Developing an Operational Plan for a Business

This article discusses the steps involved in developing an operational plan for a business, including getting started with the strategic plan, focusing on crucial goals, using leading indicators, developing KPIs, and establishing effective communication. It also explains how an operational plan helps a business to be more successful by providing direction, encouraging focus, and aligning employees with the company's strategic plans.

Running head: DEVELOPING AN OPERATIONAL PART
Developing an operational part
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1DEVELOPING AN OPERATIONAL PART
Question 1: Development of an operational plan for a business
An operational plan refers to a specific plan prepared by the management of a company
which clearly defines the action requires to support the objectives and plan of the upper
management. Operational plan determines how human resources, financial resources and
physical resources are going to be allocated perfectly so that short term goals of a specific
organization can be achieved (Cummings and Worley 2014). Well known companies like Apple
Co. and Starbucks develops operational plans to ensure success in the long run. In order to
develop an effective strategic plan, the following step needs to be followed:
 Getting stated with the strategic plan
Considering the fact that operational plan is a tool for efficiently carrying out strategic plan,
it is crucial to have a strong strategic plan and all the employers and employees in the
organization are aware of it. An operational plan can only be developed if the managers of the
organization already have a well developed strategic plan.
 Focusing on the crucial goals
The next step is to breakdown the strategic plan into a one year objectives and thus creating
crucial short time goals (Rummler and Brache 2012). After that, the managers need to determine
the key initiatives which will help the organization to achieve the goals. Some of the possible
key initiatives are:
 New Organizational structure
 Greater productivity and faster delivery
 Quality control measures

2DEVELOPING AN OPERATIONAL PART
Approximately three to five initiatives should be chosen by the management that will bring about
a long term success to the organization and then metrics should be identified which will help the
managers to measure the progress.
 Usage of leading indicators
It is crucial to choose the right Key Performance Indicators for the success of the operational
plan. There are two types of indicators to choose from in order to develop an operational plan.
While leading indicators help the managers to determine future expectations and allow the
management to adjust the course accordingly, lagging indicators often end up showing the
loopholes of the plan only after it is too late. Some of the examples of efficient leading indicators
are call-per-week and sales meeting. An organization, based on its previous experiences, can
decide the number of calls needed to complete a sale. These will in turn, help the organization to
understand whether it is on the track to meet sales goals or not.
 Efficient development of KPIs
Considering the fact that the chosen Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be guiding the
management for the next one year, a wide variety of perspective should be drawn within the
team while developing KPIs (Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston 2013). While small
organizations can involve all the employees while developing KPIs, large organizations should
restrict the participation to the leadership teams.
 Establishing effective communication
While developing KPIs it is really important that the manager of the Organization to effectively
communicate with all the employees of the organization. This is because, every employee should

3DEVELOPING AN OPERATIONAL PART
understand the reason behind choosing the specific matrices and how these matrices will help the
organization to achieve its goals along with the role of each employee in order to achieve
ultimate success. One of the most effective ways to establish effective communication is to hold
meetings on every week in order to discuss the issues and the progress of the organization
associated with the KPIs. It is also important for the team members to track their personal
progress with the help of dashboards, meetings or by any other means.
Question 2: How Operational plan helps a business to be more successful?
Operational plan does impose a positive impact on various areas of an organization. An
effective operational plan helps the managers of an organization to set the goal and achieve
targets and objectives. Apart from developing the operational side of the management,
Operational plan also ensure the development of the physical side of the management of an
organization that includes employee management and the progress of the business on daily basis.
Apart from that, an organization can be more successful by implementing an operational plan
which provides direction, encourage focus and align the employees with the company’s strategic
plans. Operational planning is a crucial part of the management since it keeps the resources and
the department functioning throughout the year (Weick 2012). Operational plan enhances the
competitive advantages of an organization by increasing the efficiency of the resources and
employees. It helps the business to be more successful by developing and sharpening the
strategies and by evaluating the current situation of the business. Once the organization develops
the understanding of its current position, Operational plan helps the managers to avoid confusion
and focus on the most essential objectives.

4DEVELOPING AN OPERATIONAL PART
Reference list
Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014. Organization development and change. Cengage
learning, pp. 345-367
Rummler, G.A. and Brache, A.P., 2012. Improving performance: How to manage the white
space on the organization chart. John Wiley & Sons, pp. 235-256
Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A. and Johnston, R., 2013. Operations management. Pearson, pp. 129-
203
Weick, K.E., 2012. Making sense of the organization, Volume 2: The impermanent
organization (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons, pp. 218-230