- IMPLEMENTATION AND CONTROL PLAN
The Implementation and Control Plan Milestones
- CONTINGENCY PLAN
Contingency planning will encompass an evaluation of the possible variations in the existing basic assumptions and the predominant effects on the strategic marketing plan. The contingency plan will address the issues resulting from the deviations. In managing the problems and risks, the organization will identify relevant sources of uncertainty ("Marketing Contingency Planning | Chron.com," n.d.).
2.1 POTENTIAL PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
For this organization, the risks will involve both internal and external risks.
- Internal Problem 1: Financial Risks
The possible financial risks will include factors like inability to obtain the required financing, over estimate of budget, loss of the expected sales or unforeseen increase in the operational costs. Possible solutions for the problem under the financial risks are as follows. Firstly, the organization will source for enough funds from grants, loans and stakeholders to deal with inadequate funding. The organization will then formulate alternative plans such as saving adequate cash in case of the loss of anticipated sales and manage funds appropriately by allocating enough funds to different departments to prevent increase in the operational costs and over-estimates in the budget (Wong, Radel, & Ramsaran-Fowdar, 2011, p. 13). The organization will encourage employees through motivations and bonuses in their wages to engage them actively to increase the capacity of the organization to provide anticipated volumes of services and products
- Internal Problem 2: Operational Risks; Delays in production and product launch
The anticipated operational risks include delays in the production, delays in the product launch, which will reduce the ability of the organization to provide the anticipated volumes of services or products. Possible solutions for dealing with the delays in production and product launch would be to increase the workforce in order to have faster operations.
- Internal Problem 3: Leadership Failures
Leadership failures are another anticipated problem. Leadership failures include inability of the leaders to execute and implement the projects, leadership wrangles and misunderstandings in the organization, corruption among the leaders and inadequate levels of transparency and accountability among the leaders. The first possible solution for the incapability of leaders to execute and implement the project is to identify potential leaders and let them act as interim managers and monitors for the plan. Secondly, there should be clear and distinctive speculation and outlining of the roles of different leaders in different segments to avoid misunderstandings and wrangles because of conflicting roles and responsibilities. Corruption can be addressed by using the Board of Directors to vet the leaders to determine their competency and issues of corruption. Corrupt leaders should be suspended. The Board will also monitor the leaders to determine their levels of competencies, accountability and transparency.
- External Problem 1: Legal Risks
The possible external problems include questions of intellectual property and product liability. The possible solutions for anticipated legal problems will include legal challenges or regulatory actions including trade policies, government laws and industrial regulations among others and the competitive environment ("Contingency Planning - Developing a Good Plan B - from MindTools.com," n.d.). Other possible solutions for legal risks will include employing organization law firms to address questions of intellectual property and product liability in the organization and offer appropriate counsel.
- External Problem 2: Competitors
Competitors are another anticipated problem for the organization. The competitors are a threat because they can have different measures, formations and structures in their organizational functions that are superior to those of the marketing strategies of the organization ("Marketing Contingency Planning | Business & Entrepreneurship - azcentral.com," n.d.). As such, possible solutions will include adoption of effective and efficient marketing strategies through assessing the strategies of the competitors and coming up with solutions that surpass their competitors.
- External Problem: Shifting Market Trends
Another possible problem is the shifting of market trends across the world. Consumers needs change with time and bring along continual shifts in the market trends. The problem is that keeping up with the emerging and shifting market trends could be expensive for the organization through extensive research (Zsidisin, Panelli, & Upton, 2000, p. 22). Possible solutions will be to employ market experts and analysts to predict the shift of the market trend by effectively studying the current situations in the markets and consumer wants.
References
Contingency Planning - Developing a Good Plan B - from MindTools.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_51.htm
Jayaraman, V., & Linton, J. D. (2003). Building contingency planning for closed-loop supply chains with product recovery. Journal of Operations Management. doi:10.1016/S0272-6963(02)00110-9
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2012). Principles of marketing. Boston: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Kotler, P. (2008). Marketing management: analysis, planning, implementation and control.
Marketing Contingency Planning | Business & Entrepreneurship - azcentral.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/marketing-contingency-planning-11448.html
Marketing Contingency Planning | Chron.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://work.chron.com/marketing-contingency-planning-6002.html
Marketing Notes Book: MARKETING STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION AND CONTROL. (2013, January 3). Retrieved from http://marketingnotesbook.blogspot.com/2013/01/blog-post.html
Nykiel, R. A. (2003). Marketing your business: A guide to developing a strategic marketing plan. New York: Best Business Books.
Wong, H. Y., Radel, K., & Ramsaran-Fowdar, R. (2011). Building a marketing plan: A complete guide. New York, NY: Business Expert Press.
Zsidisin, G. A., Panelli, A., & Upton, R. (2000). Purchasing organization involvement in risk assessments, contingency plans, and risk management: an exploratory study.Supply Chain Management-an International Journal. doi:10.1108/13598540010347307
