C17EB –Management in a

Global Context
Organisation Cultures & Contexts
Corporate Responsibility
Session Contents
• Explain the purpose of planning
• Examine the process of planning to solve problems
• Consider how plans fit together
• Explore goal setting
• Discuss the relationship between plans and strategy
• Examine implementing strategy and reasons for
failure
Why People Plan
What type of things have you
planned Why Plan things
• Holiday • Clarifies direction –
• everyone gives attention to
Education
the right things
• Night Out • Motivates lets everyone see
• Sporting Event how their contribution
• Cooking a Meal matters
• Uses resources efficiently
• Increases control, measures
progress
Why People Plan?
• Planning is the iterative task of setting goals,
specifying how to achieve them, acting on the plan
and monitoring results.
• A goal (or objective) is a desired future state for an
activity or organisational unit.
Types of plans

Strategic plans – sets out the overall direction for the business. They
are broad in scope and cover all major activities. (Boddy, p. 171).
Business plan – a plan setting out a proposal for a business, including
markets, financing, and other key areas of operation. (Boddy, p. 171).
Operational plans – plans that specify how overall objectives are going
to be achieved by senior leaders identifying what tasks each
department. (Boddy, p. 171).
Activity plans – ‘set out what a unit, work group or individual is
expected to do to help achieve the larger plan’ (Boddy, p. 173).
Other – other varieties of plans exist within larger organisations such as
an annual plan or a standing plan, or a recovery plan. (Boddy, p. 173).

Boddy, D. (2020), Management: Using Practice and Theory to Develop Skill, 8th ed, Harlow: Pearson, p. 171-73
Strategic Plans
• A strategic plan sets out the overall direction for
the business, is broad in scope and covers all the
major activities.
• A strategic business unit consists of closely
related products for which it is meaningful to
formulate a separate strategy.
• A business plan is a document describing the
markets or users a business intends to serve,
how it will do so and what finance they require.
Too many plans!!!!!!!!!!
A Hierarchy
Type of Plan: Strategic Operational Task

Level: Organisation or Division, department, Work unit or team

business unit function or market
Focus: Direction and strategy Functional changes or Actions needed to
for whole market activities to deliver current
organisation support strategic plans products or
services
Nature: Broad, general Detail on required Specific detail on
direction changes immediate goals
and tasks
Timescale: Long Term (3-5yrs) Medium (12-18 Very short term,
months) hours to weeks
Goal Setting
Example: Environmental target at Terminal 5,
Heathrow Airport
Aspect Key Performance Indicator Target
Water Potable Water Use 70% Cut
Water Consumption 25 litres/per passenger
Pollution Total harmful emissions to water Capture 25% of Surface
Control water runoff for re-use
Waste Waste recycled/composted 40% by 2010, 80% by
2020
Resource Use Compliance with T5 materials 40% of coarse aggregate
in concrete to be recycled

(Lister, 2008)
Making goals SMART
What is Strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws5uhPmrJp4
"Corporate strategy is the pattern of
decisions in a company that
determines and reveals its
objectives, purposes, or goals,
produces the principal policies
and plans for achieving those
goals, and defines the range of
business the company is to
pursue, the kind of economic and
human organization it is or intends to
be, and the nature of the economic
and non-economic contribution it
intends to make to its shareholders,
employees, customers, and
communities.”
(Andrews, 1980)
Levels of Strategy
Multibusiness
Corporate Level corporation

Business Level

Strategic Strategic Strategic

Business Unit 1 Business Unit 2 Business Unit 3

Research & Human

Manufacturing Marketing Finance
Development resources

Functional Level
Business Unit Strategic Options
Cost Leadership Differentiation Focus

(Porter, 1985)
Delivering Strategy
• Internal
Development

• Merger & acquisition

• Joint Ventures &

alliances
Different strategy processes

Rational or Planning – this approach relies on formal and systematic processes which rely on the
rational evaluation of information.

Judgmental - this approach is based more on intuition and personal judgement as well as objective
factors.

Boddy, D. (2020), Management: Using Practice and Theory to Develop Skill, 8th ed, Harlow: Pearson, p. 67-69
Strategy processes

Negotiated – this perspective reflects that while there can be objective information for making
strategy, there is also a dimension of power, conflict, and ambiguity (bargaining between players).

Adaptive (Mintzberg, 1994) – In Mintzberg’s work, he recognized that the formal way of planning
strategy may be more suited to more traditional Western bureaucratic systems. He therefore
proposed that there is two types of strategies – intended and emergent.

Intended strategy – the strategy you intend to follow.

Emergent strategy – actions taken to address a problem, which then become established.

Boddy, D. (2020), Management: Using Practice and Theory to Develop Skill, 8th ed, Harlow: Pearson, p. 198-99
Emergent Strategy at IKEA
• Selling furniture was
originally a small part of the
business and not part of the
deliberate strategy
• The flat pack approach was
actually a response to
reducing insurance claims on
damage
• Only started to design their
own furniture because
competitors put pressure on
suppliers not to sell to IKEA
(Barthelemy, 2006)
Forms of strategy
How do managers develop strategies?
• Grant (2003) – mainly by co-ordinating
strategies proposed by business units
• Whittington et al. (2006) – see strategising and
organising as simultaneous practical activities
• Sull (2007) – the strategy loop
• Robinson and Spears (2018) – sources of
information
Resources, competences and capabilities
Identifying the organisation’s
opportunities
Failure!
• Poor horizontal coordination- Middle managers report failure
to secure cooperation from colleagues/peers in other
departments/units.
• Slow to reallocate resources- shifting resources to prioritise
the strategy can be too slow.
• Too much top-down communication- Half of middle managers
could not name one of their companies strategic priorities.
• Inappropriate incentives- Lack of balance on performance, e.g.
financial targets alone distort strategy.
• Too much top-down implementation- wider organisation
doesn’t buy in and contribute.
(Sull et al, 2015)
Summary – Key Points
• Describe approach to planning for problem
solving
• Detail the meaning of SMART objectives or
goals
• Explain using examples, the difference between
a plan and a strategy