experience in running a social network profile.

Various social media are used by different audiences. Therefore, each online source has to have a unique approach to its effectiveness and a bigger number of followers. During the first year, it would be advantageous for the team to identify particular social networks for the campaigns online development. To reach this goal, the profile has to contain an informational video or a text that would cover the organizations approaches, history, statistics, and other relevant data.

During the second year, the team is expected to gain some extra experience in working with social media and launching a profile at another source. To cover such social media expenses as purchasing a camera, paying royalties to a freelancer, buying professional equipment, and so on, such a profile has to become another source of the projects income. During the third year, the campaign is to run its profiles at least on four different social media sources. The most effective and popular ones are YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

The third goal (organizing community engagement activities to raise awareness about the project) requires investment to cover multiple expenses for hosting such events as festivals, shows, collective actions, and so on. Therefore, it would be advantageous to use various crowdfunding services to raise the requested amount of financial support. These activities should be delegated to the members of our team who have experiences of successful start-ups and fundraising activities.

These actions are estimated to take circa six months. During the second year, it would be proper to consult experienced people and to gain specific information that will help the team to be aware of all the needed actions and tasks for reaching this goal (Watkins, West-Meiers, & Visser, 2012). Besides, all the events should be developed, organized, and prepared for their realization. During the third year, the team is to make advertisements, flaring posters, and placards for the audience to be aware of the forthcoming events. Moreover, the team members are to attract and invite more people to join the Indian Creek Foundation campaign during the third year.

Conclusion

The action plan for the Indian Creek Foundation campaign was developed by all the deadlines and investments. This method will display the primary goals of the aforementioned project during the next three years of its implementation. All the actions and steps were discussed and approved by the most competent participants of this campaign.

References

Grunig, R., & Kuhn, R. (2015). The strategy planning process. Berlin, Germany: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Web.

Hill, C., Jones, G., & Schilling, M. (2014). Strategic management: Theory: An integrated approach. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Web.

Homan, M. S. (2016). Promoting community change: Making it happen in the real world (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage. Web.

Watkins, R., West-Meiers, M., & Visser, Y. (2012). A guide to assessing needs: Essential tools for collecting information, making decisions, and achieving development results. Washington, DC: World Bank. Web.

Introduction

Strategic planning is not a concept that is uniquely applied to the field of information technology. In modern times, every segment of life and every undertaking that is successful must utilize the advantages availed by strategic planning. To state simply, strategic planning is about the careful organization of the resources that are available for a given chore in such a way that maximum gain is reaped while minimum losses are incurred. This level of organization is applicable not only in the entire organization but also in the small scale projects that take place within the organization. The people who carry out the strategic planning tasks are normally those with vast experience in the concerned area. The reason for this is that they are in a better position to identify areas of weakness and seal then. On the same note, they are also in a better position to establish the strong points of a project and amplify them so as to raise the returns. It is important to note that whereas a small number of experienced members are involved in strategic planning, all the elements of the involved organization must be taken into account as they have a long lasting impact on the strategic plan. How does this apply to the field of information technology?

Information systems is a field that has its own characteristics that call for a unique set of abilities in the people who are involved in its handling. But one of the major reasons as to why strategic planning is necessary in the field of information technology is the dynamism of the field. Information technology changes in a speedy manner to the extent that software that was hot in the market a week ago can easily be rendered obsolete by the end of next week. Therefore the people who draw the strategic plans for information technology are called upon to recognize this crucial factor.

Literature Review

In the strategic planning of information systems, nothing is as important as standards. As it has already been mentioned in the introduction, the information technology field is so dynamic that products get out of value as fast as they are produced. In such an atmosphere, settling for less in terms of standards simply means that the strategy is doomed. While stressing the significant role played by standards, Lori Goetsch amplifies the importance of infrastructure that can support a variety of technology elements in terms of data (Goetsch 1999, pp.13-15). The message is that if the information systems materials that are being planned for in the strategic planning are not of the right standards, then it is possible that the strategic plan will fail. This is because in the event that heavy data flows into the system either directly or remotely, then the system will break down. Therefore the way to go during information technology strategic planning is to envision the utilization of high standard materials. This is in terms of both software and hardware.

Far from standards, Katz and Rudy, in their seminal work that details what information systems planners need to take into account when drawing technology strategic plans have emphasized the role of assessing the needs of the involved institutions. The numbers of the people in an organization such as a college, a business organization or a university is important as it will show the pressure that the system will be under as it serves the community or institution (Katz & Rudy 1999, pp.23-26).Who has the responsibility of assessing the information technology needs of an institution other than the strategic planners? The answer is simple in that there is absolutely no other party that will find this information as useful as the strategic planners will find it important. It is the only way that will tell them what to cater for as dictated by the needs of the institution or organization. This concept of need determination as far as information systems strategic planning is concerned is also closely related to the idea that an organization must be given the window for transformation in accordance with the new strategic plan. This has to be taken into account in the process of coming up with the strategic plan. In the Kitsap County information technology Strategic plan prepared by Tami Brazell, the significance of ensuring that the organization makes changes so as to reflect new information technology realities is made clear (Brazell 2001,pp.107-108). If the changes are not foreseen and catered for in the strategic plan, system rigidity can hinder unanticipated adjustments. There is also the danger of total system disruption if changes are made in an unplanned manner. This is the product of not minding future needs for change in the process of drawing the strategic plan.

The other crucial factor to cater for while planning strategically for information technology is the network that will be formed and utilized by the information systems framework envisioned in the strategic plan. A strategic plan for information technology must be properly framed so as to allow for access by all the sectors, departments and offices within the organization. This is especially true if rapid communication is what is needed to make the organization in question achieve more success. The Department of Homeland Security of the United States government has emphasized the need to allow for information sharing among the various agencies and departments so as to achieve the objectives of the federal governments information technology objectives (Department of Homeland Security 2009,pp.3-6).

What will happen if the organizations information technology infrastructure breaks down? The first idea that comes to the minds of many is the presence of a backup system. Backup systems are important. Think about a home that has a generator that is always on standby such that when power the mains electricity goes off, the generator gets to work immediately. This is what backup systems do. But Robert Lowson has brought in a new paradigm in strategic operations. This paradigm can also be applied in information systems strategic planning due to its relevance and appropriateness. Lowson points out that the needs for quick response can never be replaced by backup systems (Lowson 2002,pp.103-104).This make perfect sense in that the backup system can also fail and if there is no additional backup, the system organization will grind to a halt. This will not be the case if there is a quick response team that has been provided for in the strategic planning such that incase of system problems, the team is available to attend to the issue even if there are backups. What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the information technology industry?

SWOT Analysis if the Information Systems Industry

The field of information systems is highly dynamic has it has already been pointed out in this paper. This has come with unique strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that need to be carefully analyzed by anyone trying to venture into the field. This SWOT analysis is based on practical experience with technology issues as well as what has been written by scholars.

Strengths

Growth capacity

The field of information systems has immense potential for growth. This is beneficial to both organizations that utilize information technology in their operations as well as organizations whose specialization is technology. For those that use technology in their day to day operations, the window for growth means that the prices of deliverables will be competitive meaning that they will not have to spend too much on their information technology procurements. The organizations that specialize in delivering software, hardware and other information technology items to the market also have an advantage from this strength of the capacity for growth because expansion is assured which technically translates to more business and more profits (Goetsch 1999, pp.33-36). Is there evidence for this strength in the field of information technology? The recent past has witnessed the accomplishment of giant undertakings in the field of information technology. From the heavy desk top computers to the current palm tops and laptops, it is not easy to escape the giant leaps that have been made. This is evidence that this industry is growing.

The ability to create employment

This is closely linked to the capacity for growth. In most cases, when a business expands, more jobs are created. This is a strength because of the implication it has for not only the organizations that utilize information technology deliverables but also the information systems companies as well as the governments. But it is not always the case that new technologies will lead to job creation. In fact, new technologies can make millions of people lose their jobs as what they used to do becomes the work of machines.

Weakness

The major weaknesses that are observable in the industry are: the rapid displacement of technological inventions and the possibility of leading to job losses. In rapid displacement of inventions, technological items that are invented or innovated today stand a high chance of becoming obsolete in the next few days. This is a good thing to some degree but when the cost of producing the displaced inventions is considered, the impact is prohibitive. The losses to the business people who invest huge sums of money in coming up with new technologies that are rendered useless as soon as they are availed to the market are sometimes too high to bear.

On the issue of job losses, it is not always definite that new technologies will lead to new jobs as it has already been pointed out under strengths. There are numerous examples of new technologies that have led to the disappearance of millions of jobs. To use a simple example, long before the emergence of telephones, information used to be delivered by people who walked used cars. In this case so many people had to be employed to deliver mail to different places, especially where cars would not access. But all this changed with the invention of the telephone. Most of the people who depended on mail delivery for their livelihood had to look elsewhere for their daily bread. This illustrates how information technology can be potentially disastrous in the area of job creation (Goetsch 1999, pp.70-74). This can affect a small organization that uses information technology products as well as giant corporations that manufacture information technology products.

Opportunities

The opportunities in the information technology industry exist around the area of flexibility and backup. Information technology makes it possible for workers to do away with the traditional tedious and rigid office day. This is because work can be done from homes and other places by use of portable information technology gadgets. This is an opportunity for firms and individuals to manage as many issues as possible. The backup element is as a result of numerous options that can be used in the event that one area fails. This is true for both commercial and non commercial application of information technology deliverables. For example if Microsoft Windows fails to get the job done, Linux can be used. Also if Linux fails to sell, the dealer can shift to Microsoft.

Threats

The threats facing the information technology strategic planners is the danger of putting resources in new information technologies that end up becoming obsolete. The cost may be too much for the organization leading to a financial crisis. The rationality in any investment is that the losses are kept at minimum levels while benefits or profits are raised as high as possible. This does not get reflected in the case of spending too much in terms of resources and making nothing or too little in the long run.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that strategic planning must be done carefully done by considering such issues as standards. The SWOT analysis for information systems shows growth capacity as a strength and the possibility of job losses as a weakness. This is important information for the people involved in information systems strategic planning.

References

Brazell, T., 2001. Information Technology Strategic Plan Planning: Information Technology for 2002 and beyond. Web.

Department Of Homeland Security: Information Technology Strategic Plan 2009-2013. Web.

Goetsch, L (ed).,1999.Information Technology Planning. New York: The Hayworth Press Inc.

Katz,R & Rudy,J.,1999.Information Technology In Higher Education: Assessing Its Impact And Planning For The Future.New York: Jossey-Bass.

Lowson,R., 2002.Strategic Operations Management: The New Competitive Advantage.London: Routledge.

Appendix 1

Business Process Flow Chart

The Womans Hospital of Texas needs change through strategic plan implementation in ensuring that the quality of care provided to patients improves with time. Strategic planning provides a glimpse of the path to achieving the set standards that have been approved by the Womans Hospital of Texas (Kozleski, 2017). The therapeutic implementation of the strategic plan requires the need to the integration of several resources found in the Womens Hospital of Texas to achieve success and efficacy of the anticipated outcomes. During the planning phase, resource identification is significant in achieving the put standards of the proposed strategic plan.

The four resources that will be of the essence in implementing the proposed change involve:

1. Human resources entail the expert in matters of hygiene to teach both nurses and women in the Womens Hospital of Texas undergoing cesarean section on effective techniques of handwashing (Hersperger et al., 2018).
2. Financial resources are vital in securing and ensuring that necessary materials that are needed and used in handwashing are readily available and in use (Taha et al., 2017).
3. Technology resources such as laptops and a projector are essential in educating the nurses through continuous medical education (Thomas, 2021).
4. Information resources include textbooks and online sources that provide factual and scientific information and offer evidence-based solutions (Taha et al., 2017).

The Womans Hospital of Texas needs resources to form a fundamental foundation in the implementation of the strategic plan. Implementation of the change proposal will aid in ensuring that the outcomes merge with the organizations expected outcomes. The capstone project of the proposed plan is to list the resources that will aid in effective handwashing techniques in preventing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) among women with Cesarean section delivery. The effectiveness of the capstone project change proposal program significantly depends on the set of measurable outcomes. The interventions evaluated require outcome measures that are presumed to be standard performance.

References

Hersperger, A. M., Oliveira, E., Pagliarin, S., Palka, G., Verburg, P., Bolliger, J., & Grdinaru, S. (2018). Urban land-use change: The role of strategic spatial planning. Global Environmental Change, 51, 32-42. Web.

Kozleski, E. B. (2017). The uses of qualitative research: Powerful methods to inform evidence-based practice in education. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 42(1), 19-32. Web.

Taha, H., Raji, S. J., Khallaf, A., Abu Hija, S., Mathew, R., Rashed, H., Du Plessis, C., Allie, Z., & Ellahham, S. (2017). Improving Catheter-associated urinary tract infection rates in the medical units. BMJ Quality Improvement Reports, 6(1), u209593.w7966. Web.

Thomas, R. K. (2021). Strategic planning. In Health Services Planning (pp. 215-245). Springer, New York, NY. Web.

The United States of America is experiencing high growth in the elderly population. With the increase in the aging group and the high incidence of chronic diseases, health facilities need to invest in technology to reach as many patients as possible (Fausto et al., 2020). Therefore, healthcare facilities must create mobile applications and e-books that showcase the palliative care guidelines. Moreover, this will broaden the facilitys audience and develop a network of supporters and experts.

Hospitals should raise awareness and understanding of hospices to attract many customers. Hospice care is a new aspect of improving the quality of life that a few people have only embraced. As a result, owing to the increased number of aging people and the high number of chronic diseases expected to be experienced in the country, awareness creation will help in changing the attitude of the potential clients, hence, increasing the number of patients (Matthews et al., 2017). Additionally, there are several myths surrounding death, and the public can still be reluctant to disclose the terminal diseases their families are experiencing. Therefore, creating awareness will make people accept that death is the final destination of life and, therefore, they should spend quality time with their dying relatives.

Hospice services should be integrated into education and training. Although World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that higher learning institutions should integrate hospice services into their curricula, many institutions are still reluctant to adopt the system. Palliative care teaching should be administered in both nursing and medical schools to ensure that they are conversant with the quality care. This is because the doctors and nurses will be handling patients who have already accepted that death is the final destination of every human and having a comfortable remainder of life is all that matters because it helps them have self-satisfaction (Morrison, 2018). Therefore, the education system and training in medical and nursing schools should integrate hospice curricula.

References

Fausto, J., Hirano, L., Lam, D., Mehta, A., Mills, B., Owens, D., Perry, E., & Curtis, J. R. (2020). Creating a palliative care inpatient response plan for COVID-19-the UW medicine experience. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 60(1), 21-26. Web.

Matthews, M., Peters, C., & Lawson, S. (2017). An exploratory investigation of hospice marketing: How are palliative care providers marketing their services? Health Marketing Quarterly, 34(1), 48-61.

Morrison, R. S. (2018). A national palliative care strategy for Canada. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 21(1), 63-75.