Strategic Planning and Implementation

LITERATURE REVIEW

Strategic issues of the organization

The organizations are following different objectives and purposes for managing the business and planning strategies to meet the goals considering the market and own capabilities. Strategic planning and implementation is playing a critical role in maintaining business growth and gaining a competitive advantage. The proper understanding of the market changes and strategic improvement required for managing the business operations is beneficial for the management to maintain higher efficiency and effectiveness in the operations (Kaplan, 2001). According to the analysis of the case study of Sight Savers International (SSI) which is a UK based non-profit corporation. The management is implementing changes in the working style and strategic functions to meet the goals and objectives professionally. The aim of adopting these changes was to improve the control system and make the organization more adaptive. For students in the UK seeking guidance on their dissertations, access to UK dissertation help is instrumental in navigating through the complexities of academic writing and research.

The non-profit organization is established for a specific purpose that could involve the religious, charitable, educational, literacy and scientific. These organizations are not working for making a profit from the operations but they are making efforts to solve the public issues. The funding comes from various sources that include public and private grants which can be personal or corporate donations (Northcott, and Taulapapa, 2012). The national governments are also encouraging these types of donations through tax-free charity. However, the non-profit organizations are not responsible for the debts and liabilities of the corporation but they are working in the competitive environment and focusing on the market conditions to manage the operations and implement the changes in the strategic functions.

Sight Savers International (SSI) is a non-profit organization curing blindness in developing nations by working in collaboration with more than 100 locally based partner firms. To manage the business operations and actions, the SSI management is developing and following the agreement with the organizations. The key operations of the organization are cataract surgery, delivery of drugs, basic health education, services to blind people and training. In the last 50 years, the organization has contributed to social improvement by curing many people around the world, especially in poor countries (Berland, Curtis and Sponem, 2018). The organization has developed the business operations focusing on the actual needs of the people and implemented the budgetary control mechanism for managing the financial activities and planning the action with the development of the assets.

According to analysis, the expenditure of the organization in 2002 was £18.5 million and net assets of £16.2 million. Moreover, the organization has applied the conventional management charity structure and the executive was accountable to a board of trustees which involve the 15 members. Each director is leading the number of functional teams managed by the department heads. The charitable services of the organization are managed through a structure of four regional managers each responsible for several country officers. Budget control is important for the organization to manage the operations worldwide and maintain effectiveness (Jackson, and Strovic, 2004). However, the operating environment of the organization is unpredictable and some of the factors are having a significant impact on the planning processes and economic operations. The key factors that have a direct or indirect impact on the financial management of the organization involve the movement in exchange rates, interest rates and the stock market.

Additionally, the changes in the political scenarios like changes in government, legislation and civil war have a direct impact on the financial activities of the SSI. According to analysis, the key strategic issues that are having a significant impact on the business process and activities of the organization involve the lack of planning and future uncertainty as well as the not using the budget value that is required for managing the accounting operations. These issues are affecting the budget function of SSI and strategic output. In addition to this, the strategic problems that the organization was facing in budgetary control are a lack of a 12-months mindset to maintain the accounting work through a financial year (Libby and Lindsay, 2007). According to the analysis, the management extend the accounting work several weeks. Moreover, the planning statement of the organization and intention of developing the realistic budget is also creating issues in budgetary control and strategic planning management.

According to the case study of SSI, it has been carried out that inappropriate budget and resources allocation is also a strategic failure for the charity organization as the lack of monitoring and consideration of the requirements of the department and individual increases the burden on the finance department to track the transactions. In addition to this, staff acquisition and retention was also a major challenge for the UK organizations as lack of availability of labour and skilled people have a significant influence on the budget planning of the organization (Matějka, Merchant and O Grady, 2021). For a non-profit organization, the offering of salary compare to for-profit organizations is difficult. The major factors that influence budgetary control like training and development and offering of pension. The working conditions of the organization were not up to the standards and the low salary for the labour has created problems for SSI. Apart from this, the problems highlighted in the case study of company involve the fundraising. The funding of SSI is coming from charity and donations as well as investment income.

The charity is heavily reliant on individual donors and legacies as compared to corporate, government and foundations. However, there were more than 250000 donors in 2002. The fundraising department of the organization was not involving the experts in the panel which created problems for promoting charity among the corporate sector. There were a need for strategic planning to attract the leading foundations, corporate and government organizations to offer fund for the noble cause (Nguyen, Weigel and Hiebl. .2018). However, the fundraising environment is unpredictable and improvement in the competition is also causing some issues for SSI to estimate the figure of income. Now, the management of SSI needs to find new ways to increase the finding and manage the counting operations with proper documentation and appointing the experts in these departments. It will be helpful for the organization to improve the control over the budgetary services and maintain the ethical approach.

KPIs

To manage the business issues within the organization, the management needs to apply the specific role and responsibilities to individuals and monitor the approach accordingly. The consideration of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) helps measure the progress. The term KPI refers to a measurable value that indicates how well the company is achieving the key business objectives. The non-profit organizations could also use these KPIs for managing their business operations and determine the potential changes required for improving the professional activities. The major KPIs that are recommended for SSI management to improve the control over the budgetary operations involve the consideration of sales growth, generating leads for donation and investment in the events of the organization, offering of the lifetime value of a customer, use of the digital means of marketing and analysis of the sales team response (Henttu-Aho, 2018).

Additionally, it is also recommended to the management of SSI to focus on the traffic over the website, inbound link building, email marketing and use of social media platforms for hiring the people and engaging the potential donor and investors for fundraising. The management is lacking to allocate the resources and maintaining the budget as per the financial year planning. To resolve the issue it is recommended to the management to hire expert people for accounting operations and appoint a chartered accountant for maintaining the document and tracking of the funds allocated to the individual or department (Shibli, and Wilson, 2018). These kinds of changes will support organizations to overcome the issues and plan the strategic operations based on the income and develop the contingency plan to meet the objectives. Apart from this, the consideration of blog post visits and net promoter score as well as followers' growth is also useful for improving the satisfaction level of the stakeholders.

Apart from this, the KPIs for the non-profit organization are involving the conversion of the donation through a channel, consideration of the beneficiaries served through a program and analysis of the satisfaction level of the people involved in an event. In addition to this, the consideration of the pre and post score of the satisfaction will provide the information related to areas of lacking and planning the changes that could influence the success in the non-profit working sector. To resolve the issues, it is also recommended to the management of SSI analyze the employee retention, satisfaction, achievement of the goals achieved by the individual and program efficiency (Corduneanu, and Lebec, 2020). These will help in maintaining control over the action of the organization and support in increasing the fundraising ROI. The charitable services of the organization are managed through a structure of four regional managers each responsible for several country officers. Budget control is important for the organization to manage the operations worldwide and maintain effectiveness. However, the operating environment of the organization is unpredictable and some of the factors are having a significant impact on the planning processes and economic operations. To manage these operations, the organization needs to analyze the donor and donation growth every year and plan the actions accordingly. The proper analysis of income and expenditure is helpful for the organization to adopt the changes in the strategic operations to meet the business objectives professionally (Khorin, Brovkin, and Potanina, 2018). In addition to this, the analysis of year-over-year growth of the individual and department can help identify the gaps in the planning and investment. The digital planning and use of the click-through rates will also help the organization to manage and track the budgetary services and meet the business objectives.

Profit and non-profit organizations

Profit and non-profit organizations are two different dimensions of managing the operations and functions based on the purpose of the entity. A profit organization refers to a company whose primary goal is to earn income and profit for the owner, employees and investors. The company is paying the expenses after analyzing the revenue and debts to various stakeholders focusing on the predetermined ways. Apart from this, the non-profit organization refers to the companies whose basic goal is to provide charitable benefits to the community rather than collecting the profit and distribution among the stakeholders. The mission of these non-profit organizations is to offer maximum benefits to the community they serve. According to Felício, Samagaio and Rodrigues, (2021), the major differences between profit and non-profit organizations are funding, purpose, audience, leadership and culture. The funding difference between the profit and non-profit organizations are having a significant impact on budget planning and distribution. The profit-making organizations are collecting the funds from the inventors and offering a good return of that considering the fixed percentage of the net profit. Apart from this, the non-profit organizations are collecting the funds from the donors and they are not receiving any profit from the earning of the organization through events.

Moreover, Feng, Neely, and Slatten, (2019) have explained the difference between the profit and non-profit organization considering the purpose. According to analysis, the profit organization seeks to provide a product or services to the target customers and make a profit. The non-profit organization's purpose is to provide services or benefits to the community with no intention of earning profit. Their focus is on improving the social aspects of the community and not on making money. Apart from this, the audience of profit and non-profit making organizations is also different. As per the analysis, the audience of the profit-making organization is more specific and the management is targeting the pre-defined consumers for selling the products or services. The non-profit organizations are having a broader audience and appeal to the large numbers of potential donors and investors to purchase the goods and services to solve the problems of the community.

The leadership of profit and non-profit organizations is also different as the leaders of profit organizations have a substantial financial stake in the success of the company and influence the decision of the committee according to power and investment share. However, the leadership of a non-profit organization often has a board of directors and executive members who control the financial and operational activities considering the donation and fundraised by the campaigning. These members focus on increasing the community reach and recognize the donation for further planning of the events and community-based program. As per the views of Rebetak, and Bartosova, (2020), the culture of these profit and non-profit organizations plays a significant role in planning and managing the activities to meet the purpose of the company. The culture of profit organization is more focused on the improvement in the sales and profitability as well as increasing the efficiency and controlling the expenses. Most of the organizations are discussing the activities with different groups to find the best ways to meet the financial goals. Apart from this, the non-profit organizations are following the culture based on the community and discussing the ways of raising the funds by voluntary efforts. Moreover, the non-profit organizations are considering the benefits of the community and increasing the social effects of their organizations applying the traditional values and beliefs in the planning of the events.

According to the view of Stater and Stater, (2019), the tax provision is also different from for-profit and non-profit organizations. The profit organizations are paying the taxes based on the turnover and profits as stipulated by the federal and state government. Apart from this, the non-profit organizations are receiving a special tax designation from the government. However, it is important for both the organizations to consult a tax professional in the implication of taxation to have up-to-date and applicable information according to the situation. The staffing needs of the organization are also different as the employees of profit organizations are paid for the services considering the industrial norms focusing on the position of the individual. The non-profit organizations are hiring volunteers at low wages and these are working willingly to support the objectives of the organization. The volunteers of non-profit organizations have come from a specific community.

In addition to this, to manage the budgetary services and planning of the actions by maintaining control over the financial services for-profit and non-profit organizations, the role of owner and accountability of individual is important. As per the analysis of Ceptureanu et al., (2019), the non-profit organization is not having any specific or true owner as it is a publically owned entity and none of the physical and intellectual property of the organization is owned by a particular member. Apart from this, a profit organization is having several different ownership models and physical and intellectual property of the organization controlled and managed by the specific group or owner. The accountability of individuals is also important for the organizations to meet the financial goals and monitoring of the activities to achieve the goals. The profit organizations are setting the specific KPIs and responsibilities for the individual and department of the company which helps to maintain the ethical approach and tracking of the investment and return. Moreover, the profit organizations are labile for sharing the financial and business details with the federal government. However, the non-profit institutions are not following the accounting policies and procedures for sharing the information and not hiring the tax professionals to analyze the financial debt and credit which influence the budgetary control and planning of the strategic action that is required for increasing the effectiveness.

Budgeting methods

According to analysis, it has been carried out that SSI is following the conventional budget method for managing the financial activities and making the decisions considering the input of the board and executive members. However, this method is good for the non-profit organization that collects the fund through donations and charity of the organization to support the cause and solve the issues of the society. This kind of process is having transparency and increases the trust of the people involved in the process of working with a charity organization. There is another method that is used for managing the funds and maintaining control over the activities of the organization focusing on the income and expenses. According to Gratton, (2018), the beyond budgeting method was initially used by the organization for planning and managing the funds to achieve the goals and objectives. The term beyond budgeting is a traditional budgeting method that eventually improves management control over the organization. The method is helpful for organizations to establish highly decentralized systems to manage the operation and expenses.

The beyond budgeting process is important and has a significant impact on the development of the budget. However, as per the views of Nageswarakurukkal, Gonçalves and Moshtari, (2020) development of a budget is a time-consuming and long process and budgets are rarely focused on the company's strategy. Therefore, implementation of the beyond budgeting process is useful for the organization to minimize the time and improve the consideration of the strategic moves and actions that could help to meet the business goals. Apart from this, the budget planning and analysis are also creating obstacles for implementing the changes in the organizational activities and process of completing the actions. Now, consideration of breaking down beyond budgeting is used for maintaining agility. The implementation of agility is helping the organization to make quick decisions and adapt to the changes focusing on the market trends and activities that could help to encourage the business process in the competitive market.

According to analysis, beyond budgeting round table (BBRT) is a global network that encourages the organization to learn beyond budgeting principles and support to maintain the budget to meet the business goals. The key principles of beyond budgeting round table are involving the establishment of the purpose, knowledge and understanding of the values that going to be derived from the event, transparency is a major objective and customer value is the priority. In addition to this, the management principles of BBRT are involving the clarity about the target, proper planning of the action and forecasting of the changes and trends in the market, allocation of the resources and evaluation of the performance of the individual and department (Zheng, Ni and Crilly, 2019). By having knowledge and understanding of these principles and implementing these principles the management of the organization can craft improvement in the budgetary services and improve the level of efficiency.

There are different types of tools and techniques are followed by the BBRT for managing the budget and controlling the operations. As per the views of Algharabat et al., (2018) the major techniques of this type of budgeting involve the rolling forecasting needed to be created monthly or quarterly rather than annually. This will help to analyze the major changes in income and expenses and support to improve transparency. In addition to this, the targets of the company are based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which will help to evaluate the accountability and performance of the individual or department. The effective analysis and management of these techniques considering the culture and activities of the organization will be useful for meeting the business goals and providing better control over the budgetary activities. Now, the implementation of BBRT can be useful for the organization to enhance control and meet the objectives professionally by evaluating the actions regularly.

According to Gubarenko et al., (2020), conventional budgeting is the process of adding funds to the previous year's budget to expand or complete the projects. The implementation of this type of budgeting action is helpful for the organizations to increase the flexibility and accountability which support meeting the business goals and achieving the strategic actions. The type of budgeting process is different from zero-based budgeting and unconventional method to draw their budget. Moreover, the organization has applied the conventional management charity structure and the executive was accountable to a board of trustees which involve the 15 members. Each director is leading the number of functional teams managed by the department heads. The charitable services of the organization are managed through a structure of four regional managers each responsible for several country officers. Budget control is important for the organization to manage the operations worldwide and maintain effectiveness. However, the operating environment of the organization is unpredictable and some of the factors are having a significant impact on the planning processes and economic operations. The key factors that have a direct or indirect impact on the financial management of the organization involve the movement in exchange rates, interest rates and the stock market.

The implementation of this kind of budgeting approach is having a direct impact on the business process and decision making of SSI. As per the views of Peng, (2019), the conventional budget is easy to draw as organizations could accumulate expenditure data and plan future activities based on the accounting operations. The knowledge of expenditure data is useful for the taxation process and helps the organization to identify the areas that need budgetary cutbacks to increase profitability. The conventional model is also allowing the organization to staff cutback and influence the decisions of the management. According to analysis, the key strategic issues that are having a significant impact on the business process and conventional accounting activities of the organization involve the lack of planning and future uncertainty as well as the not using the budget value that is required for managing the accounting operations.

These issues are affecting the budget function of SSI and strategic output. In addition to this, the strategic problems that the organization was facing in budgetary control are a lack of a 12-months mindset to maintain the accounting work through a financial year. According to the analysis, the management extend the accounting work several weeks. Moreover, the planning statement of the organization and intention of developing the realistic budget is also creating issues in budgetary control and strategic planning management. The conventional model of budgeting is helpful for the organization but the lack of monitoring and analysis of the possible changes is having a direct impact on the financial planning and controlling the action of the organization. In addition to this, for non-profit organizations, the offering of salary compared to for-profit organizations is difficult (Wang, and Yang, 2020). The major factors that influence the budgetary control like training and development and offering of pension. The working conditions of the organization were not up to the standards and the low salary for the labour has created problems for SSI. Apart from this, the problems highlighted in the case study of company involve the fundraising. The funding of SSI is coming from charity and donations as well as investment income (Northcott, and Taulapapa, 2012).

Now, from the analysis, it can be considered that the conventional method of budgeting used by the SSI is good for the non-profit organization but the lack of monitoring and use of the KPIs is affecting the budgetary control process. However, BBRT is also a better method for budgetary control and planning the activities based on the goals and objectives of the organization following the principles but it requires the proper management team and experts to manage the budgetary operations and tracking of the transactions.

Conclusion

The literature has provided a critical analysis of the operational and budgetary process of SSI which is a charitable organization and following the non-profit actions to meet the goals and objectives. The organization is facing some strategic issues that have a significant impact on the fundraising and planning of the actions to increase the effectiveness of the event. The major issues that have a direct impact on the accounting operations of an organization involve political changes, uncertainty in the market, lack of donation and sponsorship for organizing the event. In addition to this, the lack of implementation of the 12 monthly accounting process is also having a significant impact on strategic planning and business activities.

Moreover, the literature has discussed the differences between profit and non-profit organizations and focused on the areas of lacking that affect the budgetary control process of SSI. The lack of planning and monitoring is a major issue for the organization and influences the fundraising and process of attracting donors. Additionally, the literature has analyzed the effectiveness of Beyond Budgeting Round Table and Conventional methods of financial planning and suggested the changes that could help in achieving the goals.

References

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