Developing An Operational Plan Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Questions: 1.Development of an operational plan for a business? 2.How Operational plan helps a business to be more successful? Answers: 1. An operational plan refers to a specific plan prepared by the management of a company which clearly defines the action requires to support the objectives and plan of the upper management. Operational plan determines how human resources, financial resources and physical resources are going to be allocated perfectly so that short term goals of a specific organization can be achieved (Cummings and Worley 2014). Well known companies like Apple Co. and Starbucks develops operational plans to ensure success in the long run. In order to develop an effective strategic plan, the following step needs to be followed: Getting stated with the strategic plan Considering the fact that operational plan is a tool for efficiently carrying out strategic plan, it is crucial to have a strong strategic plan and all the employers and employees in the organization are aware of it. An operational plan can only be developed if the managers of the organization already have a well developed strategic plan. Focusing on the crucial goals The next step is to breakdown the strategic plan into a one year objectives and thus creating crucial short time goals (Rummler and Brache 2012). After that, the managers need to determine the key initiatives which will help the organization to achieve the goals. Some of the possible key initiatives are: New Organizational structure Greater productivity and faster delivery Quality control measures Approximately three to five initiatives should be chosen by the management that will bring about a long term success to the organization and then metrics should be identified which will help the managers to measure the progress. Usage of leading indicators It is crucial to choose the right Key Performance Indicators for the success of the operational plan. There are two types of indicators to choose from in order to develop an operational plan. While leading indicators help the managers to determine future expectations and allow the management to adjust the course accordingly, lagging indicators often end up showing the loopholes of the plan only after it is too late. Some of the examples of efficient leading indicators are call-per-week and sales meeting. An organization, based on its previous experiences, can decide the number of calls needed to complete a sale. These will in turn, help the organization to understand whether it is on the track to meet sales goals or not. Efficient development of KPIs Considering the fact that the chosen Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be guiding the management for the next one year, a wide variety of perspective should be drawn within the team while developing KPIs (Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston 2013). While small organizations can involve all the employees while developing KPIs, large organizations should restrict the participation to the leadership teams. Establishing effective communication While developing KPIs it is really important that the manager of the Organization to effectively communicate with all the employees of the organization. This is because, every employee should understand the reason behind choosing the specific matrices and how these matrices will help the organization to achieve its goals along with the role of each employee in order to achieve ultimate success. One of the most effective ways to establish effective communication is to hold meetings on every week in order to discuss the issues and the progress of the organization associated with the KPIs. It is also important for the team members to track their personal progress with the help of dashboards, meetings or by any other means. 2. Operational plan does impose a positive impact on various areas of an organization. An effective operational plan helps the managers of an organization to set the goal and achieve targets and objectives. Apart from developing the operational side of the management, Operational plan also ensure the development of the physical side of the management of an organization that includes employee management and the progress of the business on daily basis. Apart from that, an organization can be more successful by implementing an operational plan which provides direction, encourage focus and align the employees with the companys strategic plans. Operational planning is a crucial part of the management since it keeps the resources and the department functioning throughout the year (Weick 2012). Operational plan enhances the competitive advantages of an organization by increasing the efficiency of the resources and employees. It helps the business to be more successful by developing and shar pening the strategies and by evaluating the current situation of the business. Once the organization develops the understanding of its current position, Operational plan helps the managers to avoid confusion and focus on the most essential objectives. References Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014.Organization development and change. Cengage learning, pp. 345-367 Rummler, G.A. and Brache, A.P., 2012.Improving performance: How to manage the white space on the organization chart. John Wiley Sons, pp. 235-256 Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A. and Johnston, R., 2013.Operations management. Pearson, pp. 129-203 Weick, K.E., 2012.Making sense of the organization, Volume 2: The impermanent organization(Vol. 2). John Wiley Sons, pp. 218-230