An Essential Part of Strategic Planning for the Firm - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: Strategic Planning Strategic Planning [Institute’s Strategic Planning Every organization or business requires strategic planning in which the managers or entrepreneurs of the venture decide how to coordinate their activities in order to achieve their goals. In order to be successful, every venture has certain goals that they wish to achieve which may include profitability, survival, growth, and many other possible objectives. Hence, to achieve these goals, ventures must form strategies. Amongst these strategies there may be plans regarding which target audience to choose, how to reach this audience, how to attract them, what prices to set for goods and services offered, and how to provide information to the target audience amongst others (Averrett and Swamidass, 1989, pp.656-657). The company or venture is then responsible for devising strategies in order to implement these goals and fulfill these processes. Strategies include marketing, finances, management, administration, and other areas of business. Pre-planning and market research is essential in the planning process as slight imperfections or the onslaught of unforeseen events may cause a business plan to fail. Businesses devising strategies must consider the strategies of competitors and must mould their strategies in comparison to the competition. They must also plan for emergencies or unforeseen events that may affect their business strategy. Each business or venture is different and has various purposes for existence. Some organizations are nonprofit organizations which focus on community and social welfare instead of economical prosperity. Some ventures are service oriented will others are focused upon selling or manufacturing a product (Bryson, 1988, pp.73-74). A particular type of business that is prevalent in society today is the event management business, which focuses upon providing a service to people who want to organize an event which can range from a birthday party, to an exhibition, or a wedding. Some event management companies focus upon certain areas of specialty such as weddings or concerts while others may focus on business oriented events such as exhibitions or opening days. However, event management companies must engage in very precise and well structured strategic management processes in order to make their business successful, as the main focus of their business is based upon planning itself (Averrett and Swamidass, 1989, pp. 656-657). An event management company based in the United Kingdom is Penguins Event Production and Logistics. The company is located on the London outskirts in Windsor, Berkshire and is focused upon providing its customers with solutions to all their event management needs. The company seeks to not only provide customers with management services to handle their events but also provides a wide variety of extensive services such as audio visual services, logistics, and communication solutions for their customers. It has strategically positioned itself as a multi-tiered company in the service sector who can cater to multiple event management needs instead of only catering to one target market. The company aims to cater to the corporate management sector and provide solutions to all management needs and/or services. While it has strategically positioned itself as an event management company catering to the corporate sector, it targets several niche groups of customers pertaining to their individual needs whether they are audio visual aids, communication solutions, or management for events. The company focuses on the core services mentioned above but also claims to cater to other solutions upon request. As the company has been in the field for a long time, they claim to be able to cater to every need that a customer may have and offers the professional help of project managers to coordinate the tasks and activities related to corporate events. The company seeks to enable a customer to manage his time, skills, and resources, effectively in order to make his/her events a success and add value to his/her business (Penguin Event Management and Logistics, 2012). The company requires an extensive focus on strategic planning because they are attempting to focus on each customer’s individual needs and provide them with an individual package according to what they require. The company aims to solve their customer’s event management needs by providing them with professional management services, which may help them to manage and coordinate their events or provide them with suppliers who can assist them with extra services such as audio visual aids, communications solutions, and team building strategies. Hence, the company must particularly focus upon strategic planning as it has to plan and strategically position itself to attract customers from all segments and with various needs (Blackburn, Mulford, and Schrader, 1989, pp. 98-99). The company must focus upon marketing and administration to cater to the various needs of individual customers. Strategic Planning is extremely essential for the business as the business focuses upon coordinating suppliers and customers and managing activities related to an event. Hence, timeliness, reliability, coordination, management, and proper planning are an essential element within their business. The main motive of their business is to plan events for businesses and customers and in order to do this they must strategically maneuver around their competitors and provide a fully fledged service that caters to even their minute needs. By doing this, they prevent their customers from having to go to other companies. Hence, the value of strategic planning is quite high in their business and the business cannot focus upon their core activities without paying a maximum amount of attention to strategic planning (Gliecester, 1999, pp.107-108). The business’s objectives are to enable their corporate customers to influence, motivate, inspire, develop, motivate, and amaze the people who attend their events. They aim to add value to each individual customers business by focusing on his/ her individual event requirements. The company feels that some corporations may have good managers who possess credible skills to coordinate and organize events but they may be in need of good suppliers to assist in providing arrangements for their event. The company seeks to do this by understanding the underlying motive behind the event and the reasons for it being carried out. They claim that other companies may focus upon the arrangements of the event and how it is to be coordinated. However, Penguin Event Management aims to ensure that the event influences the people who are attending it and they can use their five senses to analyze the impact of this event. In order to achieve this goal, the company must engage in very specific strategic planning and research as they aim to exert maximum influence upon the guests invited to the event (Penguin Event Management and Logistics, 2012). The company also provides its customers with a communication platform to transmit the message of the upcoming event to the public. It enables its customers to create hype and curiosity regarding the event and build a receptive audience through invitations, websites, and their online delegate management system. This aspect of their business also requires immense strategic planning as they must build a marketing strategy for their customers’ events and communicate with the audience. They must build a brand image. Identity, and awareness, by strategically positioning their customers’ events in the minds of the people who are going to be attending it. Moreover, they also provide services such as staff training and development programs which can help corporations enrich their employees with current skills and management knowledge. In order to cater to an organization’s specific needs regarding this program, the company must engage in heavy amounts of strategic planning. Penguin seeks to design incentive programs to help corporations inspire their employees and enhance their performance. This aspect of their business is original and creative and also requires strategic planning as the company seeks to devise specific strategies which will be new for their customer’s companies to inspire and motivate their employees. The company offers a range of programs to enable its customers to create a brand image, identity, market themselves and their events, and develop their team skills. Last but not the least, the company provides unique and creative designing capabilities used to amaze the audience attending the events. Hence, the company is involved in a range of planning and management activities which help a business in all spheres of their profession (Penguin Event Management, 2012). It is quite obvious that strategic planning plays a vital role in all business aspects that the firm is dealing with as Penguin is helping their customers develop specific plans and cater to their needs. In order to do this, Penguin must carry out in-depth research of their customers and devise a plan regarding how best to achieve the goals that their customers require. Since the requirements of each customer are different, and the service is highly customized, there is no standardization in the service provision. Hence, the company must strategically plan each and every step for each of their customers (French, Kelly, and Harrison, 2004, pp. 765-767). Event managers employed in Penguin must be highly coordinated and excellent planners. While they must possess such skills, they must also possess a quick mind and be able to actively search for solutions. Hence, while strategic planning is important, the company must also account for unforeseen events and plan for them likewise (Mintzberg, 1994, pp.87-89).They are responsible for a whole company’s image and making a blunder would harm their reputation for a long period of time. Hence, strategic planning is highly valued in Penguin. The company must also strategically plan its own entry in the event management field as it must draw customers towards itself. It has to strategically position itself in relation to its competitors as it has identified itself as an all rounder company who not only caters to event management solutions but other solutions that are associated with a corporation’s event. Hence, it has a unique selling proposition which focuses upon a one-stop solution for all a corporation’s management problems. The company markets itself through blogs, its website, call centers, and other internet advertising. It also posts ads in magazines and newspapers in the United Kingdom. Developing its own brand image and identity is also an essential part of strategic planning for the firm. The firm does seem to have coordinated itself well in its own respective field. However, to make their strategic planning aspect more effective, the firm can focus upon how to attract the niche segments that they are catering to. Customers may be slightly confused about the array of services that the company is offering and may not know which one is the best choice for them. They may also not be able to categorize the firm according to its specialty and may not know what to expect from the firm in different areas. Perhaps Penguin can focus on a few core businesses and use bundling as an option to provide their customers with a package of services at a subsidized rate. While all of their services are interlinked, some of them are unrelated and may cause a customer to not be able to properly identify with the company. While Penguin is currently involved in in-depth strategic planning and has developed a unique brand identity which is different from its competitors in the field of event management, it may want to focus upon other areas of event management as well, which may include weddings and other personal events. Hence, the company may tend to excel in the field of strategic planning if they reduce their core business functions and try to focus on certain areas or aspects more than others. Managing an array of unrelated tasks may prove to be disorienting and may lead to some planning errors (Abell, 1980, p. 23). References Abell, D. F. 1980. Defining the Business: The Starting Point of Strategic Planning. Prentice Hall Averett, A. and Swamidass, P. 1989. Assessing Operations Management from a Strategic Perspective. Journal of Management. Vol. 15, No. 1. Blackburn, L., Mulford, C. and Shrader, C. 1989. Strategic and Operational Planning, Uncertainty, and Performance in Small Firms. Journal of Small Business Management. Vol. 27 Bryson, J. 1988. A Strategic Planning Process for Public and Non-Profit Organizations. Long Range Planning. Vol. 21, No. 1. French, S. J., Kelly, S. J., and Harrison, J. L. 2004. The Role of Strategic Planning in the Performance of Small, Professional Service Firms: A Research Note. Journal of Management Development. Vol. 23, No. 8. Gliester, K. W. 1999. Strategic Planning; Still Going Strong? Long Range Planning. Vol.32, No. 1. Mintzberg, H. 1994. The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. The Free Press. Penguins Event Production and Logistics. Accessed Online on: February 20, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.penguins.co.uk/how-we-do-it/amaze.aspx Read More