Strategic Planning and Business Management: Key Concepts

Posted on Dec 10, 2024 in Economy

1. How Does the Process of Defining an Organization’s Strategy Work?

The process of defining a strategy involves creating a plan of direction, establishing standard methods of behavior, positioning the organization uniquely, and developing tactics to outmaneuver competitors.

2. What Opportunities Does Establishing a Formal Strategy Offer?

Establishing a formal strategy enables an organization to:

  • Set a common direction for all stakeholders
  • Focus efforts and resources
  • Define the organization and its structure
  • Provide coherence and consistency in actions, attitudes, and results

3. How Can We Conceptualize Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is a systematic analysis of a company’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats in its environment. This analysis aims to establish objectives, strategies, and actions that enhance business competitiveness.

4. What Is the Difference Between Strategic Planning and Management?

Strategic planning relates to the plans and targets set by the organization. Strategic management concerns the methods and means of achieving what is set out in the strategic plan.

5. What Elements Make Up the Functional Identity of an Organization?

The functional identity comprises:

  • Business and terms of reference: The organization’s purpose and scope.
  • Mission: The reason for its existence and the convergence of efforts.
  • Principles: The beliefs and policies guiding its actions and communicated to employees.
  • Key success factors: Essential elements for the organization’s success.

6. What Is the Difference Between Mission and Vision?

The mission defines the organization’s current purpose and the convergence of efforts. The vision outlines the desired future state and recognizes the organization’s aspirations for excellence.

7. What Are Environmental Analysis and SWOT Analysis?

Environmental analysis, often conducted through a SWOT analysis, examines both internal and external environments. It identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

8. What Strategic Postures Can Be Adopted from Environmental Analysis?

Organizations can adopt postures based on internal and external exposure:

  • Internal: Analyzing positive and negative attributes related to the company’s internal market, competition, and self, generating strengths and weaknesses.
  • External: Detecting external influences from political, legal, social, technological, and market contexts, creating opportunities and threats.

9. According to Michael Porter, What Forces Impact Organizations?

Michael Porter’s Five Forces that impact organizations are:

  1. The bargaining power of customers
  2. The bargaining power of suppliers
  3. The threat of new entrants
  4. The threat of substitute products or services
  5. The intensity of competitive rivalry

10. How Can Organizations Position Themselves Strategically?

Organizations can position themselves through:

  • Cost leadership
  • Differentiation
  • Segmentation (or focus)

11. What Are the Strategic Objectives of an Organization?

Strategic objectives are both global and specific:

  • Global objectives: Encompass the vision of growth, expansion, and innovation.
  • Specific objectives: Relate to particular products and services, identified targets, and critical skills development.

12. How Are Goals Established Within an Organization?

Goals are established based on quality and excellence standards. Managers analyze past performance, seeking to improve controls and optimize capacity for future production.

13. How Is Marketing Planning Formed?

Marketing planning consists of two parts: market analysis and marketing strategy.

14. What Steps Are Involved in Market Analysis?

Market analysis involves analyzing the industry, customers, competition, suppliers, and the specific business sector the organization will serve.

15. What Elements Are Involved in Marketing Strategy?

Marketing strategy involves working on technology, product/service lifecycles, offering competitive advantages, and developing research and development plans.

16. What Are the Foundations of a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is based on:

  • The type of business the company desires
  • The market segment the company plans to cover
  • The method the company will use to cover this market segment
  • The timeframe in which the company intends to gain market share

17. How Is Perceived Customer Value Demonstrated?

Perceived customer value can be demonstrated through:

  • Practical application demonstrations
  • Testing with focus groups and evaluating their effects
  • Submission to quality tests, resulting in reports and certifications of quality and technical ability

18. What Is the Marketing Mix?

The marketing mix consists of the four Ps:

  • Product
  • Price
  • Place
  • Promotion

19. What Is the Product Element?

The product element encompasses physical and functional characteristics, such as its logo and packaging. It differentiates itself from competitors by targeting key needs.

20. What Is the Price Element?

The price element determines the minimum price, ideal price, contribution margin, and profit.

21. What Is the Place Element?

The place element determines the locations for selling the product or service, as well as transportation and delivery methods.

22. What Is the Promotion Element?

The promotion element involves the type of advertisement or promotion, cost, media type, and frequency of exposure.

23. How Do Human Resources Impact Sales Implementation?

Customer satisfaction is influenced by the preparation and conduct of personnel involved in sales or service delivery. Positive results depend on well-trained and prepared frontline employees.

24. How Is Operational Planning Structured?

Operational planning is structured around:

  • Commercial action
  • Administration and business management
  • Quality control
  • Outsourcing
  • Partnerships
  • Social responsibility and environment

25. What Elements Are the Focus of Commercial Action?

Commercial action focuses on:

  • Prospecting to attract customers
  • Developing techniques to convince customers
  • Maintaining a focus on marketing targets
  • Emphasizing product characteristics that interest customers
  • Continuously developing retail outlets to boost sales
  • Continuously training and empowering sales teams

26. How Is Business Management Supported for Development?

Business management is supported by:

  • Mapping and describing processes and activities
  • Scaling human resources required for operation
  • Allocating resources like machinery, equipment, materials, etc.
  • Using computerized management support systems

Management can be centralized (decisions made by the manager or owner) or decentralized (decisions are shared).

Quality Control involves:

  • Mapping and controlling processes for compliance
  • Monitoring and controlling rework
  • Monitoring and controlling waste levels
  • Monitoring workforce productivity

Outsourcing considerations include:

  • Labor risks
  • Quality issues
  • Legal and tax compliance
  • Environmental, health, and safety (EHS) issues
  • Potentially higher costs than in-house labor

Partnerships require attention to conflicting interests.

27. What Elements Relate to Social and Environmental Responsibility?

Social responsibility and environmental elements include:

  • Treating employees fairly
  • Regarding customers as human beings
  • Avoiding pollution and environmental degradation
  • Optimizing consumption of energy and water resources

28. What Factors Underlie Operations Management in Modern Organizations?

Factors that make operations management a competitive weapon include:

  • Project management
  • Theory of constraints
  • Lean production systems
  • Total quality management
  • Supply chain management

29. How Can Operations Management Be a Competitive Weapon?

Operations management transforms inputs into products and services for internal and external customers effectively. It adds value to the product or service over time.

30. What Are the Core Processes in Operations Management?

Core processes include customer relationship management, new product/service development, application implementation, and supplier relationship management.

31. What Do Companies Competing Globally Need to Consider?

Companies need to consider improvements in communication and transportation, relaxed regulations on financial institutions, increasing demand for imported goods, reduced import quotas, competitive cost advantages, and rapid technological change.

32. What Are the Three Main Pillars of Operations Management?

The three main pillars are:

  • Operations Strategy: Defining the scope, documenting the process, evaluating, redesigning, and implementing process changes.
  • Process Management: Identifying new opportunities.
  • Value Chain Management: Location, inventory management, forecasting, sales planning, operations resources, and scheduling deadlines.

33. How Can Project Management Help Operations Management?

Project management helps by defining processes, planning time and costs for each step, and allowing better control of resources, raw materials, and manpower.

34. What Is the Theory of Constraints in Operations Management?

The Theory of Constraints involves measuring the capacity of various stages of a process at three levels: usage, output, and input.

35. What Are Lean Production Systems?

Lean production, perfected by Toyota, is based on a workflow-driven method, quality at the source, small lot sizes, uniform workstation loads, work patterns, proximity to suppliers, and the use of 5S.

36. What Is Total Quality Management (TQM)?

TQM defines output characteristics critical to customer satisfaction, measures work processes, analyzes and directs changes, modifies or redesigns methods, and monitors processes to maintain high performance levels.

37. How Should Financial Planning Be Developed?

Financial planning should be based on the business’s need to build infrastructure. It should consider initial investment, fixed costs, variable costs, taxes, and depreciation.

38. What Factors Must Be Considered When Designing a Business Plan?

Factors to consider include tax credits and depreciation.

39. What Is Depreciation in a Business Plan?

Depreciation is a mechanism that allows companies to recognize the obsolescence and wear of their property over time, reducing revenue without spending cash. It helps build a capital reserve.

40. What Taxes Must Be Considered in a Business Plan?

Taxes to consider include:

  • Sales taxes (municipal, federal, or state): ISSQN, IPI, PIS, COFINS, and GST
  • Taxes on profits: Income tax and social contributions
  • Payroll taxes: 13th salary, vacation, prior notice, DSR, FGTS, and INSS
  • Benefits: Food vouchers, transportation vouchers, etc.

41. How Can Payroll Costs Impact a Business Plan?

Payroll costs are additional costs beyond wages and taxes withheld at the source.

42. What Methods Are Used for Investment Project Feasibility Analysis?

Methods for feasibility analysis include estimated cash flow, net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), profitability index, and payback period.

43. What Is the Net Present Value (NPV) Method?

NPV considers all project cash flows, the value of money over time, and the required rate of return. It measures the value created or destroyed by the project.

44. What Is the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) Method?

IRR is the discount rate that makes the NPV of a project equal to zero.

45. What Is the Profitability Index (PI) Method?

PI is calculated by dividing the present value of future cash flows by the initial investment cost.

46. What Is the Discounted Payback Period (PBD) Method?

PBD measures the time it takes for the discounted cash flows to recover the initial investment. A shorter PBD is generally better, indicating higher liquidity and lower risk. However, it doesn’t consider all cash flows and is not suitable for projects with initial costs spread over more than a year.

47. What Are the Sources of Capital for Financing a Business?

Sources of capital include equity (owner’s investment) and debt (borrowed funds). It’s crucial to know the available sources and their costs to make informed investment decisions.

48. What Are the Sources of Debt for Financing an Investment Project?

Sources of debt include loans, financing from customers and suppliers, new partner contributions, going public, and business transactions. These can be categorized as equity, third-party capital, or mixed capital.

49. Micro and Small Enterprises

Partnerships: This model is used when two companies seek a new relationship and reshape their traditional interactions.

Outsourcing: This term is used when an organization transfers certain internal activities to other companies.

Associative: Reasons for choosing alliances or associations include:

  • Shared objectives
  • Strategies
  • Growth
  • Personal or family reasons
  • Division of costs and risks
  • Synergy
  • Access to technology and resources

Franchising: Advantages of franchising include:

  • Rapid expansion
  • Expanded market coverage
  • Franchisee motivation

Disadvantages include:

  • Less control over sales
  • Less market contact
  • Potential conflicts with franchisees