Week 5 team draft comments on week 5 assignment

Sarah’s Draft

In six years of operation, Operational Intelligence LLC (O&I) has proven itself to be a strong competitor in the Intelligence field in the Department of Defense. The company has proven it abides by its missions and value statement of providing high quality candidates to meet and exceed customer expectations. There are strategies that O&I could implement to gain a bigger foothold in the market. This paper will outline the plans of action for the company and the management structure to initiate in order to continue the path of success for O&I. Additionally, it will outline the success factors O&I has already achieved, and identify contingency plans for inevitable challenges.

Implementation plan

An effective implementation plan will address short-term and long term objectives, functional tactics, identify action items, and assign milestones. A deadline with responsibilities will assist in assigning tasks and ownership to the tasks. Finally, determining the necessary amount of resources, and the access to resources is vital to achieving completion.

Objectives

The ability to sustain long-term growth and development is a goal for managing partners John Wisor and Amy Lewin. The company was founded with the intent of owning and operating a business that was competitive, offered a strong benefits package, and focused on employee growth and development. Managing partner John Wisor focuses on the future of the company by pursuing additional contracts and staffing possibilities, while Amy Lewin focuses on providing current employees support through HR functions, payroll, and administrative assistance.

Functional tactics

Functional tactics are the operations and activities conducted that perform the work, the Human Resources department, finance department, marketing department are examples of functional tactics that provide a service to the business. “These functional tactics clarified the business strategy, giving specific, short-term guidance to operating managers and employees in the areas of marketing, operations, and finance.” (Pearce, 2013, p. 308)

Finance Department

The company currently operates without any finance department, financial education, nor finance backgrounds, Mr. Wisor has created a labyrinth of Excel spreadsheets that he uses to track the budget incoming and outgoing. Although successful with minor mistakes thus far, the addition of an improved financial plan and budget would increase O&I’s awareness and ability to identify and declare their financial health.

To improve the financial operations of O&I, hiring an accountant or a candidate with a financial background could prove valuable to O&I by determining avenues for improving the financial strength. Assigning a short-term goal could be to recruit and hire a financial analyst or budget analyst; the long-term goal could be to build upon O&I’s financial health. The long-term goal could include a financial status report with a predetermined frequency, i.e. weekly, monthly reports that assist management in addressing strengths and weaknesses. Mr. Wisor’s retirement at the end of 2014 will mandate that the incoming analyst assess the current operating procedures.

Human Resource Department

O&I’s Human Resource (HR) functions are split between the office manager and the managing partner. The policy manual and operating procedures are provided to candidates during recruiting, and a policy agreement is signed by the employee at the time of hire. One weakness in the HR department is the inability to control and monitor employee actions.

A strategy to improve the access to the HR department is to provide more training that outline the company mission and values statement. O&I is committed to supporting customer requirements, and support our employee’s in their mission. O&I will attempt to provide support to both our employees and the customer by encouraging education and training. A short-term goal could be to develop training methods, online options or PowerPoint are possible strategies for training with the diversely located staff. A long-term goal could address having employees’ attend training environments or schools that could build upon O&I’s capabilities.

Marketing Department

O&I does not have a marketing department, however they have created a website online that boasts O&I’s capabilities and attempts to entice eligible candidates to apply to open positions.

A strategy to improve O&I’s recruiting and market awareness would be to develop a marketing department, or at a minimum attend marketing training. Although the website is active, it is minimally functional and weak in capabilities and graphics. A short-term goal could be to invest in opportunities to advertise for the company, such as a Google link, or Yahoo! Link. “Interactive online media will enable marketers to sense market forces with unprecedented accuracy and efficiency, overcoming the limitations of today’s one-way research methods.” (McWilliam, 2000) A long term goal could be to have the HR staff conduct training and learn marketing and advertising skills.

Tasks and task ownership & Resource Allocation

In December 2014, O&I will endure a major structural change, as managing partner John Wisor will retire from the company. Historically, the management and overhead support structure consisted of Lewin, Wisor, and Kampe. Removing one of these three key personnel will result in a shift of responsibilities and performance requirements. Assigning tasks ownership is uniquely difficult in this circumstance as Wisor could be involved in the initial establishment of policies, but the responsibility of acting and carrying out the functions would ultimately fall on Lewin and Kampe.

Implementing Changes & Resource allocation

Implementing changes into the company will require open communication and information sharing between the three support staff. The proposed strategies and corrective action require minimal resources to accomplish improvements. Job-sharing and job-shadowing are functions that can be achieved at minimal cost to both employee’s and employer’s. There are low-cost options through colleges, specialty schools, learning tree courses that could increase the training opportunities O&I could offer. “Learning Tree develops, markets, and delivers a broad, proprietary library of instructor-led courses focused on: web development, IT security, project management, operating systems, databases, networking, software development, leadership, and management and business skills.” (learningtree.com, 2014)

Change Management Strategies

Key success factors

O&I’s ability to react to customer requests and changing guidance’s is one of its strongest assets. O&I has won multiple staffing opportunities by the ability to recruit and hire a candidate in a short window of time. The ability to manage contracts and provide quality support to the customer and employee are indicative of strong managerial support.

The company ensures that candidates are properly screened prior to an offer of employment, and then spends approximately six weeks of training prior to being introduced to the customer. This process of screening and training candidates have proven effective by the high accolades received from customers by meeting and exceeding expectations.

Risk management plan, including contingency plans for identified risks

Conclusion

Determining the appropriate strategy for implementation is a critically important asset, however if not executed and implemented properly; the company will not be successful. Properly implementing the strategies for improvement will guarantee success for O&I.

References

Learningtree.com. (2014) Learning Tree International Announces Second Quarter FY 2014 Results. Retrieved 12 July 2014 from http://www.learningtree.com/investor/releases/pr140508.htm

Lewin, A. & Wisor, J. (2013) Operational Intelligence LLC Company Handbook

Pearce, J. A. & Robinson, R. B. (2013). Strategic Management: Planning for Domestic and Global Competition (13th ed). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

McWilliam, G. (2000) Building Stronger brands through Online Communities. Retrieved 11 July 2014 from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/building-stronger-brands-through-online-communities/

Dena’s Draft

The Purpose of the Plan

The development of the strategic plan for Step of Faith is to achieve expansion of their services by aligning and translating their mission, vision, and values into action. The purpose of this paper is to create an implementation plan, strategic controls, and contingency plan that aligns the perspectives of the company with its customers and competitors.

Mission

The mission of Step of Faith Health and Wellness’s is to offer comprehensive health and wellness for individuals, families & communities. The services provided is a community wellness clinic, community health education, nursing assistant education, basic & advanced life support, emotional & stress management resilience interventions, school and church based programming, and leadership training for at-risk youth and families (company). The company is based out of Cincinnati, Ohio and managed by Dr. Denise Lackey who specializes in Health Care. The customer groups are corporate executives, at-risk youth and families, and schools. The tangible values that the company provides is availability to a state of art health and wellness facility, educational services, and physicians. The competitive advantage for the company is that they are the only company within the Cincinnati region that specializes and provides the type of holistic coaching and philosophy. Step of Faith is not only a health and wellness provider to the secular community, but the company also generates additional advantages by providing specific services to different ministries within the surrounding Cincinnati area.

Core Competencies

The core competency of Step of Faith is the corporate values governed by the company. Step of Faith operates strategically from a Value-Driven Leadership focus. This particular leadership embraces the accountability and stewardship from their leaders at each level within the company. Specifically the company’s leadership is dedicated to service others, the greater purpose, and ethical and practical services. They are devoted toward demonstrating authentic character, building relationships, committing to self-development, being strategic and driving positive health results (company). Value-Driven Leadership is the distinguishing factor that the company implements which is the distinction between themselves and their competitors.

Goals: Translating strategic thought into the company’s action plan.

Long-Term Objective Provide comprehensive health and wellness services for all stages of life. Help patients achieve health equity by providing services formed around the different qualities of health.

Short-Term Objectives: Launch a state of the art wellness center that provides health assessments, screening, fitness, and educational services.

Functional Tactics:

Human Resource Management: Recruit, interview, and hire Nutritional Physicians, Physical Fitness Physicians, and Nurse Practitioner that are aligned with the company’s mission and vision

Deadline and Milestone: 2-4 months: 60% staffed/ 5-7 months: 80% staffed/ 8-12 months: 100% staffed.

Marketing: Develop distribution and communication channels of the services provided by the company directly to the identified customer groups (corporate, at risk youth and families, schools, and churches)

Deadline and Milestone: 2-4 months: identified best distribution and communication channels.

Finance: Monitor allocation of monies and expenditures. Maintain balance sheets and invoices

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: bi-weekly informal financial status report. Monthly formal budget meeting

Production/operations: Locate facility that has space for the following: fitness equipment, medical equipment, group exercises, fitness training, health testing, administration functions, classroom availability, meditation, and library

Deadline and Milestone: 3-5 months to locate appropriate vacant facility that meets functional requirements

Research and development: Research scientific evidence that supports the methodology of their services. Develop material that relays the message from the results of the research and methodology designed according to the level of understanding and interpretations of their identified customer groups.

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: monthly conduct formal meetings to collaborate innovative methods toward distributing newly researched information.

Short-Term Objectives: Increase the categorical visits of patients diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and obesity.

Functional Tactics:

Human Resource Management: Create and update company policies and procedures that are aligned with the values and ethical practices of the company’s core competencies.

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: Create company training material for employees that are aligned with the values and ethics of the company.

Marketing: Plan events and activities that communicate the services provided by the company directly to the identified customer groups (corporate, at risk youth and families, schools, and churches)

Deadline and Milestone: Scheduled and coordinated quarterly events (conferences, roadshows, assemblies…etc.)

Finance: Monitor allocation of monies and expenditures. Maintain balance sheets and invoices

Deadline and Milestone: bi-weekly informal financial status report. Monthly formal budget meeting

Production/operations: Prepare standard of operations (SOP) for the company during presentations and when performing illustrations.

Deadline and Milestone: Coordinated with the Marketing Deadline and Milestone.

Research and development: Research scientific evidence that supports the methodology of their services. Develop material that relays the message from the results of the research and methodology designed according to the level of understanding and interpretations of their identified customer groups.

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: monthly conduct formal meetings to collaborate innovative methods toward distributing newly researched information.

Short-Term Objectives: Offer access to physical fitness training, equipment, and classes designed to improve health, promote wellness & weight loss.

Functional Tactics:

Human Resource Management: Create and update company policies and procedures that are aligned with the values and ethical practices of the company’s core competencies.

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: Create company training material for employees that are aligned with the values and ethics of the company.

Marketing: Plan events and activities that communicate the services provided by the company directly to the identified customer groups (corporate, at risk youth and families, schools, and churches)

Deadline and Milestone: Scheduled and coordinated quarterly events (conferences, roadshows, assemblies…etc.)

Finance: Monitor allocation of monies and expenditures. Maintain balance sheets and invoices

Deadline and Milestone: bi-weekly informal financial status report. Monthly formal budget meeting

Production/operations: Prepare standard of operations (SOP) for the company during presentations and when performing illustrations.

Deadline and Milestone: Coordinated with the Marketing Deadline and Milestone.

Research and development: Research scientific evidence that supports the methodology of their services. Develop material that relays the message from the results of the research and methodology designed according to the level of understanding and interpretations of their identified customer groups.

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: monthly conduct formal meetings to collaborate innovative methods toward distributing newly researched information.

• Any required organizational change management strategies that would enhance successful implementation

• Key success factors

• Risk management plan, including contingency plans for identified risks

Jag’s Draft

Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans

Pfizer, Inc. (Pfizer) the world largest research-based pharmaceutical company base in New York City. The Company manages its operations through five segments: Primary Care; Specialty Care and Oncology; Established Products and Emerging Markets; Animal Health, and Consumer Healthcare (Pfizer.com, 2014). Pfizer needs to grow its emerging markets to capture greater global market share. The implementation plan below will identify the course of action that Pfizer will take to grow its emerging market, identify its strategic control, the risk management plan, and any contingency plan.

Implementation

Implementation is a specified set of planned activities designed to put in place to make these activities carryout the function as intended. The implementation plan will focus on the plan objectives, functional tactics, action items, milestones along with its deadlines, task and its ownership, along with resource allocation. Pfizer plans to separate its commercial operations internally into three business segments including two units that will sell patent-protected branded drugs refer to as innovative business, and one that sells generic medicines refers to as the value business (Pfizer.com, 2014).

Objectives: Objectives are “specific, usually quantifiable, results operating manager set out to achieve in the immediate future” (Pearce and Robinson, 2013). Objectives can be short-term or long-term depending on the task undertaken. “Short-term objectives are measurable outcomes achievable or intended to be achieved in one year or less” (Pearce and Robinson, 2013, p. 288). Long-term objectives, on the other hand, are those that cannot be completed within one year. Pfizer primary objective is to split the company’s commercial operations into three segments:

Innovative business. The innovative business is made up of two segments that are responsible for the company’s patent-protected branded drugs. This business will include drugs expected to have patent protection beyond 2015 and will cover treatment areas of inflammation, immunology, cardiovascular and metabolic, neuroscience and pain, rare diseases, and women’s and men’s health. The other innovative business segment will include vaccines, cancer, and consumer healthcare (Pfizer.com, 2014).

Value business. The value business segment is made up of Pfizer’s generic business and includes brands that have lost their exclusivity and mature products expected to go generic in 2015 (Pfizer.com, 2014).

Functional tactics: “Factual tactics are key, routine activities that must be undertaken in each functional area” (Pearce and Robinson, 2013, p. 291). These functional areas include marketing, finance, production/operations, R&D, and human resources. The key functional tactics that are most important to Pfizer is its R&D because of the nature of its business. According to its website, “Pfizer’s purpose is to innovate to bring therapies that significant improve patients lives. R&D is at the heart of fulfilling Pfizer’s purpose as we work to translate advanced science and technologies into the therapies that matter most” (Pfizer.com, 2014).

Action Items: Action items are specific tasks that must be accomplished either by an individual or small team. Action items typically arise from meetings during the planning phase and must be cleared documented to ensure clarity. Pfizer’s management needs to ensure that all crucial details are included, such as deadlines, the responsible party, and any consequent action items that are expected to arise from the original one.

Milestones and Deadlines: Milestone reviews and deadlines must be set by Pfizer and managers need to identify these significant milestones that will be reached during the separation of the three business units. Reviews must be conducted to see where the implementation process is and if possible refocusing to bring the implementation process in line with Pfizer’s goals.

Tasks and Task Ownership: Tasks and task ownership is a key motivator for an employee. Allowing employees to be owners of their task will give them that sense of responsibility. Pfizer should identify a leader for each new business segment and make each leader responsible for his own segment. The leader can now delegate each task to a different employee who will become sub-owners for these tasks. Creating sub-owners will make delegating much easier, and the leaders will know who will be responsible for which task.

Resource Allocation: Companies such as Pfizer are dealing with limited resources, and proper consideration must be done when allocation resources. Pfizer needs to allocate resources from other sections to the implementation phase in order to separate its operations into the three business units or segments.

Strategic Control

“Strategic control is concerned with tracking a strategy as it is being implemented, detecting problems or changes in its underlying premises and making necessary adjustments” (Pearce and Robinson, 2013, p. 382). Strategic control is important in any implementation as resources are added to the process and these controls are in place to steer the firm through the implantation. According to Pearce and Robinson, there are four basic types of strategic control: premise control, strategic surveillance, special alert control, and implementation control (p. 383).

“Implementation control is designed to assess whether the overall strategy should be changed in light of the results associated with the incremental actions that implement the overall strategy” (Pearce and Robinson, 2013, p. 387). There are two basic types of implement control: monitoring strategic thrusts and milestone reviews.

Organizational Change and Management Strategy

Organizational change can be one of the most difficult strategies to implement. With the organizational change, Pfizer needs to change its organizational chart to accommodate the three new business segments, their leaders and its employees. Management needs to come up with a strategy to make the implementation of the organizational change much easier. The key is to transform the business processes so that the whole organization operates more effectively resulting in greater bottom line for the company.

Key Success Factors

In order for any business to survive, a business needs to identify its key success factors. Such factors include but not limited to its employees, customers, suppliers, logistics, and any other stakeholders that are relevant to the supply chain. Pfizer has several key success factor such as its research and development (R&D), acquisitions, employees, and restructuring.

Research and Development: Global research and development have helped Pfizer maintain a competitive advantage in the pharmaceutical industry. On the company’s website, “Pfizer purpose is to innovate to bring therapies that significantly improve patients’ lives. R&D is at the heart of fulfilling Pfizer’s purpose as the company works to translate advanced science and technologies into the therapies that matter most” (Pfizer.com, 2014).

Acquisitions. Another success factor for Pfizer is the acquisition of several companies throughout the years. These acquisitions are both horizontal acquisitions that are businesses compete with Pfizer within the pharmaceutical industry or vertical acquisition those are not part of the pharmaceutical acquisition. These acquisitions give Pfizer a competitive edge in getting its products to a greater market share.

Employees. Pfizer hires the most talented employees throughout the world to work for Pfizer. Pfizer also launched its diversity and inclusion initiatives by having one of the most diverse workforce in the country.

Restructuring. Time and again, Pfizer will restructure its business units to make it more effective. In December 2006 as part of its strategy to meet customer needs most effectively and efficiently, Pfizer restructure its U.S. sales force by approximately 20%. The restructuring is to match the organization business needs with its customer needs.

Risk Management Plan

Every task undertaking has some risk that management will encounter especially during the implementation stage. A risk management plan is a document that will outline the risk strategy that management adopted to reduce or eliminate any risk that is discovered during the process of implementation. Pfizer’s management will need to create a framework to manage its risk such as the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). Many organizations are using more structure risk management framework such as ERM as a formal and structured risk management process.

“Enterprise risk management is a process, effected by an entity’s board of directors, management and other personnel, applied in strategy setting and across the enterprise, designed to identify potential events that may affect the entity, and manage risk to be within its risk appetite, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of entity objectives” (Frigo and Anderson, 2014, p. 51). There are two most widely use ERM framework throughout an industry (1) Enterprise Risk Management –Integrated Framework issued in September of 2014 by COSO and (2) ISO 31000 Risk management-principles and guideline issued in 2009 by ISO ” (Frigo and Anderson, 2014, p. 51).

Contingency Plans

Every company needs to have a contingency plan just in case something happen or did not happen. Contingency plans are sometimes referred to as “Plan B.” According to Westergaard (2008) “The objective of contingency planning is to arrange in advance for an event that may or may not happen, especially an event that would cause a problem if it did happen” (p. 42). Pfizer needs to create a contingency plan just in case if its segmentation did not work as was planned. One contingency plan is to revert to the old structure. Pfizer should also create a contingency plan to have two segments instead of three segments: one for the patent-protected drug and one for the generic drug. However, any plan must include the emerging market as this is what Pfizer is targeting for its growth despite which implementation plan Pfizer will be using.

Conclusion

Every business needs to have an implementation plan along with specific strategic controls when implementing the plan. Pfizer plan is to segment its commercial operations into three business units. Two of these business units related to patent-protected branded drugs and is referred to as the “innovative business”; the other is related to its generic drugs and is referred to as the “value business”. These three new segments will give Pfizer a greater competitive advantage in capturing a larger market share globally over its competitors in the pharmaceutical industry. Pfizer over the years wants to capture the emerging markets which Pfizer will be implementing in each of the three new segments. However, Pfizer needs to assess its risks in segmented its commercial operations into these three segments. Pfizer also needs to create a contingency plan just in case its segmentation did not work as it was intended. The contingency plan can be to revert to the old commercial operations or to create just two segments one for patent-protected drug and the other for generic drug.

References

Frigo, M. L., & Anderson, R. J. (2014, January). Risk Management Frameworks: Adapt, Don't Adopt. Strategic Finance, 96(1), 49-53.

Pearce, J. A. & Robinson, R. B. (2013). Strategic Management: Planning for Domestic and Global Competition (13thed). New York, NY: McGraw Hill

Pfizer.com. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.pfizer.com/research

Westergaard, J. M. (2008, February). Contingency Planning: Preparation of Contingency Plans. Zoonoses & Public Health, 55(1), 42-49.