student preparation question for final exam - 8 jan 10

7/27/2019 Student Preparation Question for Final Exam - 8 Jan 10

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Preparation Questions for Final exam

Strategic Planning

1. What is the strategic framework? Why strategic framework is important to the strategic

planning? Please define and describe each component of strategic framework.

- The strategic framework

A clearly stated vision;

Clearly articulated values;

A mission, articulated in a mission statement;

The overall goal of the project or organization;

The immediate objective of the project or organization;

The key result areas on which the project or organization intends to focus;

An understanding of the gapsbetween where an organization is and where it needs to be to

achieve its goals and objectives and of the forces that are likely to help and hinder it.

- Strategic framework is important to the strategic planning

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- Component of strategic framework

Vision Statement:- guides them in their work and which they believe can be achieved if enough projects and

- Organizations share the vision and work towards it.

Values: are your core beliefs and principles. They define why you carry out your mission

the way you do and help develop strategic objectives and work plans.

Mission Statement:

- Foundation of the organizations purpose

- Identify the organization, the constituency, and the services in one to three precisely

worded sentences.

- Frequently found in or adapted from the bylaws or articles of incorporate.

- The mission is to provide services of the highest and value to its members to preserve and

improve skill, responsibility and integrity in the industry

- Recognize that the membership general contractors and associates is the most

important asset of the organization.


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- The highly satisfied chapter member is our most important goal.

Goal:

Goals are the major thrusts for the organization

The planning process should result in three to seven goals.

They should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

Immediate objective: which describes the specific situation which the project or organization

hopes to bring about.

Key result areas: define the outputs that are needed to achieve the immediate objective of a

project or organization.

2. Four common formats of strategic plan (one program agency, department/agency with more

than one program, department/agency with multiple programs, large department withmultiple agencies and programs) have been applied wisely in strategic planning development.

Please describe each format followed by an example. As a strategic developer, how do you

apply these common formats?


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3. Key result areas in strategic planning are important to achieve planning mission, goals, and

objectives. If you were developing a strategic plan for market development and linkages,

how do you define your key result areas? Please describe processes of developing key result

areas and also provide your example along the explanation.

4. There are five types of performance indicators in strategic plan. Please describe these five types

of performance indicators. When will each type of indicators be used or apply?

a) input,

b) output,

c) outcome,

d) efficiency, and


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e) quality - as well as explanatory notes may be used to build a balanced set of

performance indicators.

a) Input Indicator:

Identify the resources needed for provide a particularly services

Inputs include labor, materials, equipment, facilities, and supplies.

b) Output Indicator:

Measure the amount of products or services provided or number of customers served.

Volume driven and focused on the level of activity in providing a particular program.

Useful for resource allocation decisions

c) Outcome Indicator:

Measure results and assess program impact and effectiveness

Show whether or not expected results are being achieved.

Policy makers are generally most interested in outcome indicators.

d) Efficiency:

Reflect the cost of providing services or achieving results.

Efficiency measures can also portray the relationship of inputs to outputs (or outcomes)

Efficiency indicators can gauge the timeliness of service provided

Use to justify equipment acquisitions or changes to systems or processes.

e) Quality:

Reflect effectiveness in meeting the expectations of customers, stakeholders, andexpectation groups.

Measure reliability, accuracy, courtesy, competence, responsiveness, and completeness

associated with product or service provided.

Quality measures are often considered to be outcomes.


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5. In the strategic formulation, you require to carry-out resources allocation according to

priorities of the strategy and also translate your planning activities into budget plan. How do

you conduct your resource allocation and how do you translate your planning activities to

budget plan?

Source allocation:

- Resource needs associated with strategies human effort, materials, and facilities

required to implement and accomplish goals and objectives.

- Identify continuation funds as well as needed enhancements.

Translate your planning activities to budget plan:

- Annual operational plans and budgets indicate how the strategic plan will be

operationalised- Capital outlay plans and budget link capital resources with strategic plan

- Resources requested should be related to organizations strategic plans and priorities.

- Performance indicators are used to show service levels associated with resources

allocation level

- Resource needs are refined and requested through the development process.

- Objectives, strategies, and performance indicators that reflect a continuation of existing

service levels are identified in the operational plan

- Objectives, strategies, and performance indicators that reflect new or expanded services

are detailed on the new

6. After completion of your strategic planning formulation, you require to carry out change

management in your organization to avoid your staff struggling with new changes. How do

you conduct your change management? When will be the best time for carrying out change

management with your staff?

Conduct Change Management:

Your strategic planning process may result in some things in the organization changing, either in

terms of the work done or in the internal structuring of the work. People struggle with change.

They may need help to accept and respond positively to change.

Best time to carrying out change management:

Make sure everyone understands the change and why it is necessary. Even if people

have been part of the strategic planning process, they may need the implications of


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decisions explained to them afterwards. Where the change affects people outside the

organization, explain it to these stakeholders as well. For example, if all your support

has previously gone to civil society, but you have now decided it will be strategic to

work with government as well, make sure the civil society stakeholders understand why

you have taken this decision and what the implications will be for you, and them.

Respond to people's ideas and feelings. Let them express their concerns and respond to

them. If you cannot agree, at least be empathetic about the feelings that are generated by

change.

Develop a planned process of change and share this with everyone in the organization or

project so that people know what to expect and when to expect it.

Implement change.

Consult, support, give feedback during the change process.

Acknowledge and celebrate successful change.

7. Functional organizational structure has been applied for agencies with single or narrow

product focus. Your organization is working with different provinces in Cambodia and

responsiveness to local market condition, but still focused on single and narrow products.

Are this functional structure still relevance management structure? If not, what

implementation structure will you choose to work with and why do you choose that

structure? Please provide your justification.

No, the old functional structure is not relevance to this management structure anymore.

Geographic organizational structure is best type to use for this situation because:

Strategic Advantages Strategic Disadvantages


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1. Allows tailoring of strategy to needs of each

geographic market.

2. Delegates profit/loss responsibility to lowest

strategic level.

3. Improves functional coordination within thetarget market.

4. Takes advantage of economies of local

operations.

5. Provides excellent training grounds for

higher-level general managers.

6. Poses problem of deciding whether headquarte

should impose geographic uniformity or geograph

diversity should be allowed.

7. Makes it more difficult to maintain consiste

organization image/reputation from area to area8. Adds layer of management to run the geograph

units.

9. can result in duplication of staff services

headquarters and district levels.

8. Implementation of strategic plan requires understanding all management aspects. Amongst

these aspects, management ethics and social responsibility have been a major concern andneed all managers acknowledge during implementation of the strategic plan. What is

management ethics and social responsibility and how will these management ethics help to

success of strategic implementation?

Management Ethics:

- Companies should be operated in a socially responsive way for the benefit of all

stakeholders and it believe that manager will behave in a ethical manner.

- Ethics refers to the moral principles that reflect societys beliefs about the action of an

individual or group that are right and wrong .

- The ethical standards reflect not a universally accepted code, but rather the end product

of a process of defining and clarifying the nature and content of human interaction.

Social Responsibility:

The various stakeholders of a firm can be divided into:

- Inside stakeholders

- Outside stakeholders


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- Each firm regardless of size must decide how to meet its perceived social responsibility.

Corporate social responsibility is the idea that a business has a duty to serve the society in

general as well as the financial interests of its stockholders.

9. What are monitoring and evaluation systems and what is the value of the system? The M&E

approach have been use to assess for relevant, efficiency, effectiveness, and impact. If you were

recruited as independent consultant to conduct assessment of the achievement of strategic

implementation, how do you apply the M&E approach?

Monitoring and evaluation system address the following question:

- Does the strategic plan address our needs? (Relevance)

- Are we using the resources wisely? (Efficiency)

- Are the desired results achieved? (Effectiveness)

- To what extent have strategies brought about changes for the betterment of individuals

and/or community? (impact)

M&E approach:

- Monitoring is continuous and focuses on:


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output and

activities.

Results of monitoring lead to changes at the level of strategic planning.

- Evaluation take place:

at the intervals and

look at all previous stages.

Results of an evaluation lead to changes at the strategic planning level (level-III).

10. Please compare implementation structures of functional organizational structure and matrix

organizational structure. If youre nominated to become a manager to implement the strategy,

between these two structures, which structure would you like the most? Could you justify your

preference?


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11. After graduation from the Norton University, you are immediately hiring by a consultant

company to conduct monitoring and evaluation of a strategy, what documents and information

will you be looking before starting your works and what activities will you carrying out duringmonitoring and evaluation process?

Document and Information:

1. Strategy plan

2. LogFram

3. Annual Plan

4. Work Plans

5. Financial Reports

6. Evaluation Report (if available)

7. Geographical target group


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Monitoring and Evaluation Process:

Stage Monitoring Evaluation

Planning Decide what information needed

and who needed. Decide how

can get it and who should

responsible to collect it, etc.

Setting the objectives for evaluation.

Decide what information is needed,

consider how it can be collected, etc.

Preparation Design and test any data

collection records, train staff

whos responsible for

monitoring, inform

implementers of the monitoring

system

Design data collection tools, decide hot

to select sample, train evaluation staff,

and make arrangement of places

Data collection Collect the agreed upon

information on a routine basis,

monitor the functioning of

system

Collect & study existing information

(reports, proposal, slide, etc.)

Analysis and

check

Compare collected data with

agreed indicators, and notedifferences, identify any other

issues, look for cause of any

problems and identify for action.

Tabulate data, interpret the results and

draw conclusions, decide onrecommendations, check analysis with

key informants

Reporting

results

Document data and findings,

provide feedback to strategic

management and implementers

Summarize data in table and graphs,

write the final report

Use of results Use results to improve

management and

implementation of strategy

Define priorities, plan the

implementation of priority

actions/change


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12. There are three levels of strategic management. You have been recently nominated to a Manager

for a Company. Your roles are to transform the statements of direction and intent generated

these statements into concrete objectives and strategies, also determine market arena. Based on

your roles and responsibilities, what level of management do you think you falling in? Why do

you choose this level, please provide your justification of not choosing the other two levels and

how do you make decision?

I am failing in Functional level of management because:

- Functional level composed principally of managers of product, geographic, and

functional areas. They develop annual objectives and short-term strategies in areas of

production, operation, research and development, finance and accounting, marketing, and

human relations.

Making Decision:

Functional level decisions implement the overall strategies formulated at the corporate

and business levels. They involve action-oriented operational issues and are relatively

short range and low risk. Functional-level decisions incur only modest cost because they

depend on available resources. Common functional-level decisions include:

Decision on generic versus brand name labeling

Basic versus applied research and development

High versus low inventory levels,

General purpose versus specific purpose production equipment

Close versus loose supervision

13. Why strategic managers consider strategic management is a process and systematic management.

Please describe briefly of the process.


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At this point of strategic management process, managers have a decidedly market-

oriented focus as they formulate strategies and begin implementation through action

plans and functional tactics.

Take the internal focus done efficiently and effectively to implement the strategy

successful.

There some questions require asking at this stage:

a) Whats the best way to organize ourselves to accomplish the mission?

b) Where should leadership come from?

c) What values should guide our daily activities what should the

organization and its people be like?

d) How can we shape rewards to encourage appropriate action?

14. Please describe how do you conduct resource allocation for your strategic plan.

student preparation question for final exam - 8 jan 10

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