Two Different Types of Business Plans
- Strategic Planning.
- Operational planning.
There are two main types of business plans, strategic plan and operating plan. Strategic planning is more broad notion and offers the strategic goal of the company for a big period of time. (usually for several years) Strategic plan contains the information about long-term objectives and the mission of the company.
Operational plan takes the strategic plan as the basis and usually provides the goals and management details for the operating period, usually one year (Siciliano, 2008).
Features of the Different Types of Planning (Hall, 2008)
- Strategic Planning:
- Long-term;
- Look-ahead;
- More global;
- Tries to avoid the concrete economical conditions in the planning.
- Operating Planning:
- Short-term;
- Tactical;
- More specific;
- May take into account the modern economical issues.
The difference between strategic planning and operating planning is obvious. Strategic planning is long-term, look-ahead global planning, which avoids concrete economical conditions which impossible to predict. Operating planning, vice versa, takes into account present economical factors, as the planning is provided on the short term with the tactical specific issues (Hall, 2008).
Manager’s Steps in the Decision Making
- The identification of the problem.
- Searching for all alternative ways of problem decision.
- The appliance of the chosen alternative.
- Analysis of the made decision (Robbins & Coulter, 2008).
There is a strict model of the decision making. After identifying the problem, the manager should provide a research and find all possible alternatives in the decision of the problem. To choose the most appropriate one is other task. After the way of solution to the problem is chosen, this solution should be implemented. Analysis of the done work is the last stage in the decision making (Robbins & Coulter, 2008). These steps should be implemented by every manager without consideration whether ideas to the strategic or operational planning are provided. The only difference is the scope of information which should be studied.
Reference List
Hall, R. E. (2004). Strategic Planning for a Small Business. Buy Books on the web.
Robbins , S. P. & Coulter, M., (2007). Management (9th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Siciliano, G. (2003). Finance for the non-financial manager. McGraw-Hill Professional, New York.