Managers and executives guide a supervisors efforts through the creation of vision, values and mission statements and strategic plans. Let's take a quick look at the major elements of an organization's master planning process. We talked about mission and vision statements in the customer service module, so just a brief mention here. A mission statement clarifies the nature and purpose of a business and a vision statement expresses an organization's ideal future in five to 10 years. Value statements express the beliefs and ethical standards that guide an organization's activities and practices. Value statements explicitly define how people will behave with each other in the organization. Priorities and actions are grounded in the organization's values. For example, LLB's company values statement is simple, yet powerful. Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit. Treat your customers like human beings, and they will always come back for more. No surprise, LLB is known for both beautifully crafted, high-quality products and their stellar customer service. To complete the master plan, a SWOT analysis and strategies are added to the mix, so let's talk about them. SWOT analysis is a key component of organizational planning. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Through the analysis process, an organization's internal strengths and weaknesses are tabulated and then matched with the external opportunities and threats. The primary objective of SWOT analysis is to help organizations develop a full awareness of all the factors involved in making a business decision. Perform a SWOT analysis before you commit to any sort of company action, whether exploring new initiatives, revamping internal policies, or altering a plan midway through its execution. Companies use SWOT analysis to formulate recommendations and strategies with the focus on leveraging strengths and opportunities to overcome weaknesses and threats. SWOT is typically a top-down approach. In other words, it's usually carried out by top management. Supervisors are rarely involved. A corporate strategy is developed from the SWOT analysis to set the overall pattern for how the vision will be achieved and the mission fulfilled. Strategies are the main methods for achieving an organization's vision and mission. A corporate strategy defines the organization's overall goals and directions and the way in which they will be achieved within strategic management activities. It is a long-term, clearly defined vision of the direction of an organization. Examples include acquiring rival companies, expanding into new markets, and downsizing. Many people confuse plans and goals with each other or think they mean the same thing, but that isn't the case. Plans, goals, and policies are separate, distinct parts of the planning process. Plans are what you intend to do in the future and how you're going to get there, detailed proposals for doing or achieving something. But before you can develop plans, you must set targets, which are called goals or objectives. An example of a goal might be bringing in a million dollars in revenue by the end of the year. The role of planning is to determine how to accomplish those aspirations. Simply put, the output of goals setting is a list of goals, and the output of planning is an action plan. Most people don't achieve their goals because they stop at goal setting. Planning is what makes all the difference. Now after you've set goals, you establish general, broad guidelines for reaching them, called policies. A policy is a set of ideas or plans that is used as a basis for making decisions. An organization's policy on a particular issue is their attitude and actions regarding that issue. For example, their return policy reflects how they feel about customers and their needs when returning a product. Next we'll talk about four distinct and important types of operational plans. Operational plans are developed following the creation of plans, goals and policies. Supervisors use several types of operational plans. Schedules are plans for carrying out a process or procedure that list intended events and times. They are detailed indicators of how facilities, equipment, and employees are to be used to accomplish organizational goals. Procedures are established official ways of doing something in a certain way. They prescribe the exact methods to use and sequence to be followed in carrying out a plan. Standards specify a required or agreed upon level of quality or quantity. Finally, rules and regulations are directives that are made and maintained by management. They establish limits within which employees are free to do the job their own way. What we've outlined here is systematic planning, which is the best way to ensure that the level of detail and planning matches the importance and intended use of the work and the available resources. Non-systematic planning can work at times and may be the best option in an emergency or when time is of the essence but systematic planning is best whenever it's possible. A systematic process helps an organization to accomplish a number of tasks. Systematic planning allows organizations to anticipate and prepare for uncertainties, respond to new opportunities, and focus on the most important things to accomplish. Setting goals first helps to create a performance oriented culture that gets results. Systematic planning also helps an organization to anticipate the need for resources and allocate them most wisely. Lastly, it promotes coordination across levels, departments, and people, and sets the stage for the key process of control. With all of these benefits, is it any wonder that planning has long been considered the most important management function?
