Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency - Essay Example

IMPLEMENTATION, STRATEGIC CONTROLS, AND CONTINGENCY Introduction A strategic plan is a step by step instruction manual that explains how an organization will move toward achievement of its objectives and how it will inform its workers what is expected of them (Allison & Kaye, 2005). In last paper, we talked about some strategic plans that our organization, Human-Care.org, should adopt in order to enhance both its organizational growth and productivity at the same time. Without effective strategic plans, an organization is unable to make its employees move along with harmony while understanding the company’s goals and milestones. This paper discusses the strategic plan of offering and implementing new services to the clients which will in turn attract more clientele and improve its repertoire in the competitive market. This will help increase organizational goal along with satisfying the clients in a very effective way. This paper throws light on the implementation of this plan and explains the objectives, functional tactics, action items, milestones, tasks, resource allocation, and other important issues. Implementation Plan 1. Objectives The objective of this strategic plan is to search for some new services apart from filing and solving complaints of the clients, and implement those services. When a company decides to offer a new service, it has to make use of all the internal resources of the company as well as look out for opportunities in the external environment. The organization also has to look out for threats and must be prepared to face all kinds of disasters and losses. It has been proposed that Human-Care.org should implement a counseling service in which clients can have access to expert professionals in social and psychological fields. This service will benefit those clients who are themselves disturbed personalities and may be filing illogical complaints. 2. Functional Tactics Human-Care.org should focus on the short-term activities called functional tactics because these are a key to success in the long run. Four main functional tactics are: time (how much time will be dedicated to current activities?), specificity (how activities will be managed to achieve the strategy plan?), participants (who will be involved in the plan?), and empowering operational personnel (how personnel will be motivated and trained?). 3. Action Items a. What: Implement counseling service. b. Who’s responsible: Owner of the organization, employees, operational staff, outside sources who provide finances. All are involved in the action plan. c. How: The organization will have to do some research based on the case histories of previous clients to know how many of them needed social or psychological help. d. When: 1 month should be spent on clients’ case history studies; 1 month on explaining the staff the objectives of the plan and resolving any conflicts; and, 2 to 3 months for the implementation of the plan which includes marketing of the service, arranging separate rooms, hiring professionals, arranging extra finances, and managing time schedule. 4. Milestones and a Deadline Milestones and the duration in which they will be achieved are discussed in the previous paragraph. Deadlines will be adjusted according to the employees’ time and schedule so that the task does not become a burden on them lowering down their morale. 5. Tasks and Task Ownership Human-Care.org will assign one person who will be champion of the plan and will make sure that the plan is in progress without any issues. This person may be the owner of the organization himself or another person, and he will hold the responsibility to assign different individuals the tasks of marketing, arranging rooms and professionals, breaking the project into modules, assigning modules to teams, managing timelines, and keeping a constant check on performance. These are some of the major tasks that will help achieve the plan, and will be monitored under individual task owners as well as the chief of the project. 6. Resource Allocation In this step, the need for resources will be identified and how to meet those needs will be pondered upon. Meetings will be held in which existing internal and external resources will be analyzed. The most important point to consider here is that how many more resources (financial and other) will be needed so as to complete the plan in the set timeline. Steps will be taken to arrange and allocate these resources. Required Organizational Change Management Strategies It is purely normal for the employees of an organization to be upset with the new change in the company and its services, so it becomes important that it works out some strategies to keep the employees stress free and happy so that they embrace the change whole heartedly and their morale does not go down while the implementation of the plan (Rampur, 2011). There are some organizational change management strategies that need to be considered and implemented if Human-Care.org wants to complete its strategic plan successfully and obtain the desired results. The company needs to arrange meetings with its employees, in person and in groups, so as to figure out any problems that they might have in their work schedules if the plan is implemented. The employees must be informed prior to the implementation to the plan about all changes that will be occurring at the workplace and how they will be expected to adjust according to the changed atmosphere, policies, systems, rules and regulations. It is the responsibility of the higher officials to divide the tasks among all employees in such a way that all of them share the burden equally without experiencing any workload or negative feelings. This is important to enable the employees to keep up their morale so that they accept the changes and work toward better implementation of the strategic plan. This also helps in empowering the employees because they feel their participation and their responsibilities at the same time while increasing job satisfaction. Key Success Factors, Budget, and Forecasted Financials Human-Care.org will identify its key success factors by asking some questions from themselves and the project team. These questions will identify what things the organization should be good at in order to achieve the strategic plan. The key success factors for our organization are communicating with its labor about any conflicts they have about the implementation of plan; arranging for or hiring best professionals in the city to be present at the company 24/7; and, training its employees to be effective in communication with the clients. These are some of the very important key success factors that Human-Care.org should consider and work for before making the plan come true if it wants to be successful in the competitive market. Since the current budget of the company does not allow starting the service very quickly, thus it should strive to gain partnership with another firm in the form of a joint venture or a strategic alliance with another company running in a different city but under the same objectives. Even if this is not possible, then the company should strive to gain loans from banks or investments from other companies or individuals so that enough resources may be secured and budget may be increased to start off the plan without any difficulty. Forecasted financials that we can figure out are banks and other investors. Risk Management Plan It is important for Human-Care.org to identify, evaluate and take steps to control all risks and threats that come from within the organization and outside, in the way of successful accomplishment of its vision and mission statement in general and the strategic plan being discussed in particular. Internal risks include disturbed labor, ineffective systems, and reduced resources. External risks include another competitor in the same location and absence of financial back up from investors. The organization must take steps to minimize these risks by designing an effective risk management plan. One of the main components of this risk management plan will be that the actual strategy plan that we are trying to implement must be flexible that it absorbs any unpredictable events and happening without failing. Human-Care.org must also be prepared for any uncertain events for which it has to design contingency plans which will be helpful in reaching a solution in case an unfortunate and unpredictable event occurs which has never occurred in the past. The contingency plan for upset labor will handle any strikes that the employees of the company may hold as resistance. The contingency plan for ineffective systems is to keep system professionals on standby so that they may be called in case the system crashes. The contingency plan for insufficient resources is to back up the company with a quick loan from bank. Conclusion In this paper, we discussed the implementation of a strategic plan in Human-Care.org. The plan is about the implementation of a new service named counseling service. The paper discussed how this plan is going to be achieved with a description of its action items, functional tactics, resources, and task ownership. The steps that the organization will take to satisfy its employees in case they do not accept the new change has been discussed. The key success factors that the organization should consider have been taken into account. The paper also discussed what kinds of risks the company will be facing during the implementation of this plan along with a recommendation of some contingency plans. References Allison, M., J. & Kaye, J. (2005). Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations: A Practical Guide and Workbook. USA: John Wiley and Sons. Rampur, S. (2011). Organizational change management: strategies for implementing organizational change. Buzzle.com. Retrieved September 13, 2011, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/organizational-change-management-strategies-for-implementing-organizational-change.html Read More