A Day Care Facility Strategic Business Plan - Research Proposal Example

In many major urban centers, the establishment of private and independent daycare centers has become part of the most appreciated solutions. However, Because of this, it is only appropriate to propose the establishment of such business in an area in the city where there is no such facility yet.

Prior to initiating the concrete steps towards realizing the objective of establishing the daycare center, it is necessary to formulate a strategic plan. This long-term plan would serve as the general guide as the efforts related to developing and operating the facility are undertaken. The strategic plan’s most essential points are the organizational vision, mission, and values statements. Even long before details of the day care’s construction and subsequent operation are laid out, the business organization that would manage it should already have a clear vision on what it desires to see in the future. The vision actually “provides the basis for a strategic plan” (May 2010, p.4). The strategic plan would also include an articulation of the mission that the organization would adhere to and implement. Values statements would be presented since these would provide the parameters of the daycare management’s operations. To validate these vision, mission, and value statements, it would be necessary to make a thorough study on the conditions of the primary beneficiaries or recipients of the services that the daycare facility would render. It is also imperative that the internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as current and potential capabilities of the organization, should be noted. After stating the vision, an analysis that takes into consideration external and internal conditions must first be made because this would serve as the basis for the formulation of a strategy.

The method that would be used in evaluating the external environmental conditions is the PESTEL analysis. This model “offers a useful analytical framework to identify and examine the environmental influences of political, economic, sociological, technological, ecological, and legal factors on an organization” (p.501-502). In order to perform such external environmental analysis, there may be a need to collate key information from state or national statistic offices. Since the daycare facility should be duly licensed in order to operate, it would also be necessary to learn about the provisions stated in the Child Care Center General Licensing Requirements of the state in which the facility would be established. There are, however, moves from certain sectors, including the academe, that propose to introduce certain revisions in policies governing child care facilities. It is also necessary to learn the details of these. One rich source is the research brief written by Dr. Richard Fiene for the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care.

One key finding in this research brief is that “children were significantly less likely to be abused in a daycare center or preschool than in home-based child care” (Fiene 2001). For as long as the daycare facility is not yet realized, internal conditions could still be changed for the better. This is the reason it should also be evaluated. One key question that should be resolved at this stage is the appreciation of the objectives by everyone involved in the project. The personnel implementing the daycare project should find the objectives meaningful (King 2004, p.23). In order to perform an internal environmental analysis, certain references will have to be used. These include Manager’s Guide to Strategy by Roger Formisano, Contemporary Strategy Analysis by Robert Grant, and Team-Based Strategic Planning by C. Davis Fogg. These books provide detailed discussions on what concerns should be considered in appreciating internal conditions in an organization.