The 21st century manager is the person tasked to implement the leader’s vision and mission for the organization. The manager does this with the help of Fayol’s theoretical framework known as the four pillars of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. This week we begin our examination of the four pillars of management with the first function, planning.

The planning stage of management is considered to be the most important by most because of the advantages that planning has for achieving goals. In the agile organization planning has disadvantages as well.

Explore the Internet and retrieve articles that discuss the cons to planning then compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages to the planning function and explain how the manager may use both to their advantage.

Learning Activity 2, Theme 2

There are several elements results from the planning stage but for our purposes we will focus on the development of long-term and short-term goals. Long-term goals are set by the owners, leaders or upper management depending on the structure, size or type of organization. They are the big-picture goals and objectives of the company and are directly related to the purpose and vision that the leaders and owners develop. In today’s change dominated business environment long-term goals are set to be accomplished in 2-3 years’ time as opposed to the previous century’s 5-10 years.

Long-term goals are often created through planning and strategizing. It begins with the vision and mission of the business. To understand the concept of vision and mission and its role in the process, you will do the leader’s job and formulate the vision and mission of an organization. In week four the class will examine the vision and mission in the context of planning the goals for the same organization.

Create a vision and mission statement to fit the company described below:

Mohammed Abul and his family own the Long-lasting Boot (LLB) store. LLB is a specialty boot store located in the downtown area in a medium sized Scottsdale, Arizona and sells a broad line of boots to all members of the family including a novelty pet line. The store sells boots for work and recreation as well as a line of expensive cowboy boots for the tourist trade. The business is twenty-five years old. It has a reputation for being the best place to get boots in the community because of the selection, quality, and customer service. They will even work with custom designed boots for people with unusually sized feet or medical problems. The boots in some instances, work boots in particular, are considered expensive by middle class buyers but the construction quality is so long-lasting that it makes the higher prices seem worthwhile. The store is successful but sales are very slow growing at the moment. The family is looking to boost sales by developing a competitive edge for the future.

Hint: Before you begin be sure that you clearly understand the difference between a vision and mission statement as well as the purpose they each serve.

As mentioned last week the planning process begins with an environmental scan of the business and its relationship to vision and mission statements. Using the expanded case study of LLB below and the SWOT tool complete a business environmental scan.

Mohammed Abul and his family own the Long-lasting Boot (LLB) store. LLB is a specialty boot store located in the downtown area in a medium sized Scottsdale, Arizona and sells a broad line of boots to all members of the family including a novelty pet line. The store sells boots for work and recreation as well as a line of expensive cowboy boots for the tourist trade. The business is twenty-five years old. It has a reputation for being the best place to get boots in the community because of the selection, quality, and customer service. They will even work with custom designed boots for people with unusually sized feet or medical problems. The boots in some instances, work boots in particular, are considered expensive by middle class buyers but the construction quality is so long-lasting that it makes the higher prices seem worthwhile. Abul, who is 32 years old and just out of the military after 10 years of service, has returned to find the business at a crossroad.

The store is successful but sales are very slow growing at the moment. The family is looking to boost sales by developing a competitive edge for the future. The business has up till now been successful because of its ability to anticipate changing boot styles. In the past three years sales have remained constant but growth has waned.  Despite sales, loyalty reward cards and staying open late revenue has not grown. Yet total sales in the Central City metropolitan area including the suburbs have grown substantially. Volume stores like Wal-Mart and large shoe chain stores like Payless have boot sales that pull in three times the sales of LLB.

Abul and the family are planning for the next three years and want to find ways to increase sales. They have come to you for advice. As their consultant you want to cover the following ideas in your reply:

• What is meant by long-term planning?
• The tools and information needed to evaluate the future goals.
• The conclusions you have drawn from evaluating the information and analysis of the facts of this case.
• The recommendations that you would make.

Learning Activity 2 – Theme 2 & 3

In the planning phase, managers create a detailed action plan aimed at the organizational goals.  Strategic management, or what you will learn as strategizing, is what an organization will do or not do to achieve the goals and objectives that lead to meeting the stated mission and vision. Using the vision, mission, and SWOT analysis created in week three and LA1 complete the following:

• Create three long term goals and objectives (3 each) for the business (2 years forward);
• Create three medium term (operational) goals and objectives (3 each) for the business (usually accomplished within the year);
• Create three short term (day, week, month) goals and objectives (3 each) for the business; and
• Create at least three contingency goals in the event the current strategy would fail.