News Center



Home News Center News

Manage Your Plans for Success in 2020

Jan 08-2020   



 

As the New Year dawns, Prof. Chen Chunhua calls on senior managers to go back to basics in management - plan management. Unlike its stereotype as just a piece of text submitted at the beginning of the year and half-heartedly referred to in year-end reports, plans are where management commences, says Prof. Chen, who is also the Dean of BiMBA Business School at the NSD.

 

What motivates her to write the article is the prevalence of wastes and undeserved troubles in daily management. A plan is comprised of a series of actions in search of resources for achieving goals, she says. In a sense, plan management is essentially an action plan, and not just the disassembling of goals.

 

She first demystifies the rationality of goal setting. Goals are destined to be irrational because they are based on forecasts, determination and strategic thinking. In making plans, discussion of goals ought to be off limits and instead, the focus should be put on ensuring rational actions and securing corresponding resources.

 

Three steps can be taken in making a plan: firstly, identify tactical gaps between the reality and your future outlooks, which can be done by asking the following questions: what are the interesting things that will happen in 2020? What the clients most desire will happen? What opportunities will surface? And what changes will take place? Secondly, include tactics for risk management. And thirdly, be sharp-minded in choosing actions. To illustrate the last step, Prof. Chen uses one example from her previous experience as CEO of a large Chinese company: to raise profit margin by 8%, an established and leading firm has to lower costs, while a small and nimble one must increase sales.

 

She goes on to elaborate the three key elements for plan making: solicit the right attitudes of the managers; be flexible in dealing with changing environments; and win the full support of superiors. She also tackles the most common issues in plan implementation.

 

“Whoever can only write reports but has no plans belong to the past and don’t have a future,” she admonishes.

Manage Your Plans for Success in 2020

Jan 08-2020   



 

As the New Year dawns, Prof. Chen Chunhua calls on senior managers to go back to basics in management - plan management. Unlike its stereotype as just a piece of text submitted at the beginning of the year and half-heartedly referred to in year-end reports, plans are where management commences, says Prof. Chen, who is also the Dean of BiMBA Business School at the NSD.

 

What motivates her to write the article is the prevalence of wastes and undeserved troubles in daily management. A plan is comprised of a series of actions in search of resources for achieving goals, she says. In a sense, plan management is essentially an action plan, and not just the disassembling of goals.

 

She first demystifies the rationality of goal setting. Goals are destined to be irrational because they are based on forecasts, determination and strategic thinking. In making plans, discussion of goals ought to be off limits and instead, the focus should be put on ensuring rational actions and securing corresponding resources.

 

Three steps can be taken in making a plan: firstly, identify tactical gaps between the reality and your future outlooks, which can be done by asking the following questions: what are the interesting things that will happen in 2020? What the clients most desire will happen? What opportunities will surface? And what changes will take place? Secondly, include tactics for risk management. And thirdly, be sharp-minded in choosing actions. To illustrate the last step, Prof. Chen uses one example from her previous experience as CEO of a large Chinese company: to raise profit margin by 8%, an established and leading firm has to lower costs, while a small and nimble one must increase sales.

 

She goes on to elaborate the three key elements for plan making: solicit the right attitudes of the managers; be flexible in dealing with changing environments; and win the full support of superiors. She also tackles the most common issues in plan implementation.

 

“Whoever can only write reports but has no plans belong to the past and don’t have a future,” she admonishes.