CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

Corporate planning is the process of selected objectives, purpose or goals and deciding generally and specifically what should be done to attain these objectives. It is done at corporate level which covers the entire organization with due attention' to various departments, sections, division and branches that up the organization. Corporate planning is also called strategic planning as a tool to aid management in strategic decision-making. The purpose of strategic planning thus to accomplish a sufficient process of innovation and change in the firm. It is a process a corporation follows thinking through beforehand what is to be accomplished and to large extent how to accomplish it. This greatly simplifies the task of the manager and enables him to make most effective use of time, manpower and equipment, facilities and money.

Corporate planning is a systematic study, which is designed to help identify the strength and weakness of any organization. It is also a determined effort to attain the desired target and needed effort to attain the desired Target and examine the likely constraints as well as device of a plan in which a set of objectives can be achieved. Corporate planning is done on a long-term basis and it involves an integrated approach to all aspects of the company's activities by treating the company as a corporate entity where all the different branches, department and units, which make up tile organization are collectively taken care of rather than a, collection of separate outfits. Any activity that does not aid in the strategic decision making of the firm is not corporate planning, even though it may seem to involve many of the "right" elements of planning such as elaborate five years plan often does not influence strategic decision making aids. Effective corporate planning does not have to elaborated or complicated, but must be logical and focused on the strategic decision that will be taken (Lorange, 1980).

A very important aspect of corporate planning is the study of the environment in which the organization operates. This kind of study will include the past, history, the present activities as well as the projection into the future. The ultimate objective of the process is to Match Company’s strength and 'weakness with environmental opportunities and threats, this is in order to be able to complete favorably and efficiently in the environment and consequently lead to accomplishment of organizations objectives and goals. Corporate planning consists of two major components. They are operational and strategic planning.

Operational planning deals with the day to day activities of the business and done along the Functional area like production planning, marketing planning, financial planning, manpower planning Etc. It also consist of single use plans which are developed to achieve specific purpose and dissolved when these have been accomplished for handling recurrent and predictable situations. Strategic planning on the other hand is the process of selecting an organization goal and also established the methods necessary to ensure that the policies and programs are implemented. It is the formal process of determining long run objectives and how to achieve them.

Corporate strategic planning in the pattern of decision in a company that determines and reveals its objectives, purpose or goals produces and the principal policies and plans for achieving these goals and define the range 'of business the company is to pursue the kind of economic and human organization, it is or it Intend to be and the nature of economic and non-economic contributions. It intends to make to its shareholders, employees, customer and communities. It is the type of plan that embodies time span and strategic formulation. It is a long term planning that has a time horizon of at least three years. It is also a clever device with the potential of evolving in the long run creation of additional resources that will facilitate and hasten the attainment of long-term objectives and enable the organization to gain some relative advantages of current position and competitions.

Corporate strategic planning consists of nine steps as follows, Steiner, (1979):

1.                  Goal formulation and selection of missions and objectives.

2.                  Identification of current objectives and strategies.

3.                  Environment analysis.

4.                  Corporate appraisal or resource analysis.

5.                  Identification of strategic opportunities and threat.

6.                  Determination of the extent to which .the strategic change is required.

7.                  Strategic, decision making.

8.                  Strategic implementation.

9.                  Strategic measurement and control process,

Therefore, it can be seen from the above that strategic planning is the formalized long-range planning process used to define and achieve organization goals. It actually provides consistent guidelines for the organization activities and helps the managers to recognize risky and safe opportunities and choose between them. It also minimizes the chance of mistakes an unpleasant surprises as goals objectives and strategies are subject to careful scrutiny and less likely to be faulty and unworkable. Thus in any planning process there should be strategic planning that deals with long term and basic nature of business and provides overall framework for the business. It addresses the organization aims and defines the strategies and polices to achieve them and also develops the detailed plans to ensure that the strategies are implemented in order to achieve the end result. Strategic planning provides the structure and operational planning translates all into current and day to day activities and takes off from there. They both complement each other and from the corporate planning process of the organization. By this, it would be observed that corporate planning is essential and fundamental to the discharge of management functions and crucial to the achievement of its goals and objectives. It is often argued that management without planning is incomplete and purposeless.

This is because it is through planning that management can recognize and also appreciate its potentials, scan its environment and judiciously employ resources.

Management function which include planning, organization, coordinating, leading and directing, controlling, staffing, motivating and budgeting are inter related regardless of the manager skills. It is therefore particular revealing to note that these activities are 'step in corporate planning. This is because before managers can organize, lead, coordinate and motivate. They must make the plans that give purposes and directions to the organization, deciding what needs to be done and how it should be done and who is to do it. Therefore, manager must engage in corporate planning which defines fundamental goals and objectives in specific terms, determine the means to achieve them, provide a basic long range framework into which other forms of planning can fit, and all these action based on some method, plan or logic, rather than on bunch in order to strongly influence, the survival and growth of an organization in the contemporary, frequently volatile environment. This undoubtedly enables it to carry out the management functions of organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, controlling, effectively and efficiently.

1.2     General Description of Area of Study

The Nigeria business is so volatile to the extent that only those who can scan it successfully forecast the possible change in it and thereafter all available resources in accordance with the dictates and demands of the environment can operate successfully in it. The study examined corporate plan and implementation in the organization. It highlighted how consultations, deliberation and condition for effective planning were properly taken care. The study also showed the dependence of management function like organizing, staffing, coordinating, reporting, leading and budgeting on effective corporate planning. The dynamic of planning in Diamond Bank was appraised. The evaluation, Implementation, success and benefits of corporate panning in the bank was discussed. The findings showed that corporate planning process implementation in Diamond Bank is quite impressive. The workers embrace it contributes fully to its success and show loyalty and commitment to plan. Management in tum encouraging them through motivation and effective communication.

1.3     Statement of Problems

Corporate planning a formal, systematic managerial process, organized by responsibility, time and information to ensure that operational planning, project planning and strategic planning are carried out by management to direct and control the future of the enterprise. The planning process also involve decision making. This is the process of developing into, and selecting a course of action to solve a specific problem. This is made at any point of the planning. There is also a close relationship between planning and controlling, control cannot take place unless a plan exists. Therefore control compares actual information about what is really happening during a plan's implementation with the budget.

In organizing and staffing corporate planning determines how human and material resources are coordinated, the number of people to be engage, the typed of equipment to be used, and the quality and quantity of other resources that would be needed in order to attain organizational goals. So having said this, one appreciates the rational for corporate planning and expects a lot of organization to embark on it with utmost seriousness. The sad thing is that the situation in Nigerian organization only gives the large organizations and multinational companies to embark on corporate planning the small and medium sized companies mostly do not [Adegbite, 1986].

This introduced cutthroat competition and most of the organization faced uninterrupted decline in their sale and level of profit [Bello and Iyanda, 1981]. These changes were mostly as a result of the political, social-cultural, economic historical and technological setting of the country. Many changes were created in the environment of the organizations because many governments try to manage the activities of given' economies through the introduction of the various fiscal and monetary policies.

This led to a situation where organizations that were unable to participate and plan for these changes eventually collapsed. Therefore these organizations started realizing the in dispensation of a corporate plan, which will effectively take care of these changes. Most importantly the political Instability in the country which had led to and is still leading to frequent changes of regime from time to time make meaningful planning difficult task due to unpredictability of the environments.

Closely associated with these are:

i.            Lack of management commitment to plan.

ii.          Rapid changes in the environment.

iii.        Uncertainly about government long term policies and legislation.

iv.     Over dependence on the budget, companies wait and are practically on stand still till the budget is read.

v.       The roller coaster nature of the economy and excessive government interference in the private sector.

vi.     Lack of cohesiveness in general policy and inconsistency policy implementation by government. (OlukunleIyanda, 1988). All these have made planning in Nigeria a very difficult task.

1.4     Purpose of Study

The purpose of the study is to assess the effectiveness of the corporate planning as the management process and also to evaluate its contribution as a catalyst to the survival, growth and profitability of the organization. The motive is basically to assess the following components of the corporate planning which are:

1.     Strategic planning, process and implementation.

2.     Operational planning and its sub-components like, singles use plan and standing plans.

The study is to examine corporate plan formulation and implementation in the organization.

It will highlight how the consultations deliberations and condition for effective planning are properly taken care of it and will also show how the dependence of the management functions like organization, staffing, coordinating, reporting, leading and budgeting on effectiveness of the discharge of these functions depend on the corporate planning. Thus the pitfalls in Nigerian business environment will be highlighted and how the situation can be improved.

The dynamic of planning in the chosen organization will be 'appraised. The evolution implementation, success and benefits of corporate planning in the company shall be discussed. This will help to motivate and encourage other companies who are yet to embrace the practice and convince them that successful discharge of management function in order to accomplish that set of goals, objectives and purpose depend on adoption and implementation of a corporate plan.

1.5    Research Questions

1.     Does corporate planning lead to attainment of organizational goals and. objectives?

2.     Does it provide framework for decision making and resources allocation?

3.     How can corporate plan affect organization culture?

4.     How can corporate plan affect organization structure?

5.     To what extent are workers involved and motivated in the process?

6.     To what extent do information systems, organizational politics and Forecasting techniques influence corporate planning?

7.     Does corporate planning make use of technical qualitative method techniques?

8.     How can corporate planning and budgeting be effectively integrated?

9.     Are there significant effects of corporate planning on management process?

1.6     Statement of Hypotheses

1.     Ho: Corporate planning does not lead to attainment of organizational goals and objectives.

          Hi: Corporate planning leads to attainment of organizational goals and objectives.

2.  Ho: It does not provide framework, for decision- making and resources allocation.

          Hi: It provides framework for decision-making and resources allocation.

3.                 Ho: Corporate planning cannot affect organizational culture

Hi: Corporate planning can affect organizational culture.

1.7     Definition of Unfamiliar Terms/Concepts

CONTROLLING: - It consists of activities that are undertaken and to ensure that the event do not deviate from the pre-arranged place it. Is also about check and balance to understand the function and reason for control.

CO-ORDINA TING: - Is the delegating activities and authority to carry out the co-ordinate in a cohesive manner.

CORPORA TE PLANNING: - Is the process of selected objectives, purposes or goals and deciding generally and specifically what should be done to attain these objectives.

DIRECTING: - It ensures that employees do the jobs assigned to them. Also concerned with leadership, Communicating. Motivation and Supervision to ensure that employees perform activities in order to achieve their goals.

IMPLEMENTATION: - is a proof of the prodding and critical to make the process meaningful. Also- is a tool in carrying out a project.