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BSBMGT517 MANAGE OPERATIONAL PLAN

Strategic Management (Central Queensland University)

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BSBMGT517
MANAGE OPERATIONAL PLAN
ASSESSMENT 1

QUESTION 1. What is an Operaional plan? Explain in your words the importance of having an
operaional plan.

ANSWER 1. An operaional plan can be deined as a plan prepared by a component of an organizaion

that clearly deines acions it will take to support the strategic objecives and plans of upper
management.

The importance of operaional plan is that it provides organizaion’s personnel with a clear picture of
their tasks and responsibiliies in line with the goals and objecives contained within the Strategic Plan.

Reference – www.leiisaac.com

QUESTION 2. Operaional plan have many elements. List down 5 – 7 of those elements.

ANSWER 2. The elements of operaional plan are as follows: -

1) Set major, measurable objecives that are clearly linked – Avoid establishing objecives that
don’t support your strategy.
2) Create measurable goals that support major objecives – Ensure that success can be directly
impacted by staf and management.
3) Set up clear accountability and imeframes – Specify who is responsible for each objecive and
goal, and the deadline.
4) Know the anicipated impact on inancial performance – Project expected changes to revenue or
expenses related to each goal and their efects on inancials.
5) Ariculate coningencies for goals with signiicant potenial inancial impacts – Idenify acions
that would be taken if actual results begin to stray signiicantly.
6) Regularly monitor progress – Coninually keep your strategic prioriies and related objecives
and goals front and centre.

Reference – www.cuinsight.com

QUESTION 3. What are the resources that will be required to manage and implement an operaional
plan? Provide 3 and give details.

ANSWER 3. The resources required are as follows:-

1) Human Resources: - Human Resources include Team Leaders, Staf, Managers, etc. Every
operaional plan must have an ‘owner’ i.e. somebody who is responsible for the implementaion
of the strategy. If someone is not made responsible for the plan, it is highly likely that it will not

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be implemented. The plan may be just allocated to one person or to a group of people e.g. a
team of people, a sub - commitee or a department.
2) Physical Resources: - Physical Resources includes stock, supplies, inances, etc. needed to make
and implement and operaional plan. Along with this resource, documentaion is also equally
necessary to keep the record of stocks levels, stock storage capabiliies, supplier records,
inances used in buying the supplies.
3) Financial Resources: - Not every strategy requires money, but most of them will. If people have
to be paid to do work, than there will be inancial resources needed for remuneraion. Many
strategies will involve administraion costs in the form of telephone calls, prining, postages,
purchase of supplies or material, or promoional cost such as adverising.

QUESTION 4. Who will you be consuling with develop and/or implement an operaional plan? Who
would be your stakeholders?

ANSWER 4. Depending on a person’s level of authority and role in the organizaion, you may need to
consult with a wide range of people in an organizaion. They are: -

 Employees, employees representaives or unions

 Colleagues and/or managers at the same level or above
 Senior managers and/or your supervisors
 People with specialist responsibiliies such as occupaional health and safety commitees, or
training and development teams.

The stakeholders will be as follows:-

 Employees
 Managers
 CEOs
 Customers
 Suppliers

QUESTION 5. What consultaion processes will you use so that stakeholders will have the opportunity to
contribute to the operaional plan?

ANSWER 5. The consultaion processes are as follows: -

 Meeings – Discussion of issues can be done as an agenda item during a regular meeing and
asking the stakeholders to provide their views.

Special Meeings can also be held for selected people with the sole focus on addressing issues related to
operaional planning needs.

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 Interviews – Interviews can be done one – on – one with the team. These can be done face – to
– face of over phone. There should be a deined set of quesions when asking about a paricular
aspect of the planning.
 Brainstorming – Seing up on open forum where people provide input and ideas on given issues
is another process. A key part of this approach is that no analysis or negaive judgment of any
ideas should occur. Whereas, within an organizaion, smaller groups should be made where
each addresses speciic issues. Each group reports back to the whole team, which provide
addiional ideas to the ideas presented.

QUESTION 6. Write 5 guidelines to develop key performance indicators (KPIs).

ANSWER 6. Following are the guidelines for developing KPIs.

1) Lifecycle Approach: - KPIs may be developed using a lifecycle approach. For e.g. in managing a
project, KPIs would focus on each stage of the project life cycle such as design, planning,
implementaion and inalizaion. The use of a lifecycle approach to developing KPIs ensures they
are assigned at all stages of the lifecycle from start to end.
2) Cause and efect: - A suggested approach is to examine speciic area of concern using the cause
and efect technique. This technique helps idenify KPIs for addressing the fundamental or
underlying cause of inefecive or ineicient services, funcions or aciviies. The approach
analyses the cause(s) and ideniies KPIs that address the efect. By addressing the efect,
improvements can generally be achieved.
3) Statutory and regulatory requirements: - It may be appropriate to focus the selecion of KPIs on
statutory and regulatory requirements and obligaions. For e.g. A KPI could be developed that
requires the appropriate authority to undertake a regular audit to assess compliance with the
legislaion.
4) Risk – based approach: - The risk – based approach ideniies those speciic services, funcions
or aciviies that may have a negaive or detrimental impact on an organizaion. By idenifying
areas of risk, KPIs can be used to measure progress towards miigaing the risk.
5) Levels: - Organizaions can assign KPIs at two levels. Strategic and Operaional KPIs. Strategic KPI
address the measurement required at the higher level in the organizaion and take a top – down
approach. Whereas, Operaional KPI should be approached from ground up.

QUESTION 7. Provide 3 possible areas where intellectual property should be considered in the
management and implementaion of operaional plans. Explain each of these areas.

ANSWER 7. The areas where intellectual property should be considered in the management and
implementaion of operaional plans are as follows: -

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1) Patented processes: - A patent is a mechanism which provides some legal protecion for and
inventor of a product or process. In terms of managing and implemening operaional plans, it is
important to ensure that any processes used in the manufacturing of products or delivery of
services do not breach any current patents.
2) Trademarks: - These are protected under the Trade Marks Act 1995, which requires an
applicaion for a right to be granted. The legislaion provides a range of protecions for the
owner of the registered mark such as prevening compeitors from using a similar name for a
product or service that are also alike.
3) Contractors: - Copyright law must also be considered in terms of work performed by
independent contractors. Copyright ownership of a creaive work produced by an employee will
rest with the employing organizaion, but in the case of an independent contractor, this
ownership will automaically rest with the contractor unless a speciic clause is inserted in the
contract that assigns ownership copyright to the hirer. This should be considered while
implemening an operaional plan depending that whether independent contractor is hired or
not.

QUESTION 8. Legislaions exist for the following subjects. Find the actual name of each of the 3
legislaions.

ANSWER 8.

 Workplace Health and Safety – Workplace Health and Safety Act 2011
 Privacy – Privacy Act 1988
 Ani – discriminaion – Racial Discriminaion Act 1975

QUESTION 9. Organizaions may encounter many risks. Idenify 5 possible risks.

ANSWER 9. The risks that the organizaion may encounter includes:-

1) Compeitors’ acions such as the release of the new or cheaper products.

2) Staf shortage due to sudden illness or loss/departure.
3) Price and cost changes due to increased costs of inputs or unexpected salary increases.
4) Environmental impacts caused by storms, loods, power failure, water shortages, drought and
heat waves.
5) Customer/client behavior such as changes in spending habits or saisfacion raings.

QUESTION 10. What is a Coningency Plan? Write down the coningency measures for the risks give in
quesion 9.

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ANSWER 10. A coningency plan is a course of acion designed to help an organizaion respond
efecively to a signiicant future event or situaion that may or may not happen. A coningency plan is
someimes referred to as “PLAN B”; because it can be also used as an alternaive for acion if expected
results fail to materialize.

The coningency measures for risks stated above are as follows:-

1) Seeking lower cost inputs like changing suppliers, producing goods ofshore or outsourcing the
producion to cheaper producers.
2) Hire new staf or longer hours for the exising ones.
3) Reinancing, extension of ime on payments or obtaining loans and line of credit. Potenial
investors or partners can also be obtained.
4) Seing up an ofsite work locaion, transferring phone – lines and contacing large customers to
let them know when their orders or services will be delivered.
5) Increase in the range of products and services produced or have the lexibility to adjust in order
to reduce the reliance on a small range of products and services.

QUESTION 11. Who would you need to approve your operaional plan? Why do we need their approval
and how would you obtain it?

ANSWER 11. Unless you are the owner of a small private company, you will have a supervisor or a board
of directors that expect you to report to them about planning processes. They need to approve your
plans and you may well have to make appropriate presentaions to them.

We need their approval because when an operaional plan is formally signed of by the people with
delegated authority, it is at this stage that the inalized plan becomes a policy. Signed copies of the plan
should be kept on ile as a formal record and provided to the appropriate paries responsible for
implemening the plan. Approval can be obtained by presening the plan to the stakeholders and making
relevant changes by gaining the feedback from them.

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