Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation - Assignment Example

Strategic Management Assignment [Name] [Course] [Lecturer] [Unit Code] [Date of Submission] Executive Summary Telstra is the biggest Telecommunications and Information Services Company in Australia offering a sweeping assortment of communications services and participates in all telecommunications markets all over Australia. The company has the vision of improving the way people live and work and its mission is to be the best customer supplier of telecommunication products and services in Australia. Also, Telstra has a well developed customer-driven, collaborative and innovative and a winning culture. The group of customers served by Telstra plus the general Australian population have an ever-increasing need for telecommunication products and services to facilitate their businesses conduct and obtain information. This has pushed the company to develop several goals along with objectives of attaining the goals. The goals include; To offer strong and flexible telecommunications services To assist in public safety and disaster preparedness by offering improved telecommunications networks and enhanced sustainability. To protect our information assets and networks from damage, loss, abuse and misuse. To more efficiently serve our clients, Telstra aims to act cautiously and on purpose toward convergence of communications so as to satisfy the business requirements of the country. To attract and retain a more effective telecommunications labor force To institute a customer‐driven telecommunications governance structure Since a strategic plan does not guarantee victory, Telstra has proposed a strong monitoring and evaluation structure to be instituted to spot quarters where remedial deeds may be necessary. Description of Business Telstra is the biggest Telecommunications and Information Services Company in Australia and one of Australia’s largest corporations. The company tenders a wide-ranging assortment of communications services and participates in all telecommunications markets all over Australia. Telstra’s key business actions are to offer: Telephone lines to residences and big businesses Local and long distance telephone calls in Australia and international calls to and from Australia Mobile phone telecommunications services A broad scope of data, internet plus on-line services Wholesale services to other carriers as well as carriage service providers Telephone directories (White Pages and Yellow Pages) Pay television services, through an associate Telstra’s Vision To improve people’s way of life and work in Australia and beyond Telstra’s Mission Telstra endeavours to bring to our customers technology and complete solutions that are straightforward, easy to use and valued by our customers. We strive to supply and know our customers better than anybody else. Telstra’s Core Values Integrity and Trust Service and Respect Teamwork and Accountability Telstra’s Culture Telstra has as well developed a customer-driven, collaborative and innovative along with a winning culture. Customer-driven: This culture is supported by the organization’s understanding of its clients and offering a great first-impression. Telstra offers dependable and customer-ready telecommunication products. The company’s personnel are considerate and helpful. The corporation’s aim is to fulfil its pledges and own the customer relationship. Considerate and Innovative: This culture is supported by being creative and passionate in service delivery. Telstra offers an assorted range of ideas engendered by the desire to spot the next opportunity. Teamwork plays a crucial role in Telstra’s operations enhanced by the aptitude to work together and act as a single team. Winning Culture: This culture is supported by Telstra’s understanding of the telecommunications industry thereby being able to understand competition in the industry that pushes the desire to act urgently. There is agility and responsiveness where required empowered by the need to deliver and be at the top. Telstra’s Strategic Goals and Objectives The client base served by Telstra along with the general Australian population have an ever-increasing call for telecommunication products and services so that they can conduct businesses swiftly, efficiently, and steadily and to obtain information. Telstra’s telecommunication strategies, practices, plus infrastructure have got to correspondingly be altered to meet up the demands of the future. In light of this, the Telstra’s Strategic Plan sets up the subsequent six goals. All goals go along with central objectives that are to be achieved in the next three years. Goal 1 To offer strong and flexible telecommunications services Telstra has recently embarked on several strategies aimed at diversifying its operations. However, diversification alone may not achieve much if it is not aligned with quality products and services. Given the dynamic nature of telecommunications services, the company ought to put forward strong and flexible telecommunications services to be achieved through; Objectives Build up varied telecommunications product options and espouse technologies that offer enhanced flexibility Offer multiple selections to rally dissimilar business requirements for individuals and companies through tiered quality and cost alternatives Re-design our telecommunications infrastructure in order to support a wide-ranging assortment of applications Goal 2 To assist in public safety and disaster preparedness by offering improved telecommunications networks and enhanced sustainability The society is a key stakeholder in any company regardless of their operations. Today there is much talk of sustainability and since the telecommunications sector plays a key role in the society, it is imperative to ensure measures are put in place to guarantee safety and disaster preparedness should a catastrophe occur. This goal will be achieved by way of the following objectives; Objectives Evaluate the promptness, survivability, and litheness of Telstra’s telecommunications belongings in the incidence of a major regional catastrophe. Guarantee the capability to pull through a tragic outage. Goal 3 To protect our information assets and networks from damage, loss, abuse and misuse Telecommunications assets are susceptible to damage, loss and misuse from time to time. Telstra understands the importance of ensuring the assets are safeguarded against this evils and the following objectives will guide this goal of ensuring the assets are safe; Objectives Set up a baseline set of policies plus measures for governing telecommunications safety. Develop and advance apparatus, services, and values to enable partner organizations to act in accordance with safety policies and requirements. Goal 4 To more efficiently serve our clients, Telstra aims to act cautiously and on purpose toward convergence of communications so as to satisfy the business requirements of the country. Telstra faces stiff competition from other players in the telecommunications industry. Telstra’s customers are the key asset in ensuring the company survives and pulls through the competition. In light of this the company ought to carefully handle the clients and offer converged communications to ensure customer’s needs are taken good care of. This goal will be achieved through; Objectives Support the utilization of converged technologies to get better access to information as well as trim down operational expenditure. Support the employment of call center technologies and services to perk up service delivery as well as trim down operational expenditure. Support the utilization of converged services for Radio over IP in sustenance of interoperability and stability of operations. Goal 5 To attract and retain a more effective telecommunications labor force A strong workforce is important to Telstra’s operations. Therefore, it is important to make sure that high-quality talent is attracted and retained through; Objectives Ensuring transparency in labor force recruitment and training strategies. Joining together our labor force under uniform administration structures. Goal 6 To institute a customer‐driven telecommunications governance structure Telstra in 2010 set up a Customer Service Recovery System to win back the confidence of its customers. Although by way of this strategy the company experienced a reduction of customer complaints to a reasonable state, it is important to restructure the company’s governance structure in order to ensure the achievement is sustained in the long-term. This goal will be realized through the following objectives; Objectives Set up a telecommunications governance structure. Improve alignment of telecommunications governance structure. Pursue partnership openings to perk up access to telecommunications technology as well as services. Put into operation effective performance standards and benchmarks. Monitoring and Evaluation By itself, a strategic plan does not guarantee victory. Considering the importance of the goals and objectives wished-for in this plan, it is imperative that a strong monitoring and evaluation structure be instituted to spot quarters where remedial deeds may well be necessary. Monitoring and Evaluation will be steered by the goals and objectives. The outcome will as well be circulated to key stakeholders and seconded as the base for developing case studies together with best practice. Moreover, these plans will be wholly expressed and expensed. References Telstra, 2013, About Telstra, retrieved 30 September 2013, David, F. R., 1998, Strategic Management, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey Daniel, S., 1995, Planning in a Global Business, Planning Review, 25-27 Dayson, R. G., 2004, Strategic Development and SWOT Analysis at University of Warwick, European Journal of Operation Research, 152: 631-640 Denham, R., 1995, Strategic Planning: Creating the Future, Feliciter, 41: 38-43 Gary, H., 1996, Strategy as Revolution, Harvard Business Review, pp. 69-82 Harris, L. C. and Ogbonna, E., 2006, Initiating Strategic Planning, Journal of Business Research, 56: 100-121 Rhee, M. and Mehra, S., 2006, Aligning Operation, Marketing and Competitive Strategies to Enhance Performance, International Journal of Management Science, 34 Robert, B., 2002, Strategy is Destiny: How Strategy Making Shapes a Company’s Future, Free Press Michael, E. P., 1996, What Is Strategy Harvard Business Review, pp. 61-78 The World Bank, 2010, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation, in Topics: Participation and Civic Engagement, Washington D.C.: The World Bank Wang, H.F. and Chang, W.Y., 2001, Fuzzy Scenario Analysis in Strategic Planning, International Journal of General Systems, 30(2): 193-201 William, O., 1997, Towards an Attention-Based View of the Firm, Strategic Management Journal, 18: 187-206 Read More