Case Study on Planning Hid Hotel

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The second step is the “Where do we we want to get to?” or the future direction step. In this step, the vision and mission of H.I.D. will be established. The managers will be asked to think where they want to see H.I.D. in the future. They will be asked to come up with a direction that they want H.I.D. to take with the image that they want H.I.D. to maintain.

Step 3 is the “How are we going to get there?” or the strategy development step. This step requires that the top managers draw a map indicating the steps on how to achieve the future direction they previously specified. On this step, Keith Houck may ask the managers to come up with a plan for their respective departments, encompassing what they want to focus on and the tactics they must employ to reach the company’s desired goal (e.g. how human resources will provide and assign appropriate people to current and new jobs; how marketing will promote the changes in the company to attract more clients, etc). Consolidating the plans for each important department will help in creating the map that H.I.D. will follow.

The collated plan of all top managers must be consistent while going hand-in-hand in achieving the goal. A Gantt Chart may be useful in this step as it may serve as a standard for progress checking.

Lastly, step 4 is the “How will we know when we have got there?” or the monitoring and evaluation step. The Gantt Chart produced in Step 3 may be used to know if the company has already reached its goal. If the goal was not achieved, the company must then take corrective actions. Since monitoring is a continuous process, the company must decide on an appropriate tool. Keith Houck may also introduce different Monitoring and Evaluation tools that H.I.D. may use.

Alternative 2. Alignment Model

Another alternative that Keith Houck may employ to guide H.I.D. Top Management in modifying their strategic goal is the Alignment Model. This strategic approach is primarily used by organizations who are looking to align or fit their internal operations, mainly their strengths and weaknesses, to their desired goals. Generally, the purpose of doing the alignment model is aligning the resources of the organization to its mission.

Another purpose of implementing this strategic planning approach is to review strategies, find out why they are not working, and design a better one.

The first step that H.I.D. top management needs to do under this approach is the establishment of a major goal that they wish to achieve after the changes has been made. They must also outline the company’s mission, vision, and objectives, as well as current strategies and resources.

Identification of those that are working and those that are not must be categorized in the form of an outline, which records the company’s mission, vision, objectives, current strategies, and resources. The goal of this step is to divide what needs modification and what needs maintenance.

From those that needs adjustments found in step 2, the next step is to think of ways on how to address these issues. H.I.D. top management must devise modifications for each issues found based on their current status as identified in step 1. In planning these adjustments, they must take into consideration the current state of their resources. This step involves a detailed plan on how H.I.D. will change its current strategies to achieve its goal of increasing profit.

The detailed output plan must then be integrated with the overall strategic plan of the company. This step does not mean that the whole of the strategic plan be modified, but only those that need modifications.

Studies show that alignment model aids in enhancing economic performance, which is President Bill’s main objective.

Alternative 3. Participatory Planning Process

With the developments and advances in the field of management, strategic planning is also evolving. One of the recently developed planning approach is the Participatory Planning Process, which is employed by a number of successful organizations. These organizations, however, implement this approach and tweak it to make it their own.

Despite the differences in the employment of the Participatory Planning Process by various organizations, they embrace the main characteristic of the aforementioned approach which makes it unique - encouraging all stakeholders of the organization to pitch in the planning process. As a result, the knowledge of the lower-level managers are also captured and included in the planning. Also part of this approach as stakeholder is the acquisition of opinions from the consumers and even the suppliers. Through this, the organization may also gain information about their major competitors.

Information gathered from the lower-level managers, consumers, and suppliers may be used by the company to formulate their strategic plans. This approach will require H.I.D. to encourage all members of the company to evaluate their positions, jobs, departments, and the company as a whole. This way, the output strategic plan will cover all issues and proposed action plans of all levels of the organization.

Table 1. Evaluation of alternative courses of actions.

Alternative

Pros

Cons

Alternative 1:

Classic 4-Step Approach to Strategic Planning

- Extensive

- Covers all aspects of the company

- Requires that all managers be on the same page, especially on goal-setting

- Results to a consolidated plan

- Involves a monitoring and evaluation plan

- Takes much time and effort from top management

- Somehow an overhaul of the current plan(s) of the company

- Managers may only focus on their respective departments

- May be costly

Alternative 2:

Alignment Model

- Answers the identified problem directly

- Aligns the resources of the organization to its goal

- Maintains current plans or