Chapter 7 Discussion Questions:

1) Write a brief mission statement for a local business with which you are familiar. How might
having a clear, written mission statement benefit a small organization?

DaVita’s mission statement has their mission and core values together in their mission statement.
Their mission is to be the provider, partner and employer of choice, and their core values are
Service Excellence, Integrity, Team, Continuous improvement, Accountability, Fulfillment, and
Fun. This mission statement helps define the purpose that distinguishes the organization from
others of a similar type. A well designed mission statement can enhance employee motivation,
to get the job done and organizational performance. This usually allows customers and
employees to see the basic business activities and purposes, as well as the values that guide the
company.

2) What strategic plans could the college or university at which you are taking this management
course adopt to compete for students in the marketplace? Would these plans depend on the
schools goals?

First off an organization has to establish a strategic goal- which are broad statements defining where
the company wants to be in the future. These goals pertain to the organization as a whole rather
than to specific divisions or departments. After this strategic plans- which define the action steps by
which the company intends to attain strategic goals, it is the blueprint that defines the
organizational activities and allocations required for meeting the targets, where they have a long-
term focus. First off our goal is to provide a quality free tuition college to impoverished kids in
Appalachian America. Our strategic plans should be to market the criteria for being able to attend
the college, get the schools name out there, and provide visits for interested students. All of these
are already done, where Berea College is at the top of its market right now, because they focus on
the brightest students in impoverished Appalachian America. Yes they would heavily on Berea
College’s goals, where donations are key in making Berea College an outstanding institution.

3) One of the benefits of strategy map is that goals and how they are linked can be clearly
communicated to everyone in the organization. Does a minimum wage maintenance worker in a
hospital really need to understand any goals beyond keeping the place clean?

Yes they do because they can see how their actions relate to accomplishing the overall mission of
the company. A minimum wage maintenance worker makes equipment run smoothly and the
hospital run smoothly that takes care of patients in an effective and efficient manner. This is a very
important position because he can shows to customers how much he cares about the customers
and how much he believes in the hospitals work. Through Learning and Growth Goals to Internal
Business Process Goals, to Customer Service Goals, where the maintenance workers Is a pivotal
player, to the overall financial performance goals of the company, everything is related. Since he
does such a great job and makes the hospital safe and running smoothly more customers will come
because of great customer service and generate more profit and help the company grow towards its
overall mission.

4) In 2008, Delta had more customer complaints, such as late flights and mishandles baggage, than
any other major carrier. If you were an operations manager at Delta, how might you use MBO to
 solve these problems? Could scenario planning be useful for airline managers who want planes
to run on time?

First off Management by Objectives is a system whereby managers and employees define goals for
every department, project, and person and use then to monitor the subsequent performance. There
are 4 major activities that make MBO successful are:

 Set Goals- Where it should involve employees at all levels and look beyond day-to day
activities. These goals should be specific and measurable, have a defined time period, cover
key result areas, be challenging but realistic, and linked to rewards.
 Develop Action Plans- An action plan defines the course of action needed to achieve the
stated goals, these are made for both individuals and departments.
 Review progress- A periodic progress review is important to ensure that action plans are
working. This allows managers and employees to see whether they are on target or whether
corrective action is needed. In this part the action plan can be changed to reach the
proposed goals.
 Appraise overall performance- carefully evaluate whether goals have been achieved for
both departments and individuals, this shapes goals for the next year.

I would use MBO first to set goals to fix all of the problems that the customers are complaining
about, I would make sure the goals meet all of the characteristics that make a great goal. I would
develop action plans for every department and individual to follow by to reach our goal. I would review
progress and make adjustments as necessary to make the overall experience of the customer the best
that it could be, and then if something didn’t work see what was done wrong and fix it, I will get the
employees and departments to follow this by linking performance to rewards. Scenario planning
involves looking at current trends and discontinuities and visualizing future possibilities and focus on
what could happen to be prepared to adjust to the future. I think it could, they could have a ton of
scenarios that could happen in the future to cause flights to delay or events to occur to apprehend
progress, and be prepared in those situations to make sure thins run smoothly.

5) A new business venture must develop a comprehensive business plan to borrow money to get
started. Companies such as FedEx, Nike and Rolm Corporation say they did not follow the
original plan closely. Does that mean that developing the plan was a waste of time for these
eventually successful companies?

No, all companies need to have original plans for the foundation of the business. We live in a turbulent
society where things are always changing and to make those adjustments some things might have to be
changed on the plan to achieve success. A plan helps us have something to relate back to and follow in
case we need something to refer to. Intuitive thinking is a big part of business today where you think on
your feet, and even though plans are in place you might have to tweak it a little bit to make it successful,
or there were mistakes in the first place.

6) How do you think planning in today’s organizations compares to planning 25 years ago? Do you
think planning becomes more important or less important in a world where everything is
changing quickly and crises are a regular part of organization life?

I think planning today has a variety of planning methods that all revolve around common goals and
objectives of the company. Strategic and tactical goals are evident, Scenario planning and crisis planning,
operational plans, and single use plans are always evident in today’s society. I think a large future focus
from scenario planning and focusing on crisis planning more and decentralized planning are the key
differences. Scenario planning allows us to plan for certain events that could happen which is pivotal in
an ever-changing society, which was not done 25 years ago there was just a long term goal and you
followed the plan by the book to reach that goal, there was no intuitiveness. Crisis planning is new too,
where crisis weren’t really thought of until after they occurred, just like the BP oil spill crisis. There was
one way of doing things even though contingency’s existed. And decentralized planning is becoming key
to allow managers to do [planning on their own and delegate more power to them instead of having so
much pressure and responsibility on top executives. I think planning becomes more important because
you have to have plans for every possible course of action, because in today’s society anything can
happen at an instance and you have to be prepared to maintain the integrity, effectiveness, and
efficiency of your organization.

7) Assume Southern University decides to: (1) raise its admission standards and (2) initiate a
business fair to which local townspeople will be invited. What type of plans might it use to carry
out these two activities?

(1)You need to focus on scenario planning, and strategic plans and standing plans. You need to look
at scenario planning because you would want to see how this would affect the enrollment in your
college, and affect your income, you would also want to look at if the organization could compete
with the other schools, you would have to develop a strategic plan to lure away students from other
highly touted institutions to get the necessary enrollment that is needed to make a profit or to stay
alive. You need to make sure by doing this you are being affective towards the university’s goals and
how that would correlate to a better environment for students and faculty. A standing plan has to
be intact because this is a decision that would need guidance for tasks or situations that occur
repeatedly throughout the organization due to this.

(2) You need to focus on single plans- where this is a onetime thing and you are just doing this to
achieve a set of goals that will not likely be repeated in the future.

8) Why would an organization want to use an intelligence team?

Because anticipating and managing uncertainty and turbulence in the environment is a crucial part
of planning, which means managers need good intelligence to make informed decisions about goals
and plans, where these problems are managed through intelligence teams, who can provide insights
that enable managers to make more informed decisions about goals, as to devise contingency plans
and scenarios related to major strategic issues.

9) Some people say an organization could never be “prepared” for a disaster such as the massacre
at Virginia Tech, which left 33 people dead, or the huge BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Discuss the potential value of crisis planning in situations like these, even if the situations are
difficult to plan for.

The potential value is that companies can cope with unexpected events that are so sudden and
devastating that they have the potential to destroy the organization if managers aren’t prepared
with a quick and appropriate response. Crisis planning also allows the company to reduce the
incidence of trouble, where this is done through 2 essential stages. 1) Crisis Prevention- where you
build relationships with key stakeholders that allow managers to prevent crises from happening and
respond more effectively to those than cannot be avoided. 2) Crisis Preparation- includes all detailed
planning to handle a crisis when it occurs, and is done so through….

 Designating a crisis management team and spokesperson.

 Creating a detailed crisis management plan.
 Setting up an effective communication system.

10) Come up with a stretch goal for some aspect of your own life. How do you determine whether it
makes sense to pursue a stretch goal?

Stretch goals- are reasonable yet highly ambitious goals that are so clear, compelling, and
imaginative that they fir up employees and engender excellence. My stretch goal would be to
donate 40 books to an African nonprofit organization that I am interning for in 8 weeks. I determine
nit if it provides value and meaning to others and for me. I fit is something that I really want to do
and feel like I can do I will set a stretch goal to reach that goal, just like I did when I lost 60 pound sin
high school.