This
research study was on the “Impact of strategic planning on organizational
productivity†(a case study of Nigeria Bottling Company).
The
main objectives of the study are:
1.
To assess the impact of environmental factors on the
strategic planning of the company.
2.
To evaluate the relationship between strategic planning
and the corporate performance of the company.
Based
on this, two hypothesis were formulated and tested.
The
population of study constitute all the company in Eastern Region especially Enugu and Onitsha.
Questionnaire
and oral interview was used to elicit data from respondents. Simple tables and percentages where used in
analyzing the data collected.
From
the analysis the researcher discovered that:
a.
Internal and external environmental factors surrounding
the company greatly influence its ability to plan strategically.
b.
That long range strategic planning was carried out by
corporate to management team.
In the light of the above,
recommendations on how to enhance company’s productivity through improved
strategic planning were given.
It is strongly believed
that these measures will go a long way in enhancing the organisational
performance of the company.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page - - - - - - - - - i
Approval page - - - - - - - - ii
Dedication - - - - - - - - - iii
Acknowledgement - - - - - - - - iv
Abstract - - - - - - - - - vi
Table of contents - - - - - - - - viii
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study - - - - - - 1
1.2 The statement of problem - - - - -
1.3 Objective of the problem - - - - - -
1.4 Hypotheses - - - - - - - -
1.5 Significance of the study - - - - - -
1.6 Definition of terms - - - - - - -
References - - - - - - - -
CHAPTER
TWO
REVIEW OF
RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 The profile of the Nigerian Bottling
Company Plc - -
2.2 The concept of planning - - - - - -
2.2.1 What is planning and reason for planning - - -
2.2.2 Processes of planning - - - - - -
2.2.3 Duration of plans, levels of plan - - - -
2.2.4 Benefit of planning - - - - - -
2.3 Strategic planning concept - - - - -
2.3.1 What is strategy and strategic management - - -
2.3.2 The term strategic planning - - - - -
2.3.3 The key element in the strategic planning
process - -
2.3.4 Levels of strategy - - - - - - -
2.3.5 Criteria of evaluating a plan’s effectiveness - - -
2.3.6 Impediments to strategy execution - - - -
2.4 The concept of productivity / meaning of
productivity and
productivity
problems - - - - - -
2.4.1 The environment - - - - - - -
2.4.2 Organisational characteristics - - - - -
2.4.3 Determinants of organizational productivity - - -
2.4.4 Work characteristics and individual characteristics - -
2.4.5 Factors influencing productivity / importance
of productivity
2.5 The summary of the review of related
literature - -
Reference - - - - - - - -
CHAPTER
THREE
3.1 Research methodology - - - - - -
3.1.1 Source of data - - - - - - -
3.1.2 Primary source of data - - - - - -
3.1.3 Secondary source of data - - - - - -
3.2 Population of the study - - - - - -
3.3 Research instrument - - - - - -
3.3.1 Questionnaire - - - - - - -
3.4 Determination of sample size - - - - -
3.5 Questionnaire administration - - - - -
3.6 Techniques of data analysis - - - - -
3.7 The scope of the study - - - - - -
3.8 The limitation of the study - - - - -
Reference - - - - - - - -
CHAPTER
FOUR
PRESENTATION AND
ANALYSIS OF DATA
4.1 Presentation of result - - - - - -
4.2 Test of hypothesis - - - - - - -
4.2.1 The statement of hypothesis one - - - -
4.2.2 The statement of hypothesis two - - - -
Reference - - - - - - - -
CHAPTER
FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS,
RECOMMENDATION, SUGGESTION AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary of major finding - - - - -
5.2 Recommendation - - - - - - -
5.3 Suggestion - - - - - - - -
5.4 Conclusion - - - - - - - -
Reference - - - - - - - -
BIBLIOGRAPHY - - - - - - - -
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Strategic planning which is
a process that involves analyzing the opportunities and threats in the market
place, which building the strengths and correcting the weaknesses within the
firm, also involves setting goals for specific product market and for the firm
(Bernett and Willsted:1988); and since it is perceived as a mediating force
between the organisation and its environment, it has become highly imperative
for business organizations to adopt it so as to enhance productivity. This is sequal to the fact that business
enterprises under the prevailing economic environment of today, have to be
up-and-doing so as to be efficient to survive. High prices due to increasing
production costs coupled with severe liquidity squeeze necessitated by the
dwindling external value of our national currency, have had a serious dampening
effect on consumer demand. Having been
faced, therefore, with a high cost of production, diminishing markets and
environmental uncertainties, business organizations have had to compete more aggressively
with one another to attain acceptable volumes of production, sales and a good
market share.
Suffice
it to say, therefore, that the complexity to today’s business, coupled with the
turbulence in the economic waters of the nation, makes it very doubtful if any
modern business organization of reasonable size can survive this competitive
environment without adequate strategic planning. No wonder, therefore, that strategic planning
has become increasingly important to managers in recent years. And since it defines fundamental goals and
objectives, in specific terms, and determines the means to achieve them, as
well as provides a basic long-range framework into which other forms of
planning can fit, it can, therefore, be said to have a very strong influence on
the survival and growth of an organization, most especially in a volatile
environment.
Consequent
upon that, business organizations need plans to be able to predict unforeseen
contingencies, minimize production costs, as well as wastages and then be able
to grapple with competitions in a programmed manners – which is the essence of
strategic planning. All business
organizations need to plan ahead whatever the kind of market; competitive,
monopolistic in which they operate. An
organization operating in a competitive market needs to plan and design
strategies such as will ensure first, its survival, and then the continued
probability. A firm operating in a
monopolistic market has more critical reasons for planning because of the
fierceness of the competition in such market, and even the monopolist
organization has to continually devise new strategies to maintain its position
or else it will soon be faced with competition.
A wrong investment decision in today’s business world is likely to
entail a huge financial loss.
A
fundamental and pertinent question arises as to why some organizations are
outstandingly successful while others achieve marginal or moderate successes
and others fail alarmingly. It is also
asked to what it is about organizations that tend to make some winners and some
losers. It has been emphasized that most
corporate successes are as a result of the ability of their managers to pull
critical levers at important points in the evolutionary development of their
companies. For these managers, the trick
is knowing which levers to pull, and when to pull these levers to produce the
desired and significant results in terms of increased productivity which leads
to high profitability of their organization.
We may identify these critical levers as organizational strategies. Strategy and strategic planning in the
context of business organizations, refer to major action programmes that are
used by organizations to achieve their mission and goals. The focus of all business organization is viability
and profitability. The first requirement
of the spirit of organization is high performance standards for the group as
well as for individuals in the organization.
A successful organization is most often an efficient enterprise. One of the major focuses of management by
objectives is to have manages set high performance standards for
themselves. A manager performs his
functions by allocation and integration of human and economic resources through
the process of planning. Organizing,
directing and controlling for the purpose of producing outputs (goods and
services) desired by its customers, so that organization’s objectives are
achieved. A manager works with and
through people and other resources to realize these organisation’s objectives,
Akpala Agwu (1990).
As modern business
activities widen, environmental scanning and planning become difficult and more
relevant. Today’s business conditions
have continued to change so fast to emphasize a growing need for continuous business
intelligence activities and strategic planning as the only option to anticipate
future problems and opportunities.
Strategic planning provides all employees with clear goals and
directions to the future of the organization.
It also provides a standard against which future performance can be
compared. And all these make it
complicated in many highly technical firms that are subject to the “law of
acceleration†which suggests an increasing rate of changes.
Since strategic planning
aims at finding how a company competes successfully within its environment, it
is therefore said to be based on the principle of “comparative competitive
advantage†necessary for survival and growth under competitive conditions. A firm cannot survive or grow unless it
maintains one or more comparative competitive advantages which provide the
basic rationale by which customers will refers that firm to others.
Unfortunately, though, Nigeria
presents a strong picture of turbulent and unpredictable environment for
organizations to shift-particularly the manufacturing sector. This is due mainly to constant changes in the
political and economic conditions in the country. The effect of this on the manufacturing
sector is quite stupendous. This is
especially so when one considers the fact that majority of our manufacturing
industries today provide below capacity.
Specifically speaking, for
manufacturing industries operating in today’s volatile business environment,
the need for strategic planning seems too obvious and imperative to require
mentioning. The fortunes of our economy
and the manufacturing sector appear inextricably interwoven and so development
within the overall economy will inevitably have direct impacts on the
environment. Similarly, the operational
efficiency of this sector or otherwise in bringing to function the social and
economic yearning of the nation has direct impact on the economy. It is against the background that this study
intends to assess the effect of strategic planning on the productivity of the
Nigerian Bottling Company. It is hoped
that this study will in the long-run afford the rare opportunity of
understanding and appreciating the significance of strategic planning in
today’s organizational restructuring, planning and improvement.
1.2
THE STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
After the
euphoria of national independence the tast of national development dawn on
Nigerians to pave the way for individual growth. Nigerian policy maker then placed the trust
on industrialization on the shoulders of the manufacturing sector. However, the progress today is this direction
leaves more to be desired. The present
state of the manufacturing sector has been perennially bedeviled by unsteady
and less result oriented production activities.
It is a common
place tale now to hear our so-called industrialists and economic watchers
alleging that low productivity, operating below installed capacity utilization,
unfavourable socio-political and economic environments and continued
depreciation of national currency against the dollar, are responsible for this
ugly situation. But most fundamental to this study is the factor, productivity.
Productivity
is the out per unit of a factor of production.
It is dependent on the availability of the production resources in
requisite proportions and how much output each unit of resources can be made to
yield. The problem with Nigerian
manufacturing sector is how to combine these two factors.
However,
quite a number of management ideas and philosophies have been applied, but to
our disappointment, they have not achieved their attendant ends. Many critics have blamed it on the
peculiarity of the Nigerian socio-political and economic environment, while
others, on the haphazard application of these management ideas and
philosophies.
We
shall take the view of the letter as the thrust of this study. Planning is one of their most fundamental
management processes which seeks to set in advance purpose and objective an
entity may seek to achieve. Through planning,
the when, the who, and the how is clearly defined within a time horizon for the
achievement of a specified goal or goals.
Thus emphasizing a special relationship with productivity.
From
the strategic management paradigm, output per unit of a factor of production
should be planned in such a way that it identifies the opportunities and
thrents in the organizations environment, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses
of the organization, designing structures, definite roles, hiring appropriate
people, and developing appropriate reward to make contribution. Against this background, what is the effect
of strategic planning on productivity in the Nigerian Bottling Company plc.?
1.3
OBJECTIVE OF THE PROBLEM
The purpose of this study is to ascertain the
strategic planning has on the level of productivity of manufacturing industries
with particular reference to the Nigerian Bottling Company Plc. Eastern
region. Specifically, the study is
intended to achieve the following objectives.
a.
To assess the impact of environmental factors on the
strategic planning of this company, and
b.
To evaluate the relationship between strategic planning
and the corporate performance of this company.
1.4 HYPOTHESES
Following the research purpose and objectives as
well as the core problem being investigated by the study, the following
hypotheses will be tested.
H1: The
internal and external environmental factors surrounding this company
significantly affect its strategic planning.
H2: There is a
positive relationship between strategic planning and the corporate performance
of the company.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
In the first place, this
study should be of immense assistance to business students, business
practitioners, system designers and indeed all persons who are concerned about
the proper information input into management planning processes. By brining into focus the-state-of –the-art
in the literature, it is also going to be of assistance to lecturers.
The
manufacturing sector as earlier indicated are very important to the economy of
this country. Therefore, since this is
assumed to be a thorough study of strategic planning in this sector, it will
reveal its level of management efficiency and effectiveness. And this knowledge will be vital to both the
government and owners of industries.
Furthermore,
it will provide a model for an efficient and effective strategy planning which
will assist managers in this sector.
A
practical significance will be identification of the factors responsible for
the high failure rate of industries particularly in a competitive industry like
soft drink – producing companies of which the Nigerian Bottling Company, plc is
one.
The knowledge
will help determine the structure of the business environment available to them
and be able to forecast future conditions.
Good business is the ability a proper knowledge of strategic planning.
Finally,
researcher will find this as a base for continued assessment and further
research on the subject. The value of
the investigation to professionals, practitioners and persons or corporate
bodies cannot be over emphasized since they are involved in the operations of
these establishments.
1.6
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Strategy: This outlines the fundamental steps that
management plans to undertake in order to reach an objectives or set of
objectives.
Planning:
This is the art of choosing a course of action and deciding in advance what is
to be done in what sequence, when and how.
Strategy
formulation: This is the task of analyzing the organizational external and
internal environment and then selecting the appropriate strategy.
Strategy
implementation: It is the task of designing appropriate organisational
structures and control system, given the organisation’s choice of strategy.
Corporate
strategies: These address what business an organisation will be in and how
resources will be allocated among those business.
Business
strategy: This focuses on how to compute in a given business.
Functional
strategy: It focuses on the short run, “how to†issues of implementing
strategies.
Strategic
managers: These are individuals who bear responsibility for the overall performance
of the organization or for one of its major self-contained divisions.
Strategic
audit: This is concerned with analyzing and assessing what has been
achieved in the past and what the organisation is capable of achieving in the
future.
Strategic gap:
This is the difference in the level of performance called for in the firm’s
state objectives and the level of performance that seems likely to resulting
from the continuation of current operations.
Scenarios:
This is a form of educated guess made by planners.
Objectives:
A statement of what is to be achieved.
Goal:
This is synonymous with objectives, a statement of what is to be achieve.
Mission: This defines the basic
purpose or purposes of the organization, usually includes a description of the
organizations basic produce and or services and a definition of its market and
or source of revenue.
Productivity:
This is an economic measure of efficiency indicating what is produced relative
of resource used to produce it.
Aggregate
productivity: This is the total level of productivity achieved by all the
firms in a particular industry.
Company
productivity: This is the level of productivity achieved by an individual
company.
Individual
productivity: This is the level of productivity attained by a single
individual.
Total factor
productivity: This is an overall indication of how well an organization
uses all of its resources to create all of its products and services.
Partial
productivity ratio: This ratio uses only one category of resources.
REFERENCES
Akpala. A (1990); Management: An introduction and Nigeria
Perspective, Enugu
precision printer.
Barnet, J. and Wilsted, W. D. (1988); Strategic
management Boston,
concept and cases Pws-tent publishing company.
Isa, C. S. (1990); Effective utilization of marketing resource in a
comparative environment: the segmentation management in Nigeria.
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