Writing a Marketing Plan

• Use a direct, professional writing style. Use appropriate business and marketing terms without jargon. Present and future tenses with active voice are generally better than past tense and passive voice.
• Be positive and specific. At the same time, avoid superlatives (such as terrific, wonderful). Specifics are better than glittering generalities. Use numbers for impact, justifying computations and projections with facts or reasonable quantitative assumptions where possible.
• Use bullet points for succinctness and emphasis. As with the list you are reading, bullets enable key points to be highlighted effectively and with great efficiency.
• Use “A level” (the first level) and “B level” (the second level headings under major section headings to help readers make easy transitions from one topic to another. This also forces the writer to organize the plan more carefully. Use these headings liberally, at least once every 200 to 300 words.
• Use visuals where appropriate. Illustrations, graphs, and charts enable large amounts of information to be presented succinctly.
• Shoot for a plan 15 to 35 pages in length, not including financial projections and appendices. An uncomplicated small business may require only 15 pages, while a new business startup may require more than 35 pages.
• Use care in layout, design, and presentation. Laser or ink-jet printers give a more professional look than  do dot matrix printers or typewriters. A bound report with a cover and clear title page adds professionalism.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Organizational Philosophy Statements

Ford Motor Company: “Quality is job 1!”

L. L. Bean: “Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings, and they’ll always come back for more.”

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company: “Quality is the key to our future success.”

Xerox: “Leadership through quality.”

Federal Express: “People—Service—Profit.”

Ritz Carleton: “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”

Citicorp Savings of California: “To consistently deliver a differential level of service so exceptional and so unexpected that it becomes a vehicle for the acquisition of profitable new relationships as well as the retention and growth of existing ones.”

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Employee Discipline

Discipline refers to a condition in the organization where employees conduct themselves in accordance with the organization’s rules and standards of acceptable behavior. For the most part, employees discipline themselves by conforming to what is considered proper behavior because they believe it is the reasonable thing to do. Once they are made aware of what is expected of them, and assuming they find these standards and rules to be reasonable, they seek to meet those expectations.

But not all employees will accept the responsibility of self-discipline. There are some employees who do not accept the norms of responsible employee behavior. Those employees, then, require some degree of extrinsic disciplinary action.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Basic Organizational Structures

Although there is an almost infinite variety of structural forms, certain basic types predominate in modern complex organizations. There are three basic organizational structures. The conglomerate structure is a variant of divisional structure and is thus not depicted as a fourth structure. Generally speaking, each structure tends to support some corporate strategies over others.

• Simple Structure has no functional or product categories and is appropriate for a small, entrepreneur-dominated company with one or two product lines that operates in a reasonably small, easily identifiable market niche. Employees tend to be generalists and jacks of all trades.
• Functional structure is appropriate for a medium-sized firm with several related product lines in one industry. Employees tend to be specialists in the business functions important to that industry, such as manufacturing, marketing, finance, and human resources.
• Divisional structure is appropriate for a large corporation with many product lines in several related industries. Employees tend to be functional specialists organized.
• Strategic business units (SBU)are a recent modification to the divisional structure. Strategic business units are divisions or groups of divisions composed of independent product-market segments that are given primary responsibility and authority for the management of their own functional areas. An SBU may be of any size or level, but it must have 1) a unique mission, 2) identifiable competitors, 3)an external market focus, and 4) control of its business functions. The idea is to decentralize on the basis of strategic elements rather than on the basis of size, product characteristics, or span of control and to create horizontal linkages among units previously kept separate.
• Conglomerate structure is appropriate for a large corporation with many product lines in several unrelated industries. A variant of the divisional structure, the conglomerate structure (sometimes called a holding company) is typically an assemblage of legally independent firms (subsidiaries) operating under one corporate umbrella but controlled through the subsidiaries’ boards of directors. The unrelated nature of the subsidiaries prevents any attempt at gaining synergy among them.

If the current basic structure of corporation does not easily support a strategy under consideration, top management must decide if the proposed strategy is feasible or if the structure should be changed to a more advanced structure.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Termination of Agency Agreement

1. Termination by expiration of the specified period in which the agent has to act. The courts say that the agency was for a “reasonable” time if no specific duration was stated in the agency agreement. The meaning of “reasonable time” is construed by the courts on a case-by-case basis, depending on the nature of the agency, the difficulty of accomplishment, and other controlling factors.
2. Termination by specific agreement to do so between the principal and the agent.
3. Termination by death or legal incapacity (insanity and so on) of either the principal or the agent. Most courts also hold that bankruptcy of either the principal or the agent terminates the relationship. However, the agent may still dispose of the principal’s property that is being held at the time of the bankruptcy.
4. Termination through revocation by the principal. The agency contract is one that the principal is allowed to end at any time without giving any reason.
5. Termination by withdrawal of the agent. This may be done at any time in an agency at will. If the agent is operating under a contract for a specified time of service or until a certain event is accomplished, the agent will be liable of damages to a principal who was not at fault in bringing about the termination.
6. Termination by loss or destruction of the subject matter or by change of circumstances. The agent’s authority is lost if the subject matter is seriously disabled, lost, or destroyed.
7. Termination by rescission. The general rules of law concerning rescission apply to agency contract.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Fraud by Silence

Does a party to contract have a duty to disclose to the other party all the material fact he or she knows about the subject of the contract? The original common law position on this issue was caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). The seller could remain silent without fear of being found guilty of fraud. Only actual statements by the seller could serve as a basis for fraud. The duty therefore was placed on buyers to ask the right questions of the seller, forcing the seller to make statements about the subject of the sale.

Many courts today, however, recognize that caveat emptor often produced unfair results. Some buyers simply do not know enough to ask the right questions about the subject of the sale, so many courts are recognizing a limited duty to disclose material facts on the part of the seller. Generally this duty is limited to material facts that the buyer could not have discovered by reasonable inspection of the subject of the sale.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Spirit of High Performance

An ability to instill strong individual commitment to strategic success and to create an atmosphere in which there is constructive pressure to perform is one of the most valuable strategy-implementing skills. When an organization performs consistently at or near peak capability, the outcome is not only more success but also a culture permeated with a spirit of high performance. Such a spirit of performance should not be confused with whether employees are happy or satisfied or what they get along well together. An organization with a spirit of high performance emphasizes achievement and excellence. Its culture is results-oriented, and its management pursues policies and practices that inspire people to do their best.

Companies with a spirit of high performance typically are intensely people-oriented, and they reinforce their concern for individual employees on every conceivable occasion in every conceivable way. They treat employees with dignity and respect, train each employee thoroughly, encourage employees to use their own initiative and creativity in performing their work, set reasonable and clear performance expectations, use the full range of rewards and punishment to enforce high performance standards, hold managers at every level responsible for developing the people who report to them, and grant employees enough autonomy to stand out, excel, and contribute. To create a results-oriented culture, a company must make champions out of the people who turn in winning performances.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Full Warranty

A full warranty means:

1. The warrantor will fix or replace any defective product, including removal and reinstallation if necessary, free of charge.
2. It is not limited in time (say, to one or two years).
3. It does not either exclude or limit payment for consequential damages unless the exclusion or limitation is printed conspicuously on the face of the written warranty.
4. If the product cannot be repaired or has not been repaired after a reasonable number of efforts to repair it, the consumer may choose between a refund and a replacement.
5. The warrantor cannot impose duties on the consumer except reasonable duties (the warranty cannot require the consumer to ship a piano to the factory) or a duty not to modify the product.
6. The warrantor is not required to fulfill the warranty terms if the problem was caused by damage to the product through unreasonable use.

A full warranty does not have to cover the whole product. It may cover only part of the product, such as the picture tube of a television set. Also, anyone who owns the product during the warranty period may invoke or use the warranty.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

21st Century Corporate Strategy

Business, government and society are independent and their relationship is complex in every nation. General systems theory tells us that all organisms or systems are affected by their host environments; thus, an organization must be appropriately responsive to changes and conditions in its environment to survive and succeed.

The web of interactions between business, government, and society creates a system of stakeholders—groups affected by and influential in corporate decisions and actions. The analysis of these stakeholders—who they are, what power they hold, and the ways in which they interact with one another—helps managers understand the nature of their concerns and needs and how these relationships are changing. If the creation of stakeholder networks is a natural process for organizations, managers must learn how to understand and utilize these relationships. The business of the 21^st century must have managers who understand the importance of creating business strategies that include these considerations.

The relationship between business and society is also continuously changing. People, organizations, and social change; inevitably, new issues will arise and challenge managers to develop new solutions. To be effective, corporate strategy must respond to the biggest and most central questions in the public’s mind. People expect businesses to be competitive, to be profitable, and to act responsibly by meeting the reasonable expectations of stakeholders. The corporation of the 21^st century is certain to be affected by global economic and political trends, powerful new technologies, and a global population of stakeholders who will expect their interests to be integrated into the thinking of the companies from which they buy goods and services, to which they contribute labor and ideas, and to which they extend the hospitality and support of their communities.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Public Policy

Public policy is a plan of action undertaken by government officials to achieve some broad purpose affecting a substantial segment of a nation’s citizens. It is also is what a government chooses to do or not to do. Governments generally do not choose to act unless a substantial segment of the public is affected and some public purpose is to be achieved. This is the essence of the concepts of governments acting in the public interest.

The role of government is extensive in most modern economies. Although there are vigorous debates about the size and specific actions of government, there is broad agreement that government has some appropriate role to play in modern life. As the world’s population increases, individual nations have more citizens whose needs have to be met and whose interests and concerns have to be reconciled into reasonable plans of action. These are the rules that government, whatever its specific form, plays in the modern world. Public policy, while differing in each nation, is the basic set of goals, plans, and actions that each national government follows in achieving its purpose.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.