For a business to achieve their overall aim the business need objectives. Objectives are the list of plan to achieve the aim. A number of key aims run through many organisations
- To survive
- To grow
- To become a market leader
- To develop a long standing family tradition
- To provide a excellent service
To create a reputation as the best in their field
Most commercial business want to make profit however the business in the public sector and the voluntary sector want to provide a certain standard of service also known as service level agreement.
Aim of Tesco
One of the company’s aims was profit maximisation but as they have achieved this aim the next aim for them is to achieve is customer satisfaction. The objectives that will be used to achieve this aim are explained through the SMART objective format:
Objectives of Tesco
S-specific – they should have a focus and not be vague.
The focus is to produce efficient customer service. The customer service should be improved in the next year.
M-measurable-they should include something that can be measured.
This can be measured by carrying out questionnaire from the current potential customers.
A-achievable-they should be challenging but possible.
By having good quality of goods sold then I think that they will be closer to their aim.
R-realistic- if staff thinks that they are irrelevant or if they cannot be achieved then they are ignored.
This aim is realistic because achieving customer satisfaction for tesco wouldn’t be that hard. Mainly because currently they have high level of sales therefore they can have more time to focus on customers, which in long term help them to increase more sales.
T-time specific-the objective must have an end date so that success can be measured.
This new aim of tesco should be achieved by the end of the year
Planning and monitoring
What is planning?
The determination of the goals and objectives of an enterprise and the selection, through a systematic consideration of alternatives, of the policies, programs and procedures for achieving them. An activity devoted to clearly identifying, defining, and determining courses of action, before their initiation, necessary to achieve predetermined goals and objectives
The definition above was occupied from
Strategic Planning
Simply put, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more, how it's going to get there and how it'll know if it got there or not. The focus of a strategic plan is usually on the entire organization, while the focus of a business plan is usually on a particular product, service or program. The way that a strategic plan is developed depends on the nature of the organization's leadership, culture of the organization, complexity of the organization's environment and the size of the organisation.
The definition above was occupied from
The benefits of using strategic planning are to:
- Clearly define the purpose of the organization and to establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time frame within the organization’s capacity for implementation.
- Communicate those goals and objectives to the organization’s constituents.
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Develop a sense of ownership of the plan
4. Ensure the most effective use is made of the organization’s resources by focusing the resources on the key priorities.
5. Provide a base from which progress can be measured and establish a mechanism for informed change when needed.
6. Bring together of everyone’s best and most reasoned efforts have important value in building a consensus about where an organization is going.
In strategic planning there are 4 sages:
Where are we now?
At the moment the company is a well known brand and has good amount of revenue which has given them some time to launch new products but because they haven’t got much capital to invest into their products this has prevented them to have good marketing to get their products established.
Where we want to be (vision)
The vision of the company is to become a leader in the market or dominate the whole market, where Tesco have the most amount of control of the market. This will allow them to focus on other aspects of their business e.g. insurance.
How are we going to get there? (Aims and objectives)
The only way for tesco to accomplish their main aim is by following the each and everyone of the objective that tesco has set and by following the entire objectives it will enable tesco to get to their end vision.
Review of the performance- is the business on track?
To make sure that the business is trying to achieve the aim that the company has set itself. The business can use something called Critical path analysis (CPA).
Critical path analysis
Critical path analysis can be defined as the rational sequencing of a series of events necessary for a successful research project in such a manner that the most efficient route to some extent can be calculated. CPA is used to find out the following things:
- Specifying the individual activities and prioritising them
- Identifying the EST – earliest start time
- Identifying the EFT – earliest finish time
- Identifying the LFT – latest finish time
- Identifying the LST – latest start time
- Identifying the float
- Identifying the periods the resources will be needed
The advantages of CPA
- Maximize efficiency in the use of time.
- Improve efficiency and generate cost saving in the use of resources
- Beneficial for monitoring cash flow.
The disadvantages of CPA:
- Usefulness may be limited in complex and large scale operations.
- Necessity of having clear and reliable information.
- Skilled management and team philosophy is essential.
Information on CPA are acquired from the lecturer notes
Tactical Planning
Tactical planning is very similar to strategic planning however instead the targets being set weekly, monthly or yearly, in tactical planning the target are set more day-to-day basis.
Effective Operations
Once the aims and objectives have been set within an organisation, the next step for management is to make sure the right resources are in place to achieve all the objectives.
Monitoring
Monitoring is another way to be confirmed that everything is going to plan so that all the objectives can be met. CPA is an essential tool for monitoring because by using CPA it can notify the amount of time it is going to take for the company to e.g. launch a product
Here is an example of CPA for Tesco’s aim:
- Understanding the market behaviour
- Identifying the product without good quality.
- Identifying the lack of service by the workers
- Rectifying the quality of products
- Training workers to provide better service to customers otherwise hiring new ones
- Producing the improved service to the customers
- Doing a questionnaire to the customers to find out if the service provided has improved.
This is the way in which a critical path analysis (CPA) can be done. With the help of the CPA any company can easily monitor the achievements of the companies aims and objectives, which would help them in accomplishing their goals
Conclusion
After analysing Tesco’s company brief and understanding their aims and objective I recommend them to use the method of CPA with planning and monitoring to help the achieve their goals. By following this method it would be very easy for tesco to do CPA, as they already are aware of the resources they have and know their aims and objectives.
Bibliography
Textbooks:
Books
BTEC National Business- Section 2 Business and Management
Web sites:
Lecture notes: from Uzma Mirza
Dates of the lecture notes that were used
14/10/05 (business resources)
