Management of Planning: Project Implementation

The most common mistake of planners is to come to policy decision and neglect to plan the implementation of the decision.

Strategic Thinking

1. The Concept: "How shall we define success? What will it take to achieve it?"
   • focus on integration & coordination
   • not comprehensive (hence, "strategic")
   • no one best solution ("satisfice")
   • way of thinking (not a cookbook)
2. The model
   • Mission
   • Strategic Objectives
   • Resource Allocation
   • Implementation/Evaluation
3. Mission (SWOT Analysis)
   • Internal audit (Strengths & Weaknesses)
   • External audit (Opportunities & Threats)
4. Strategic Objectives (Emphasize distinctive competencies)
   • Portfolio Analysis
     

• Organizational Analysis (7 Ss)
  • Shared values, Style
  • Staff, Systems, & Structure
  • Strategy, Skills
• Industry Analysis
  • Buyers, suppliers, competitors
  • New entrants, substitutes
  • How will competition respond?
• Stakeholder Analysis
  • Suppliers
  • Labor, management, stockholders
  • Competitors
  • Customers, community

• 5. Resource Allocation (Do what it takes)
  • Allocate new programs between established and new business
  • Protect the position (4 Ps)
    • Product
    • Promotion
    • Price
    • Place (distribution)
• 6. Implementation/Evaluation
  • Credible plan
  • Supportive action plans
  • Realistic resource allocation
  • Culturally compatible strategies
  • Good strategy monitoring system

Organizational Design

1. Project Implementation Definition: Specify the following information to assist in designing the implementation
   • Project name
   • Problem or opportunity definition
   • Project description
   • Expected benefits (in user terms--What can we do with it that we couldn't do otherwise?)
   • Consequences of rejection
   • Resource requirements (people, time, money)
   • Alternatives
   • Other Considerations
   • Authorization (all who will be affected--the Japanese call it nemawashi)
   • Project team
2. Planning tools
   • Gantt
   • PERT/CPM
   • Milestones
3. Operations
   • Competitive advantage comes from
     • process of human resource mobilization
     • quality
     • JIT--Just In Time (controlling the timing of production)
     • capacity
     • technology to increase productivity of other resources
   • Structure
     • monolithic vs. federated vs. Pluralistic
     • directed vs. Entrepreneurial
4. Innovation (from Andy VandeVenn) comes from
   • Managing attention
   • Managing part/whole relationships(complexity)
   • Managing ideas into good currency
   • Institutional leadership
5. Evaluating Success of Plans (Emily Talen,1996, Do plans get implemented, Journal of Planning Literature, 10(3): 248-259): Consider
   • process
   • outcomes
   • impacts