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What Are the Benefits of Strategy Planning - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 767 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/09/21 Category Business Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? What Are the Benefits of Strategy Planning? The benefits of strategic planning can include: †¢Identification of breakthrough strategies, products and operational improvements †¢A clear road map is that is understood and passionately supported †¢Resources that are allocated as appropriate on top priorities †¢Goals that are developed based on solid research and a common understanding †¢Goals that are aligned throughout the organization †¢Employees who are focused, engaged,, empowered and inspired †¢Improvement and investment initiatives that are focused on top priorities †¢Risks and threats that are systematically identified and addressed If strategic planning is conducted poorly it may be nothing more than a game of politics. Some managers try to look smart, do what they can to get promoted and/or protect their silos. This type of an exercise should be called political positioning as opposed to strategic planning. Instead of bringing people together towards a compelling vision and a smart strategy, it creates discord and points the organization in the direction of failure. What is Strategic Planning? Lets start by separating strategy from planning. Simply put, strategy is about making decisions. It is about trade-offs. Strategy is deciding how to focus, how to be the best, how to be different, and how to best pursue opportunities. Planning is the process of deciding what actions are needed to achieve the vision. Five-Year Study Jim Collins led a five-year study in which he and his team scoured a list of 1,435 established companies to find every extraordinary case that made a leap from average results to great results. To qualify, a company had o generate cumulative stock returns that exceeded the general stock market by at least three times over 15 years. The 11 good-to-great companies that we found averaged returns 6. 9 times greater than the markets. There was no miracle moment. Instead, a down-to-earth, pragmatic, committed-to-excellence process a framework kept each company, its leaders, and its people on track for the long haul. In each case, it was victory of steadfast discipline over the quick fix. When people begin to feel the magic of momentum when they begin to see tangible results and can feel the flywheel start to build speed thats when they line up, throw their shoulders to the wheel, and push. And thats how change really happens. Some of the keys to success were: †¢Getting disciplined people †¢Focusing on disciplined thought †¢Confronting brutal facts †¢Being clear about passions, capacities, and opportunities †¢Establishing a culture of discipline †¢Building a culture of greatness to last Jim states, After five years of research, Im absolutely convinced that if we just focus our attention on the right things and stop doing the senseless things that consume so much time and energy we can create a powerful Flywheel Effect without in creasing the number of hours we work. Does this point to the substantive benefits of strategic planning? Apple It is intriguing to learn about Steve Jobs and what has made him so successful. The response is, there are many, but it starts with (a) focus and a near-religious faith in his strategy. The benefits of strategic planning within Apple are obvious. Managers Dont Focus on Strategy A Harvard Business Review article in February 2002, Beware the Busy Manager summarizes a ten-year management study. The findings were that fully 90% of managers squander their time in all sorts of ineffective activities. In other words, a mere 10% of managers spend their time in a committed, purposeful, and reflective manner. A Franklin Covey study evaluated the characteristics of 52,000 managers across hundreds of organizations. More than 400,000 of the managers associates were asked to rank the managers. The areas where managers scored the lowest included: †¢Prioritizing work so time is sp ent on most important strategic issues †¢Providing clear expectations with employees that align to the strategy †¢Providing feedback on how to improve †¢Building teamwork by maximizing the talents of the workgroup An Inordinate Amount of Time Wasted Because of Poor Strategic Planning Franklin Covey conducted a study that focused on 850 workers from many different companies and found that these workers typically spend 40% of their time on tasks related to the organizations mission-critical objectives. Employees Want Strategy Gallup conducted a study of more than 80,000 managers in 400 companies to determine the most successful managerial behaviors. From that study, they drilled in on 12 key focus areas or traits that best correlate with business success. These include: †¢Aligning each employee with the mission †¢Letting employees know what is expected †¢Tapping into the talents of employee †¢Talking with the employee about their progress For fre e articles and resources on strategy development, strategic planning strategic management visit https://strategic-planning-resources. com Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "What Are the Benefits of Strategy Planning?" essay for you Create order

An Arguement Against Peter Singer’s Famine, Aflunity, and Influence Free Essays

In his paper â€Å"Famine, Affluence, and Morality† Peter Singer argues that a lack of benevolence from affluent countries to people suffering from poverty in other countries is unjustified and is comparable to doing nothing if one sees a baby drowning in water a few feet away. In the following paper I will discuss how residing in an affluent country does not put individuals under obligation to donate, and the efforts that are already made by individuals and governments in affluent countries are sufficient enough to be considered benevolent. I will present the following arguments to provide reasoning for this. We will write a custom essay sample on An Arguement Against Peter Singer’s Famine, Aflunity, and Influence or any similar topic only for you Order Now First I will explain how singers drowning baby analogy fails to make a proper comparison to donating. Second, I will show how the assumed responsibility that affluent country should give to the needy is flawed. Third will discuss how donating may actually be counterproductive in the long term. Lastly I will give a comparison towards donating to poverty is no better or more beneficial to donating to crime prevention. The main concern addressed in this essay is the analogy Singer makes when he compares the ease of saving a drowning baby to the ease of making a donation to a country in poverty (Singer, par. 6). Singer’s analogy is only correct on the basis that the baby and people living in poverty are both in circumstances out of their control. The difference though, is that the baby he describes is moments away from death, while people living in poverty are mostly not on the brink of death. I believe the vast majority of people would save the baby, yet only a small percentage of people will take the time to donate. Furthermore, I rule out Singer’s argument for proximity (par. 8). Walking around a city like Toronto, one may walk right past homeless people in very dire circumstances, and many people still do not bother to give any assistance. Thus, since being in a very close proximity will usually not yield a donation, in most likelihood, witnessing someone very close to death is probably the best way to evoke enough emotion for an individual to make a donation. Another flaw in Singers paper is that he makes the argument in his thesis that affluent countries should be responsible for countries that are in poverty (par. 3). By being in a â€Å"global village† as singer puts it, then a logical thing to do is donate to country that has the most poverty. Looked at another way we already donate through the government. Foreign aid comes from our tax dollars. So, in essence we are donating, but the government takes care of all the work. I call this the apathetic donor. In contrast though, Canada is considered a very affluent country yet still has small but significant part of its population below the poverty line. An argument could easily be made that a priority should be placed towards the homeless and people living below the poverty line within Canada first. Once dealt with properly, giving the remains out to the rest of the needy world will follow. If Canada cannot take care of the suffering within its own borders, then its priorities should be reviewed. Lastly, if I was forced into a situation to give to a Canadian living in poverty or someone in a foreign country I would place a priority on someone within Canada. A consequence of giving to countries in poverty may actually cause more poverty. Singer claims that the morally right thing to do is to avoid suffering (par. 6). Yet, by donating to a country in need of food that has a significantly fast population growth rate will lead to future famine. The world simply cannot sustain continued population growth. For example Pakistan has a significant part of its population living in poverty and has a high birth rate. At the same time Pakistan has a space program in place. As a result it appears that Pakistan finds space technology is more important than feeding its poor. Additionally, many nations in Africa have been getting foreign aid for decades yet most of these countries remain poor. If donations must be made, the most good that can come from it would be to see my money go towards helping a government get itself prioritized, and certain that the money goes to where it is intended, not the corrupt politicians or leaders that have no care for the suffering. A fair extension of Singer’s argument would be to donate money to stopping violent crime or terrorism around the world. Crime results in the death of good and innocent people just like famine. Also, many people are born into crime countries or situations out of their control much like poverty. Dealing with organized crime in a poor country would certainly save lives, just as dealing with poverty. Also, an individual would be more motivated to take action to donate through fear than sympathy. As noted previously, seeing my money go towards a controllable situation such as crime within my own country of Canada would be a more worthwhile and pragmatic investment. Donating to crime prevention in Canada would naturally have a much more beneficial effect for me than giving my money to a foreign nation. Essentially various forms of any crime left unabated in Canada are more likely to spread out affect me at home than a person in poverty in a foreign country. In conclusion, I believe the reasons given refuting Peter Singer’s paper show that donating to people in poverty, and the need to change our moral conceptual scheme is unnecessary in our affluent society. His attempt to evoke an emotional and sympathetic response in the reader by describing the mental image of a drowning baby only hurts his attempt to convince a rational person to donate. Also, if I do choose to donate, does this make me less charitable to donate to someone within my own country, while there may someone needier in another country? Is donating at all even justifiable? especially when some countries only seem to be getting worse off with runaway birthrates, and with corrupt leaders not doing what’s best for their nation. If I was forced into a situation to choose between putting aside money for myself, my family’s future, or giving it to someone whom I’ve never met in a situation less desirable than mine, the choice is easy and clear. How to cite An Arguement Against Peter Singer’s Famine, Aflunity, and Influence, Essay examples

Adapting A Style Writing For A General Audience free essay sample

Technical subjects make use of jargons which the average individual may not be aware of. The technical terms used in these subjects need to be rewritten or described in simpler ways so that people with no background on these subjects will be able to understand their meaning with minimal difficulty. If the aim is to make a technical piece of writing available for general audience reading, it is therefore important to avoid using heavy words and to keep away from writing lengthy sentences that only further increases the difficulty level of the reading material. Apparently, toning down the complexity of specialized writings does not mean doing so at the expense of the quality of the content. The trick is to write in layman’s terms without sacrificing the message in the medium. First, the technical terms should be substituted with terms that are more commonly used in everyday conversation. Synonyms can be used to achieve that end. We will write a custom essay sample on Adapting A Style: Writing For A General Audience or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In cases when synonyms do not apply, technical terms can be described using key concepts that the average individual can relate to with ease. While lexical definitions can also be technical in nature to a certain extent, they can also provide easy recognition on the part of the intended audience. Comparing technical terms with widely used descriptive phrases can also be a way to transform jargons into terms that the general audience can easily understand. The idea is to lessen the complexity of the terms involved through several linguistic devices so that technical barriers, so to speak, can be minimized or removed. Second, the length of sentences should be short but concise so that it will not bore the reader and it will still maintain the essence of the message. In writing for a general audience, compound-complex sentences should be avoided as much as possible so that readers will not lose sight of the flow of the discussion. It is important to break down complex sentences into simpler ones so that general readers are able to keep track of the written ideas. Basic sentence structure will suffice in creating succinct sentences that are not only reader-friendly but also direct to the point. For instance, a simple sentence composed of not more than ten or twenty words is sufficient enough to maintain the focus of the reader. Third, paragraphs should be relatively shorter than those found in special interest publications. A paragraph of four to six sentences—a topic sentence at the beginning, two to four supporting sentences in the middle, and a concluding or summary sentence at the end—will do. It is important to devote one key idea to one paragraph so that readers will not get confused about the separate points being addressed. Incorporating several key ideas into a single paragraph can only lengthen the entire paragraph and, therefore, baffle the reader as to what exactly the paragraph is meant to convey. Keeping paragraphs shorter is one way to prevent alienating the reader from the reading material tackling a purely technical subject. Lastly, the article should make use of an interesting introduction that will capture the reader’s attention. The introduction can be in the form of an anecdote or an intriguing story that is related to the subject of the article. The technical topic of the article should not be immediately exposed, so to speak, in the first few sentences of the introduction so that the readers will not hesitate to continue reading the rest of the article. The introductory anecdote or story can be reiterated in the concluding or closing paragraphs so that the readers will be encouraged to treat the subject as a light issue that any person can understand and not as a form of mental torture that only elite people can comprehend.

John Quincy Adams Essays (876 words) - Adams Family,

John Quincy Adams Hello, I'm John Quincy Adams. I grew up in Braintree, Massachusetts, and when I became an adult I traveled with my father on his diplomatic missions until I became interested in political journalism at Harvard and eventually became he sixth president of the United States. During my lifetime, from 1767 to 1848, the United States was desperately trying to make allies, as the country was in it's infancy. I followed my father's footsteps, as I was working in foreign relations before I became President. I have experienced many great events, such as when I was appointed as minister to the Netherlands, a mere three days later I witnessed the French invade the country and overthrow the Dutch Republic. This was thought of by many as an attempt for the French to show the United States how strong it was, without exerting any force on them at all. On a different occasion, when I was appointed minister to Russia, I was the leading negotiator for the Treaty of Ghent with the British, which ended t he War of 1812. These negotiations gained respect for the United States and me as a diplomat. I am a likable person wherever I go. When I was a kid, our family was very closely knit, as we all helped manage the farm, except for my dad, who was usually away in foreign countries. This didn't affect me very much since I joined up with him when I was 11 on his operations after my persistent asking. As President, I worked scrupulously to work out problems and provide leadership for the country. This was acknowledged by my fellow officials in office and by the country, as I'm thought of as a person with integrity and honesty. Louisa Catherine Adams, my wife, holds a special place in my heart. She has always been trustworthy and nice. As a child she had to deal with ill health frequently, (which often recurs), and as First Lady she held brilliant parties for my Cabinet and friends. Louisa and I had four children, but sadly they all died before they could have children of their own, all for various reasons. My only real enemy to speak of is Andrew Jackson. Before my administration, Jackson and his followers accused me of promising Henry Clay a cabinet post in return for his support. After I was elected, and I appointed Clay Secretary of State, Jackson's strong followers in Congress called it a 'corrupt bargain'. This dispute forever split the Democratic-Republican Party, and mine is now known as the National Republicans. Throughout my life in politics, I was just concerned with providing the country with leadership to the best of my ability. I realized all my actions would influence everyone after me, so it wasn't just my administration I was providing for. I'm very fortunate to have a father like I did. I didn't have very many obstacles to overcome on my way into the White House, since my father really led me into position, right up to his support for me as President, which influenced even more people to vote for me. I consider the split of the parties an obstacle to overcome since if it weren't for the intense campaigning afterward, I probably wouldn't have been elected since I lost much support from that event. Nothing is really funny in my life since I am often saddened by my wife's frequent illnesses and charges from Jackson. Throughout my life in politics, it has usually just been being a different minister for a different country before settling in the White House. I have often been misunderstood, due to the fact of my philosophy to change things for the better, which the people of this country aren't always ready for. For instance, at my inaugural speech in front of Congress, I proposed a plan for national improvements, such as highways, universities, and weather stations. They didn't buy into it, but I have a feeling they will realize one day that it needs to be done, but it's a shame not I don't think they will in my lifetime. If I had my life to do over again, I would probably not have appointed Henry

Free Essays on Sidney Sheldons Books

in his book which in fact the cause of why other reader’s don’t like its book. But if you base the book by literature, you’ll find out its really a good and an entertaining story to read METHODOLOGY: Our group created a survey of how Sheldon’s books for readers of different ages by letting them answer in YES or NO. YES if they like the book and NO if not.... Free Essays on Sidney Sheldon's Books Free Essays on Sidney Sheldon's Books †SIDNEY SHELDON’S BOOKS† SIGNIFICANCE: Sidney Sheldon’s books are one of the famous and best sellers. Sidney uses fine words of literature for better use of English for the readers. It is also written in a simple in a way that the readers of his book can easily understand the story. It also increases the reader’s vocabulary for there is words you don’t usually encounter. Some readers are only reading Sheldon’s books because of its eroticism; however, some are reading it for past time or for learning better English. OBJECTIVES: a. Broaden your knowledge, and skill in speaking English. b. Sharpens your memory. c. To help others develop interests in literature d. Give young readers an idea about the world they are going to face. PROBLEM: â€Å"Why do others like Sheldon’s books and others don’t?† HYPOTHESIS: Other readers do not like the way Sheldon explains his story while for others like it because they say they read it for fun. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE: Sheldon books are both fictional and romantic. Other reader’s especially older readers do not like it because of how the author explains his story in the book, while some younger reader’s like it. Sheldon expresses erotic words in his book which in fact the cause of why other reader’s don’t like its book. But if you base the book by literature, you’ll find out its really a good and an entertaining story to read METHODOLOGY: Our group created a survey of how Sheldon’s books for readers of different ages by letting them answer in YES or NO. YES if they like the book and NO if not....

Case Study 6 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Case Study 6 - Research Paper Example Dell was accessible and delegated authority believing in, â€Å"turning loose talented people who can be relied upon to do what they’re supposed to do.† Dell also spent 30% of his time at company operations and meeting with customers. The issues with Dell's performance are his lack of understanding the employee's initially and Dell's inability to communicate. The Five tasks of crafting and executing strategy by â€Å"Crafting and Executing Strategy† are discussed below: 1. â€Å"Developing a strategic vision of where the company needs to head and what its future product/customer/market/technology focus should be.† Dell took the right approach in desiring to sell directly to the customer, custom to the customers needs build-to-order computers. Dell also wanted to take the discount pricing approach for the company. 2. â€Å"Setting objectives and using them as yardsticks for measuring the company’s performance and progress .† During the early y ears the company did not seem to have many hard set objectives. Dell's objective was to adhere to the strategic vision while also improving quality control. Dell also began to partner with key suppliers and incorporating e-commerce technology and use of the internet. 3. â€Å"Crafting a strategy to achieve the objectives and move the company along the strategic course that management has charted. â€Å" Dell began to increase his workforce, and his marketing capabilities in order to sell directly to individuals desiring a 2nd and 3rd computer. By doing this Dell became a cost leader, due to direct sales. 4. â€Å"Implementing and executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively.† By allowing the company to be managed by a more experienced person in the early stages of the company Dell was able to implement and execute the discount strategy very well. 5. â€Å"Evaluating performance and initiating corrective adjustments in the company’s long-term direction, objectives, strategy, or execution in light of actual experience, changing conditions, new ideas, and new opportunities.† Dell was able to become one of the industry leaders in quality, price, and market share within a 20 year period. When Dell realized the margin was low on using retail stores to resell dell computers, the company made the correct adjustments and began to only sell, as was their strategy, directly. 2. What are the elements of Dell’s strategy? Which one of the five generic competitive strategies is Dell employing? How well do the different pieces of Dell’s strategy fit together? In what ways is Dell’s strategy evolving? Dell's strategy involved: â€Å"1. Selling direct to customers is the most efficient way to market the company’s products because it eliminates wholesale and retail dealers that impede Dell’s understanding of customer needs and expectations and that add unnecessary time and cost. 2. Allowing customers to purc hase custom-built products and custom-tailored services is the most effective way to meet customer needs. 3. A highly efficient supply chain and manufacturing organization, grounded in the use of standardized technologies and selling direct, paves the way for a low-cost structure where cost savings can be passed along to customers in the form of lower prices. 4. Dell can deliver added value to customers by (1) researching all the technological options, (2) trying to determine which ones are â€Å"