Transcript Planning at RP Institute August 2005

Overview of Planning Concepts
Andreea Serban, Ph.D.
Solano Community College
July 19, 2006
Overview of Planning
Definition of planning
 Types of plans
 Planning processes and steps
 Evaluation
 Accreditation expectations
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What is planning?
Should we open a satellite campus in the
town 30 miles from the main campus to
respond to the educational needs of that
town?
 Should we offer a new program in Marine
Diving Technology?
 Will our enrollments drop if we start
charging a technology fee?
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Planning
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“Planning is the process by which managers set
objectives, assess the future, and develop courses
of action designed to accomplish these objectives.
Planning includes determining appropriate
objectives and the optimum timetable for
achieving them” (Boone & Kurtz, 1992)
"Planning is a formalized procedure to produce an
articulated result, in the form of an integrated
system of decisions." Thinking about and
attempting to control the future are important
components of planning (Mintzberg, 1994).
"Planning is required when the future state we
desire involves a set of interdependent decisions;
that is a system of decisions" (Ackoff, 1970 in 4
Mintzberg, 1994).
Plans
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Plans are natural outgrowths of the planning
process. They are detailed expressions of
actions necessary to accomplish stated
organizational objectives.
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Importance of Planning
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Affecting performance
Focusing attention on objectives
Offsetting uncertainties and anticipating problems
 Action plans
 Primary: based on organization’s future
expectations given the current political,
legal, economic, technological and societal
environments
 Contingency: alternate plan that will be
implemented if certain events occur
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Importance of Planning (continued)
Providing guidelines for decision making
 Facilitating control
 Controlling is the continual analysis and
measurement of actual operations against
the established standards developed
during the planning process
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Planning and Decision Making
Decision making is a process of identifying
options and choosing those courses of
action necessary to perform a given task.
 Decisions trigger actions designed to keep
plans in motion.
 Not all decision making is planning.
 Planning is anticipatory decision making
 Planning involves a systems of decisions
 Planning involves the creation of desired
future states
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Types of Plans –Time
Short-range
Covers a time period of 1 years
or less
Intermediaterange
Covers a time period of between 1
and 5 years
Long-range
Covers a time period of 5 years
more
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Types of Plans –Use
Single-use
Predetermined course of action for
unique, nonrecurring situations;
includes programs, projects,
budgets
Standing
Predetermined course of action for
repetitive or long-term activities;
includes policies, procedures,
rules and regulations
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Types of Plans –Scope of breadth
Strategic
Tactical
Operational
Establish overall objectives,
position the organization in terms
of its environment; can be shortor long-term
Implementation of activities and
resource allocations; typically
short-term
Use of quotas, standards, or
schedules for implementing
tactical plans
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Organizing the Planning Function
The Commitment Principle: planning for a period
of time in the future sufficient to fulfill the
commitments resulting from current decisions
 Size of the organization
 Degree of decentralization
 Shared governance
 Use of planning groups
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Forecasting Techniques – Qualitative
Methods
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Jury of executive opinion
 Benefits: opinions come from individuals in many
different departments; quick; inexpensive
 Limitations: individuals may lack sufficient
knowledge and experience to make meaningful
predictions
Delphi forecasting
 Benefits: group of experts can accurately predict longterm events such as technological breakthroughs
 Limitations: time consuming, expensive, allows bias to
influence decisions
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Forecasting Techniques – Quantitative Methods
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Time series analysis
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Benefits: can detect seasonal or annual trends; quick; inexpensive
Limitations: inaccurate if changes in trends occur
Causal modeling
 A) Regression analysis
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Benefits: effective when demand and environmental factors are
relatively stable
Limitations: does not consider environmental changes; assumes the
combination of factors that produced past result will continue in the
same manner in the future
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B) Econometric models
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Benefits: used to predict environmental conditions such as inflation
rate
Limitations: time-consuming; requires considerable statistics expertise
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Time Management
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Process of effectively allocating time among different
tasks
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What has to be done?
When should it be done?
Who should do it?
How much time will require?
What priority should be assigned to its accomplishment?
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Strategic Planning Process
Develops answers to three questions:
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Where are we now? – data on current operations
Where do we want to be at a specified future date? –
assessment of data on current operations, forecasts,
environmental scans
How will we get there? – activities necessary to achieve
established goals
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Strategy
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Strategy = pattern of purposes, policies, programs,
actions, decisions, or resource allocations that define
what the organization is, what it does, and why it
does it (Bryson, 1990)
Strategies outline the organization’s response to
fundamental policy issues
Strategies need to be action oriented. They are
specific actions designed by offices/divisions to
achieve the objectives included in the Strategic Plan
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Levels of Strategy
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Corporate strategy: strategic plan focusing on the
entire organization, specifying types of businesses in
which the organization will engage, its scope and
how its resources will be deployed
Business strategy: strategic plan focusing on the
optimal methods of competing in a particular market
as specified by the corporate strategy
Functional strategy: strategic plan linked to business
and corporate strategy and developed for each
functional area of the organization
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Steps in Strategic Planning
1. Defining the mission of the organization – fundamental,
unique purpose that distinguishes an organization from
others of its type; a general, enduring statement of
organizational intent
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What business are we in?
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Who are our customers?
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What good or service will we offer?
2. Developing organizational goals and objectives – guideposts in
defining standards of what the organization should accomplish in
providing direction and motivation.
Strategic goals are the milestones the organization aims to achieve that
evolve from the strategic issues. They transform strategic issues into
specific performance targets that impact the entire organization. Goals
are stated in terms of measurable and verifiable outcomes.
Objectives should be: specific, measurable, time specific, attainable,
result oriented.
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Steps in Strategic Planning (continued)
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3. Assessing Organizational Resources, Risks and
Opportunities
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SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
Analysis: identifies factors that may affect desired future
outcomes of the organization. The SWOT model is based
on identifying the organization's internal strengths and
weaknesses, and threats and opportunities of the external
environment, and consequentially identifying the
organizations's distinctive competencies and key success
factors. SWOT's objective is to recommend strategies
that ensure the best alignment between the external
environment and internal situation
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Steps in Strategic Planning (continued)
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3. Assessing Organizational Resources, Risks and
Opportunities
The Five Forces Model developed by Michael E. Porter
guides the analysis of organization's environment and the
attractiveness of the industry. The five forces include the risk
of new competitors entering the industry, threat of potential
substitutes, the bargaining power of buyers, the bargaining
power of suppliers, and degree of rivalry between the
existing competitors (Porter, 1985). Environmental scan
identifies external opportunities and threats, evaluates
industry's overall attractiveness, and identifies factors
contributing to, or taking away from, the industry
attractiveness (Hax & Majluf, 1996). Through organization's
choice of strategy it can alter the impact of these forces to its
advantage.
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Steps in Strategic Planning (continued)
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4. Formulating Strategy
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Miles and Snow Adaptive Strategy Typology (Miles et al., 1978)
Strategy
Environment
Organizational
Characteristics
Prospector
Innovate. Grow. Take
risks.
Dynamic, growing Creative, innovative,
flexible, decentralized
Defender
Protect turf, retrench,
hold current market
Stable
Tight control, centralized,
efficiency, low overhead
Analyzer
Maintain current
market plus moderate
innovation
Moderate change
Tight control, flexibility,
creativity
Reactor
No clear strategy.
React to conditions.
Drift
Any condition
No clear organizational
approach, depends on
current needs
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Steps in Strategic Planning (continued)
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Strategic Window: limited time period during which
the “fit” between the key requirements of a market
and the particular competencies of an organization is
at an optimum
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What general and specific external events may
represent exploitable opportunities and threats
to be avoided or dealt with?
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Steps in Strategic Planning (continued)
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Strategic Business Unit (SBU): is a unit consisting
of key businesses with specific managers, objectives,
resources and competitors
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Stars: products or businesses that are high-growth
market leaders
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Cash cows: high market share but low growth
potential
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Dogs: low market share, poor growth potential
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Question marks: low market share in a high
growth market
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Steps in Strategic Planning (continued)
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5. Implementing Strategy
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Strategy: “Doing the right thing”
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Tactics: “Doing things right”
6. Monitoring, Evaluating and Adapting Strategic
Plans
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ACCJC Standards and Planning
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Standard I: Institutional Mission and Effectiveness
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“The institution uses analyses of quantitative and
qualitative data and analysis in an ongoing and systematic
cycle of evaluation, integrated planning, implementation,
and re-evaluation to verify and improve the effectiveness
by which the mission is accomplished.”
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“The institution assesses progress toward achieving its
stated goals and makes decisions regarding the
improvement of institutional effectiveness in an ongoing
and systematic cycle of evaluation, integrated planning,
resource allocation, implementation, and re-evaluation.
Evaluation is based on analyses of both quantitative and
qualitative data.”
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ACCJC Standards and Planning
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Standard I: Institutional Mission and
Effectiveness
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“The institution provides evidence that the planning
process is broad-based, offers opportunities for input
by appropriate constituencies, allocates necessary
resources, and leads to improvement of institutional
effectiveness.”
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“The institution assures the effectiveness of its
ongoing planning and resource allocation processes
by systematically reviewing and modifying, as
appropriate, all parts of the cycle, including
institutional and other research efforts.”
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ACCJC Standards and Planning
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Standard II: Student Learning Programs and
Services
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“The institution engages in ongoing, systematic
evaluation and integrated planning to assure
currency and measure achievement of its stated
student learning outcomes for courses, certificates,
programs including general and vocational
education, and degrees. The institution
systematically strives to improve those outcomes
and makes the results available to appropriate
constituencies.”
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ACCJC Standards and Planning
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Standard III: Resources
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“Human resource planning is integrated with
institutional planning. The institution systematically
assesses the effective use of human resources and
uses the results of the evaluation as the basis for
improvement.”
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“Long-range capital plans support institutional
improvement goals and reflect projections of the
total cost of ownership of new facilities and
equipment.”
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“Physical resource planning is integrated with
institutional planning. The institution systematically
assesses the effective use of physical resources
and uses the results of the evaluation as the basis
for improvement.”
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ACCJC Standards and Planning
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Standard III: Resources
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“Technology resources are used to support student learning
programs and services and to improve institutional
effectiveness. Technology planning is integrated with
institutional planning.”
“Financial resources are sufficient to support student learning
programs and services and to improve institutional
effectiveness. The distribution of resources supports the
development, maintenance, and enhancement of programs and
services. The institution plans and manages its financial affairs
with integrity and in a manner that ensures financial stability.
The level of financial resources provides a reasonable
expectation of both short-term and long-term financial
solvency. Financial resources planning is integrated with
institutional planning.”
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References
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Boone, L. E. & Kurtz, D. L. (1992). Management. New York,
NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Bryson, J. M. (1990). Strategic Planning for Public and
Nonprofit Organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Hax, A. C. & Majluf, N. S. (1996). The Strategy Concept and
Process, A Pragmatic Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Miles, R. E., Snow, C. C., Meyer, A. D., Coleman Jr., H. L.
(1978). “Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process.”
Academy of Management Review, 3:546-562.
Mintzberg, H. (1994). The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning.
New York, NY: The Free Press.
Porter, M.E. (1985). Competitive Advantage: Creating and
Sustaining Superior Performance. New York, NY: The Free
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Press.
Planning Resources
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Society for College and University Planning
 www.scup.org
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Planning and Decision Making Software (not an endorsement
for any of these products)
 http://www.conceptsystems.com/
 http://www.definitivesoftware.com/
 http://www.strategyroundtable.com/
 http://www.srcsoftware.com/
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