1.1 Introduction
Strategic planning involves analyzing the opportunities and threats in the market place, building the strengths and correcting the weaknesses within the firm, and setting goals for specific product markers and the firm. It plays an immense role in assisting the increase in the performance of bank and the development of economy in general. An organization strategic plan must communicate the vision and mission of owners to employees and customers. Adopting strategic planning, a process chart, has become crucial for business organizations as it is perceived as a mediating factor between the corporation and its environment. in the course of the banks improved performances, strategic planning in it diverse form becomes an irresistible, inevitable and unviable.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Strategic planning is founded on the idea of comparative competitive advantage, which is essential for a company's survival and expansion in a competitive market since it seeks to understand how a business competes successfully within its surroundings. A firm cannot survive or grow unless it maintains one or more comparative competitive advantages which provide the basic rationale by which customers will refers that firm to others. Unfortunately, though, Nigeria presents a strong picture of turbulent and unpredictable environment for organizations to shift-particularly the manufacturing sector. This is due mainly to constant changes in the political and economic conditions in the country. The effect of this on the manufacturing sector is quite stupendous. This is especially so when one considers the fact that majority of our manufacturing industries today provide below capacity.
Access Bank is chosen as the background of study for the project. Over the past 26 years, Access Bank Plc. has evolved from an obscure Nigerian Bank into a world-class African financial institution. Today, Access Bank are one of the five largest banks in Nigeria in terms of assets, loans, deposits and branch network; a feat which has been achieved through a robust long-term approach to client solutions – providing committed and innovative advice. Access Bank has built its strength and success in corporate banking and is now applying that expertise to the personal and business banking platforms it acquired from Nigeria’s International Commercial bank in 2012. The next two years were spent integrating the business, investing in infrastructure and strengthening the product offer. As part of its continued growth strategy, Access Bank is focused on mainstreaming sustainable business practices into its operations. The Bank strives to deliver sustainable economic growth that is profitable, environmentally responsible, and socially relevant (Accessbankplc, 2021).
Business organizations needs plans to be able to predict unforeseen contingencies, minimize production costs, as well as wastage and then be able to grapple with competitions in a programmed manner – which is the essence of strategic planning. All business organizations need to plan ahead whatever the kind of market, competitive, oligopolistic or monopolistic in which they operate an organization operating in a competitive marker needs to plan and design strategies such as will ensure first, its survival and when its continued profitability. A firm operating in an oligopolistic market has move critical reason for planning because of the fierceness of the competition in such marker and even the monopolist organization has to continually develop new strategies to maintain its position or else it will soon be faced with competition. A wrong investment decision in today’s business would is likely to entail a huge financial -loss. A fundamental and pertinent question arises as to why some organizations are outstandingly successful while others achieve marginal or moderate successes and others fail alarmingly. It is also asked as to what it is about organizations that tend to make some ability of their managers to pull critical levers at important points in the evolutionary development of their companies.
Unfortunately, though Nigeria presents a strong picture of a turbulent and unpredictable environment for organizations to thrift – particularly the manufacturing sector. This is due mainly to constant changes in the political and economic conditions in the country. The effect of this on the manufacturing sector is quite stupendous. This is especially so when one considers the fact that majority of our manufacturing industries today provide below capacity. Specifically speaking, for manufacturing industries operating in today’s volatile business environment, the need for the strategic planning seems too obvious and imperative to require mentioning. The fortunes of our economy and the manufacturing sector appear inextricably interwoven, and so development within the overall economy will inevitably have direct impacts on the environment. Similarly, the operational efficiency of this sector or otherwise in bringing to fruition the social and economic yearnings of the nation has direct impact on the economy. It is against this background that this study intends to assess the impact of strategic planning and organisational effectiveness.
It is hoped that this study will in the long run afford the rare opportunity of understanding and appreciating the significance of strategic planning in today’s organizational restructuring, planning and improvement.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Investigation revealed that many of the growing challenges encountered by organizations in the evolution and implementation of strategic planning include management inability to support strategy, lack of adequate resources, no alignment of activities with strategy and inability to manage change and lack of human resources to implement strategic plans. Consequently the problem confronting the research is to appraise Impact of Strategic Planning and Organisational Effectiveness.
After the euphoria of national independent that task of national development dawn on Nigerians to pave the way for individual growth. Nigerian policy-makers then placed the thrust on industrialization on the shoulders of the manufacturing sector. However, the progress today in this direction leaves more to be desired. The present stale of the manufacturing sector has been perennially bedeviled by unsteady and less result oriented production activities.
It is a commonplace tap now to hear out so-called industrialists and economic watchers alleging that low productivity, operating below installed capacity utilization, unfavourable socio-political and economic environments and continued depreciation of national currency against the dollar, are responsible for this ugly situation. But most fundamental to this study is the factor, productivity.
Productivity is the output per unit of a factor of production. It is dependent on the availability of the productive resources in requisite proportions and how much output each unit of resources can be made to yield. The problem with Nigerian manufacturing sector is how to combine these two factors. However, quite a number of management ideas and philosophies have been applied, but to our disappointment, they have not achieved their attendant ends. Many critics have blamed it on the peculiarity of the Nigerian socio-political and economic environment, while others on the haphazard application of these management ideas and philosophies.
Planning is one of their most fundamental management processes which seeks to set in advance purposes and objectives an entity may seek to achieve through planning, the when, the who, and the how is clearly defined within a time horizon for the achievement of a specified goal or goals thus emphasizing a special relationship with productivity. From the strategic management paradigm, output per unit of a factor of production should be planned in such a way that it identifies the opportunities and threats in the organization’s environment, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, designing structures, defining roles, luring appropriate people, and developing appropriate reward to make contribution. It is against this background, that this research tends to determine the impact of strategic planning and organisational effectiveness in Access Bank PLC.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the Impact of Strategic Planning and Organisational Effectiveness. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To measure the contribution of strategy planning in the enhancement of productivity and workers performance;
- To identify the steps and processes that should be taken in implementing strategic planning in an organization;
- To assess the environment factors that impact strategic planning implementation in the study area; and
- To evaluate the relationship between strategic planning and corporate performance of an organization.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What is the contribution of strategy planning in the enhancement of productivity and workers performance?
- What are the steps and processes that should be taken in implementing strategic planning in an organization?
- What are the environment factors that impact strategic planning implementation in the study area?
- What is the relationship between strategic planning and corporate performance of an organization?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: The internal and external environment factors surrounding this company do not significantly affect its strategic planning
- H1: The internal and external environment factors surrounding this company significantly affect its strategic planning
Hypothesis Two
- H0: There is negative relationship between strategic planning and the corporate performance of the company.
- H1: There is positive relationship between strategic planning and the corporate performance of the company.
1.7 Significance of Study
In the first place, this study should be of immense assistance to business students, business practitioners, systems designers and indeed all persons who are concerned about the proper informational input into management planning processes. By bringing into focus the state of the art in the literature, it is also going to be of assistance to lectures. The manufacturing sector, as earlier indicated are very important to the company of this country, therefore, since this is assumed to be a thorough study of strategic planning in this sector, it will reveal its level of managerial efficiency and effectiveness. And this knowledge will be vital to both the government and owners of industries. Furthermore, it will provide a model for an efficient and effective strategy planning, which will, assists managers in this sector.
A practical significance will be the identification of the factors responsible for the high failure rate of industries particularly in a competitive industry like soft drink – producing companies of which the Nigeria Bottling Company Plc is one.
Furthermore, the knowledge will help determine the structure of the business environment available to them and be able to forecast future conditions. Good business is the ability to make profit and sustain the life of the company. This can only be achieved through a proper knowledge of strategic planning.
Finally, researcher will find this as a base for continued assessment and further research on the subject. The value of the investigation to professionals, practitioners and persons or corporate bodies cannot be over emphasized since they are involved in the operations of these establishments.
1.8 Scope of the Study
The scope of this research is focused on the Impact of Strategic Planning and Organisational Effectiveness. The study will cover only three (3) Access Bank branches located at Kafanchan in Kaduna State.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, there were some problems encountered which stood as limitations to the research work. Some of the limitations include:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
- Initial Cooperation Delay from Respondents: A particular limitation of this work came as a result of the respondent refusal to offer their cooperation at the initial time they were contacted. This contributed in making the success of this research study difficult.
1.10 Definition of Terms
To ensure that the research work is easily understood, some technical terms used will be explained.
Strategic Planning:
This is a process of defining organization strategic, decision and making decisions on allocation its resources, to measure this strategy, includes its capital and people.
Objectives:
These are the future expectations of an individual’s cooperate body or organization. They are the targets which an organization hopes to achieve. Objectives are usually on a long term basis.
Organization:
This is an organized body of persons or cooperate bodies aiming towards a particular objective.
Business:
This is an economic activity oriented towards producing goods and services at a profit of satisfaction to mankind.
Effectiveness:
It is ability to bring about the intended result. It has to do with the attainment and achievement of set goals and objectives.
