GMS 200: Planning & Global Management

Planning

The process of setting objectives and determining how best to accomplish them.

Plan

A statement of action steps to be taken in order to accomplish objectives.

Steps in the Planning Process

Define objectives, determine standing, develop premises, analyze alternatives, implement and evaluate results.

Strategic Plans

Set broad, comprehensive, and longer-term action directions for the entire organization.

Tactical Plans

Specify how an organization's resources are used to implement strategy.

Functional Plans

Indicate how different components (production, finance, marketing, etc.) help accomplish overall strategy.

Operational Plans

Describe short-term activities to implement strategic plans, including policies, procedures, and budgets.

Zero-Based Budget

Allocates resources as if each budget were brand new.

Forecasting

The process of making assumptions about what will happen in the future using qualitative or quantitative methods.

Contingency Planning

Identifying alternative courses of action and trigger points to use when things go wrong.

Scenario Planning

A long-term version of contingency planning that identifies alternative future scenarios.

Benchmarking

The use of external and internal comparisons to evaluate current performance and adopt best practices.

Participatory Planning

Involves people who will be affected by plans in setting them, increasing understanding and commitment.

Globalization

The growing interdependence among elements in the global economy.

Global Manager

A manager with a global perspective who is culturally aware and informed on international affairs.

Reasons Businesses Go Global

Profits, customers, suppliers, labour, capital, and risk diversification.

Global Sourcing

The process of purchasing materials or locating business services around the world.

Licensing Agreement

An arrangement where one firm pays a fee for rights to make or sell another company's products.

Franchising

Paying a fee for rights to use another firm's name, branding, and methods.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

Involves setting up and buying all or part of a business in another country.

Joint Venture

Operates in a foreign country through co-ownership by foreign and local partners.

Strategic Alliance

A partnership in which foreign and domestic firms share resources and knowledge for mutual gains.

Political Risk

Potential loss in value or control of a foreign investment due to instability and political changes.

Transnational Corporation

A global corporation that operates worldwide on a borderless basis without being identified with one national home.

CFPOA (Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act)

Makes it illegal for Canadian firms and representatives to engage in corrupt practices overseas.

Culture Shock

The confusion and discomfort a person experiences when in an unfamiliar culture.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to consider one's own culture as superior to others.

Low-Context Culture

A culture that emphasizes communication primarily via spoken or written words (e.g., USA, Canada, Germany).

High-Context Culture

A culture that relies heavily on nonverbal and situational cues alongside words (e.g., Thailand, Malaysia).

Monochronic vs. Polychronic Time

Monochronic cultures do one thing at a time; polychronic cultures accomplish many things at once.

Scientific Management

Focuses on improving efficiency through standardized work methods, proper training, and results-based compensation.

Hawthorne Effect

The phenomenon where people singled out for special attention perform as expected due to social and human factors.

Theory X and Theory Y

McGregor's assumptions that managers view workers either as unmotivated and needing strict control (X) or capable of self-direction (Y).

Intellectual Capital

The combined brainpower and shared knowledge of an organization's employees.

Open Systems

Organizations that interact with their environments to transform resource inputs into outputs.

Katz's Essential Managerial Skills

Three critical skills for managers: technical, human, and conceptual skills.

Data

Raw facts and observations.

Information

Data made useful and meaningful for decision-making.

Problem Solving

The process of identifying a discrepancy between actual and desired performance and taking action to resolve it.

Structured Problems

Familiar, straightforward problems that are clear with respect to information needs.

Unstructured Problems

Problems that are full of ambiguities and information deficiencies.

Certain Environment

An environment that offers complete factual information on action alternatives and their consequences.

Risk Environment

An environment that lacks complete information but offers probabilities of likely outcomes.

Uncertain Environment

An environment that lacks so much information that assigning probabilities to outcomes is difficult.

Availability Bias

Basing a decision on recent information or events.

Framing Error

Trying to solve a problem in the context perceived, whether positive or negative.