Planning and SMART Goals

SMART Goals

• SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
• They provide clear direction and focus, increasing the likelihood of success.

Benefits of Planning

• Planning provides a roadmap for achieving objectives.
• It reduces uncertainty and risk by anticipating potential challenges.
• It improves resource allocation and efficiency.
• It facilitates better decision-making and coordination among team members.
• It enhances communication and promotes a shared understanding of goals.

Steps in the Planning Process

• Define goals and objectives.
• Analyze the situation.
• Develop alternative plans.
• Evaluate the plans' feasibility and potential outcomes.
• Select the best plan.
• Implement the plan.
• Monitor and control the plan's progress.

Competitive Advantage

• Competitive advantage refers to factors that allow a company to outperform its rivals.
• It can arise from cost leadership, differentiation, or a focus strategy.
• This superiority often translates to higher profitability, market share, and growth potential.

Strategic Management

• Strategic management is the process of developing and implementing a plan of action to achieve organizational goals.
• It involves analyzing the external and internal environment, setting objectives, formulating strategies, and monitoring progress.

Strategy Formulation & Strategy Implementation

• Strategy formulation: the planning and decision-making process of selecting the best course of action.
• Strategy implementation: the process of putting the chosen plan into action. It involves resource allocation, delegation, and follow-up.

Mission vs. Vision Statement

• Mission statement: describes the company's purpose, what it does, and who its customers are.
• Vision statement: describes the desired future state of the organization. It communicates the aspirations and long-term goals.

Control and Types

• Control is the process of monitoring activities to ensure that they conform to plans.
• Types of control include:
  • Feedforward control: anticipates problems.
  • Concurrent control: monitors activities as they happen.
  • Feedback control: monitors results and takes corrective action.

Calculating Market Share and Market Growth

• Market Share: Percentage of total market sales generated by a particular company or product.
  • (Company sales / Total market sales) * 100
• Market Growth: Percentage change in the market size over a period.
  • [(Current market size - Previous market size) / Previous market size] * 100

Steps in the Control Process

• Establish standards.
• Measure performance.
• Compare performance to standards.
• Analyze deviations.
• Take corrective action

Discipline and Progressive Discipline

• Discipline involves ensuring employees adhere to company policies and procedures.
• Progressive discipline is a method of correcting employee misconduct through a series of progressively more severe steps.

Strategic Management Tools

SWOT Analysis

• Strengths: Internal, positive aspects.
• Weaknesses: Internal, negative aspects.
• Opportunities: External, positive factors.
• Threats: External, negative factors.

BCG Matrix

• Portfolio analysis tool categorizing business units based on market share and market growth.
• Categorizes into: Stars, Cash cows, Question marks, Dogs.

Porter's Five Forces

• Framework to analyze industry structure.
• Examines: Threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products, rivalry among existing competitors.

PEST Analysis

• Focuses on external macro-environmental factors impacting a business.
• Examines: Political, Economic, Social, Technological aspects.

Gantt Chart

• Visual representation of project tasks and their schedule.
• Depicts task dependencies and deadlines.