"STRATEGIC PLANNING AND OPERATIONAL PLANNING"

Nama: Sandy
Jurusan: Hotel Management
NIM: 2011145002

What is a Strategic Plan?

Entrepreneurs and business managers are often so preoccupied with immediate issues that they lose sight of their ultimate objectives. That's why a business review or preparation of a strategic plan is a virtual necessity. This may not be a recipe for success, but without it a business is much more likely to fail. A sound plan should:

• Serve as a framework for decisions or for securing support/approval.
• Provide a basis for more detailed planning.
• Explain the business to others in order to inform, motivate & involve.
• Assist benchmarking & performance monitoring.
• Stimulate change and become building block for next plan.

For inspiration (and a few smiles), have a look at some of the quotations and examples of bad advice included in other pages!

A strategic plan should not be confused with a business plan. The former is likely to be a (very) short document whereas a business plan is usually a much more substantial and detailed document. A strategic plan can provide the foundation and frame work for a business plan. For more information about business plans, refer to How to Write a Business Plan, Insights into Business Planning and Free-Plan: Business Plan Guide & Template.

A strategic plan is not the same thing as an operational plan. The former should be visionary, conceptual and directional in contrast to an operational plan which is likely to be shorter term, tactical, focused, implementable and measurable. As an example, compare the process of planning a vacation (where, when, duration, budget, who goes, how travel are all strategic issues) with the final preparations (tasks, deadlines, funding, weather, packing, transport and so on are all operational matters).

Basic Approach to Strategic Planning

A critical review of past performance by the owners and management of a business and the preparation of a plan beyond normal budgetary horizons require a certain attitude of mind and predisposition. Some essential points which should to be observed during the review and planning process include the following:

§  Relate to the medium term i.e. 2/4 years

§  Be undertaken by owners/directors

§  Focus on matters of strategic importance

§  Be separated from day-to-day work

§  Be realistic, detached and critical

§  Distinguish between cause and effect

§  Be reviewed periodically

§  Be written down.

• As the precursor to developing a strategic plan, it is desirable to clearly identify the current status, objectives and strategies of an existing business or the latest thinking in respect of a new venture. Correctly defined, these can be used as the basis for a critical examination to probe existing or perceived Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats and Opportunities. This then leads to strategy development covering the following issues discussed in more detail below:

·         Vision
·         Mission
·         Values
·         Objectives
·         Strategies
·         Goals
·         Programs 

What is operational planning?

Well-implemented strategic planning provides the vision, direction and goals for the organization, but operational planning translates that strategy into the everyday execution tactics of the business that will ultimately produce the outcomes defined by the strategy. Simply stated, operational planning is the conversion of strategic goals into managed execution.

The critical role operational planning plays in strategy execution

Corporate strategy can be thought of as a message packet that must be passed through the organization, understood by all and acted upon in orchestration.  If the message is garbled, ambiguous or not communicated well, the intent will be lost in translation and operational execution will become misaligned with the corporate strategic goals.
Superior operational planning requires proactive and innovative thinking to enact strategy within the operational layer of the business.  Operational planning must produce the plan outcomes while managing constraints on time, money and resources.

We make strategies deliver on their promises.  Method Frameworks offers our clients an approach to operational planning that breaks down strategic goals into well-estimated, fully planned and realistically resourced programs, initiatives and projects that can be tracked across all P&L structures and at all levels of the organization.  In short, our operational plans yield detailed execution tactics for strategy implementation, complete with clear-cut clear accountability - planned for execution down to the the task level and including time lines and tools for measuring performance on all strategic objectives - any time.

How we approach operational planning

Working side-by-side with our clients, we bring action and accountability into planning. 

• Our proprietary Plan4^SM process looks at the organization's ecosystem as a whole, understanding and accounting for the interdependency existing between the many initiatives in play supporting the enterprise strategic plan. 
• Our operational plans convert the enterprise strategy into major program groupings that support execution of strategic goals. 
• These programs are further planned at the initiative level across the business, resulting in detailed execution road maps that are well-aligned with the corporate strategy and produce the desired plan outcomes through engineered accountability, measurability and governance. 
• Our approach identifies and plans for potential roadblocks that might otherwise impede operational execution. 

The Method Frameworks operational planning approach plans across and down through all layers of the organization, "fitting" the strategic goals and priorities into well-defined operational initiatives that can be managed, measured and delivered within the business segments. That includes understanding that different sub-cultures exist across the organization and can impact the effectiveness of communication and coordination among divisions and departments. 

Our Plan process accounts for those distinctions during planning, bringing all facets of the organization's hierarchy into consideration. Since execution is a day-to-day battle, our Plan4 process effectively allows organizations to meet new challenges and take advantage of opportunities through our adaptable and responsive approach.

Plan4: A planning process that builds sustainable advantages

Plan4 is a business strategic planning and execution governance process that involves an integrated set of actions designed to help companies gain sustainable advantage. Our competitive analysis leverages industry information on the top 10,000 industries, covering more than 95% of the $57 trillion global economy.  Plan4 is comprehensive, adaptable and effective in guiding organizations through strategy formulation, defining strategic goals in support of strategy (key outcomes) and in linking strategy to operational execution across and throughout the enterprise. 
 

What Method Frameworks and Plan4 can do for your organization

Method Frameworks, using our Plan4 process, lead our clients through an effective and sensible approach to strategic planning that is centered around creating customer value-driven outcomes.  Our process maps out and leverages your business ecosystem as a framework to allow for visualization and understanding of the entire enterprise.  This unique approach leads to well defined strategy, strategic goals that support all aspects of the strategy and well-planned operational tactics along with plan governance to make sure we deliver plan goal results together.
Plan4 was developed through years of leveraging the most effective approaches in strategic planning industry best practices.  Our innovations in developing Plan4 have led to a truly unique and powerful process to get organizations the planning results they have strived to achieve for years on their own.  Our consulting approach with Plan4 can be introduced in whole or in parts and still dramatically improve strategic outcomes.

 

Most planning efforts fail to deliver the intended results

• The Harvard Business Review estimates the ROI from traditional planning approaches to be 34% or less.  
• The Economist Intelligence Unit estimates that organizations realize just 60% of the potential value of their strategies.  
• Even more startling are statistics from analysts like Kaplan and Norton that suggested that 90% of organizations fail to successfully implement their strategies.

Why does this happen? The reasons vary, but the most common are:

• Poor prioritization
• Lack of detail planning to support plan goal achievement
• Poor communication and coordination
• Strategy and culture misalignment
• Accountability missing from plan goals
• Poor planning governance
• Ill-defined strategic goals
• More art than science in the planning approach
• Failure to define the "real" outcomes in a concise set of statements
• Variability in the plan caused by language
• Failure to define and execute initiatives successfully based on the plan

Don’t become a statistic in the wrong category

We are proud of the results we have accomplished for our clients and will not let them fail to successfully implement their strategies.  Our results are outstanding because we have a culture that is passionate about serving our clients by putting their needs ahead of our own.  Our engagement model provides repeatability and predictability in achieving successful outcomes.  Likewise, our Plan4 strategic planning process is second to none.