Corporate Culture

This essay is direct towards a booking and management company. 1.Look at the barriers and opportunities of the current culture of the company vs. what changes in culture may derail the execution of your strategic plan. ■ Culture Analysis 2.Then write a first draft of your strategies (how to reach your goals and objectives), and tactics (how your strategies will be implemented). - Developing Strategies - Developing Tactics Now that you have developed your goals and objectives, your next step is to develop the “how to” -- your strategies. It is through the implementation of your strategies that your goals will become reality. Strategies identify what will happen and who is responsible for making them happen. The decisions made for the implementation may be made by managers or supervisors, up and down the organization. Each functional area of the company will take part in the implementation of strategies. Marketing and sales may be in charge of expanding sales and sales territories. Human resources may be in charge of implementing a “balanced scorecard” process to achieve bottom line increases. R & D on the other hand may be the group that takes charge of technology implementation. Strategies can determine company growth, new innovations, increased revenue, and even the amount of risk will be needed to achieve the goals. Those who become involved in the implementation process of the strategies may need to understand the risk factors – for them (their jobs) and the company. Remember that not everyone is comfortable with risk-taking – and thus the wrong strategies with the wrong individuals may become a barrier to success. The status-quo will, if allowed, remain the norm. In planning your strategies, it is important to think about “managing the risk.” Perhaps before the strategy is implemented you may want to talk with your customers and employees for feedback. Another approach would be to develop a contingency plan in case one is needed. Either way, thinking through a back-up plan to implementation of strategies is often a cost-savings action, allowing the company to make adjustments quickly. It will be easiest to take one goal at a time, and one objective, to develop a strategy to support the action needed. In some instances, the proposed strategy will support multiple objectives. Here is an example of strategy development: Goal: Enhance the financial status of the organization. Objective: Reduce operating debt to $4.5M by 12/31/06; $3.5M by 12/31/07; and $2.5M by 12/31/08. Strategies: Implement lean management principles to identify “waste” in current spending. Implement a job analysis study to identify duplication of efforts and succession planning to reduce costs in human resources. Culture Analysis This worksheet is designed to help you identify barriers and opportunities of the current culture of the company which you are using for your class project. Are there elements of the current culture that could derail the execution of your new strategic plan? Several examples are provided below. Replace them with the opportunities and barriers you identify for your own company. Current Cultural Context Opportunity or Barrier for New Plan Attitudes toward clients do not match with actions toward employees. Barrier: Employees, because they are not treated equitably, are jealous of how external clients are treated. Micromanagement throughout the organization Potential barrier: Too many approval processes will hinder planning implementation. Company empowers employees to do their jobs Opportunity: Employees will buy into doing their part, if clearly defined. Developing Tactics Tactics carry out the mission of the organization, while goals, objectives, and strategies define the mission. Simply put, tactics define the specifics of implementation of the strategies. Goal: Enhance the financial status of the organization. Objective: Reduce operating debt to $4.5M by 12/31/06; $3.5M by 12/31/07; and $2.5M by 12/31/08. Strategies: Implement lean management principles to identify “waste” in current spending. Implement a job analysis study to identify duplication of efforts and succession planning to reduce costs in human resources. Tactics: Provide training for supervisors and managers on LEAN office practices. The non-LEAN office causes delays, red tape, miscommunication, superfluous paperwork, and often customer dissatisfaction. Provide training to direct report managers on developing performance-based review processes. The balanced scorecard is a management system (not only a measurement system) that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. Metrics can be put into place to guide managers in focusing training funds where they can help the most. (See this article titled \\\"How to Use the Balanced Scorecard\\\" for more information on this system.) Tactics move the process to action steps. Each level down moves from general to specific. Tactics identify the tasks necessary to achieve implementation.