Order Description
Analysis of the processes used by Apple?s to implement a strategic plan

Analyse the processes used by an organisation to implement the strategic plan.
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1. Critically analyse the processes used by an organisation to implement the strategic plan.
Describe the processes used for implementation
Explain why they were used
Critically analyse by discussing the benefits and shortcomings of these processes.
Give examples where possible
Highlight any anomalies and discuss these in depth
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2. Describe in detail the management (strategic leadership) processes used to support the implementation.
Draw on literature from this and previous units to critique the leadership in the process.
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3. Include detailed recommendations for improvement.
Outline recommendation and why you are suggesting them. Consider future impact of these recommendations.

Critically analyse the processes used by an organisation to implement the strategic plan.
Describe the processes used for implementation
Explain why they were used
Using relevant literature, critically analyse by discussing the benefits and shortcomings of these processes.
Quote examples where possible
Highlight any anomalies and discuss these in depth
?
Describe in detail the management (strategic leadership) processes used to support the process.
What was the involvement of leadership in the implementation process?
Describe what leadership did
Explain why they did it
Draw on literature from this and previous units to critique the leadership in the process.
Use specific examples where possible
Were there any anomalies?

Include detailed recommendations for improvement.
Outline recommendation and why you are suggesting them (back recommendation with literature where possible).
Consider future impact of these recommendations.

This is related to (assignment 1,A Critical Analysis of Apple?s Strategic Plan) YOU HAVE TO SEE IT.
and YOU HAVE TO DO IT AS THE EXAMPLE i will be uploaded.

Assignment 2
Analysis of the processes used by Mater hospital to implement a strategic plan
Introduction
Strategic plans play a vital role in assisting organisations to achieve their goals (David, 2011; Miller, 2002). This paper will discuss one specific organisation, the Mater Hospital, one of the largest and oldest hospitals in Brisbane which has more than 500,000 patients (Mater, n.d.). The Mater Hospital includes seven different hospitals which are the Mater Adult Hospital, Mater Children’s Hospital, Mater Children’s Private Hospital, Mater Mothers’ Hospital, Mater Mothers’ Private Hospital and the Mater Private Hospital. While research in this area has been limited, the topic has received more attention and support in recent years (Okumus, 2003). The mission and vision of the Mater hospital is to provide a healing ministry based on the values of gospel and achieve quality health care highly (Mater, 2014). Putting projects into action would play a vital role to achieve the vision, mission and objectives. As such, a systematic analysis of the Mater hospital will be presented. Firstly this paper will analyse and evaluate the current processes and strategic plan of the Mater hospital. Following this, the strategic leadership processes that support this implementation will be discussed. Finally, recommendations will be presented.
Steps in the Implementation of the Mater strategic plan
The following section will critically analyse the processes involved in the implementation of the Mater hospital strategic plan. The implement of a strategic plan can be described as a step by step approach that allow users to custom design their implementation of strategic plans in order to achieve unique need through the strategic plan over the life (Bryson, Anderson & Alston, 2011). The multiple steps in this process will now be outlined.
Mater hospitals have several strategies to implement the strategic plan. These steps are used in order to make the implement of strategic plan effective. The first one is identifying sponsors and possible members to lead the implement of strategic plan. In this case this is the chief executive and executive management Team (Mater, 2014). According to Bryson, Anderson and Alston (2011), leading a task is considered important to shape the process and executing and making implementation decision. It is often useful also to allocate project managers that assist the implementation process (Barwick, 2013). From that it can be seen that the Mater hospital identify the action directly through focusing on leaders.
Secondly, following this leadership guidance, it is important to follow this up to assess the results of this strategic plan. A monthly meeting will be necessary to fulfil the roles of these members, and quarterly meetings are held between the managers of each section to discuss about the outcomes and write the report which is provides to Queensland Health (Queensland Health, 2014).
The third stage Mater hospital use to implement the strategic plan is engaging external stakeholders such as, government (and its agencies), owners (shareholders) and internal stakeholders such as, directors government in the implement of strategic plan (Mater, n.d). Providing success for public and non-profit stakeholders is considered important. However, according to Bryson, Anderson, & Alston (2011), there are high risks of failed implementation of strategic plan when the stakeholder is not satisfied. Because the Mater hospital is a for-profit organisation, this process is considered a key process for the success implementation of the plan.
The fourth stage is facilitating the evolution and flexibility of the existing and future strategies. It is important to prioritise tasks, and know which tasks can be discarded if any need arises. Should an unforeseen obstacle be faced, it is important to recognise that the strategic plan can and should change to accommodate this. For example, in 2007 when implementing the strategic plan, the Mater hospital faced environmental issues and tried to address this area in 2009 to change strategic plan (Hill, 2014).
The fifth stage of implementing the strategic plan is to identify the budget. The Mater hospital has financial plans and annual budgets to implement the strategic plan (Queensland Government, 2013). However, some organizations have problems where the budget drives the strategic plan. Ideally though, the strategic plan should shape the budget (Bryson, Anderson, & Alston, 2011).
The six process of strategic plan implement is putting it all together in an action plan and strategy maps. An action plan uses the implementation steps to integrate and summarize the actions to be taken by chief executive and executive Management Team (Mater, 2014). The strategy maps help to identify specific actions needed for the implementation of the plan and helps managers make sense of the complexity of the task (Bryson, Anderson, & Alston, 2011).
Finally it is necessary to evaluate the implementation and perhaps take corrective action. It is important to review the implementation process and identify which has occurred and identify any ongoing problems. From here, one can devise solutions to these problems and focus on continual improvement and development. Mater use this step to clarify the weaknesses and identify how these can be overcome, and develop the strengths of the implementation process (Hill, 2014).
Through the information above, it can be seen that Mater management support the implementation of the plan, and this process can be described in the preceding seven steps.
Analysis of the process of implementing the strategic plan
It can be seen that the Mater hospital use strong processes which cover the important elements of the implementing a strategic plan. In order to evaluate this process, the following model presented by Bryson, Anderson, & Alston (2011) will be used. This model says there are several crucial elements to understood implementation of such a plan, which are;
1. Getting organised,
2. Clarifying strategic and operational directions,
3. Structuring implementation and
4. Terminating strategies.
This can be seen in Figure 1 which shows the process involved in implementation of a strategic plan, which has been applied to Mater hospital. By applying this model it can be seen the implementation of the Mater hospital strategic plan covers all the important aspects of the process. Thus, the Mater hospital is engaged in a successful implementation process. This process is comprehensive and is strongly positioned to help the organisation to achieve their aims and objectives.
Figure 1.
The process involved in implementation of a strategic plan at Mater hospital.
Source: Adapted from Bryson, Anderson, & Alston (2011)

Stage in the process The process Mater hospital used
Getting organized 1) Identifying sponsors, and possible members to lead the implement of strategic plan.
2) The monthly meeting to evaluate the performance of strategic plan.
3) Implement the strategic plan by engaging the external and internal stakeholder (Mater, n, d).
Clarifying strategic directions 4) Remaining fluid and reactive during the implementation process to current events.
Structuring implementation 5) Identify the annual budgets to implement the strategic plan (Queensland Government, 2013)
Terminating strategies. 6) Putting in action plan and strategies maps.
7) Staying the same or change it

According to Milkman (2001) process of implementing a strategic plan can be effective when it overcomes issues and problems. This can be seen that when it faced a problem to implement the strategic plan in 2007 and further addressed this in a change to the plan in 2009 (Hill, 2014). Therefore, Mater hospital is engaged in a successful implementation process which is comprehensive and can help the organisation achieve their aims.
However, the weakness of the process explained above is that there are no steps to bring the process all together in an action plan. Another limitation is needed to evaluate the quality of programme or project to make decision about it in the future. According to Fitzpatrick, Sanders and Worthen (2004) quality of strategy, project and program need to evaluations because decision makers when have provision of information can achieve a good decision. According to Armstrong (2006) being strategic toward into effective action when it have objectives for short coming clear and specific. Overall though, strong leadership is needed to guide the implementation of such a strategic plan.
The role of strategic leadership to support implementation
It’s important to consider the role of leadership when implementing a strategic plan. According to Bryson, Anderson& Alston, (2011) the main people responsible for implementing these processes are top positional leaders, that have enough power to commit to implementing a strategic plan in the organisation. These leaders play an important role in improving the organization and supporting the implementation process. These leaders can also have an effect on stakeholders. Overall, it’s important to remember that without skilled and careful management, implementation can fail (Bryson, Anderson, & Alston, 2011).
The role of leadership is much discussed in the literature. Kotters (2006) theory is considered is the most common theory about change management involving the process of implementation (Flamholtz, 2009; Flamholtz & Randle, 2008; Holbeche, 2006; Huffmire, 2009) According to Kotter’s (2006) theory, eight steps are undertaken by leaders to provide good change, and create a sense of urgency. Therefore it is important that the Mater hospital has the urgency to achieve the aims of strategic plan. Secondly it is necessary to utilise leaders and group members who have the power and energy to support and lead. For example, in the Mater hospital, this would be the leader of each section and other members who will participate in the implementation of strategic plan.
The third process of change according to Kotter (2006) is to form a strategic vision which helps steer the change and achieve the vision of organization. This can be done by developing strategic initiatives. Subsequently, the fourth stage is driving the change with a large force of people who are ready to change. In the Mater hospital, staff and members of the hospital can increase their awareness about the changes. Kotter then advocates removing barriers to enable action. For example Cooper (2013) suggests assisting nurses to stay in their positions by negotiating. This is followed by generating small term wins to begin the success of the strategic plan. Next, Kotter says the seventh step is to sustain acceleration. Then comes the last process which is to articulate the relationship between organisational success and the new behaviours.
This process advocated by Kotter (2006) can potentially critique the leadership, despite whether the leader is successful in implementing the strategic plan. It recognises that the weakness of this approach is that leaders have a variety of methods to deal with change and should choose the method wisely that best suits the circumstances. Next it is important that the leader focuses on solving the problem, motivates and inspires others (Dobson, Starkey & Richards, 2004). However in the case of Mater hospital, they can identify the role of the leader as being not only a facilitator of the plan but also a motivator.
Conclusion and Recommendations
This report has discussed two theoretical approaches to implementing strategic plans. Firstly this report applied the seven step process advocated by Bryson, Anderson, & Alston (2011), and secondly the multi-step process by Kotter (2006). Following this analysis, it is appropriate to provide three recommendations for the Mater hospital which utilise this theoretical underpinning.
Firstly, the process Mater hospital used to engage stakeholders in the implementation is considered one of the strong points of the process. However the important points Mater should have in the implementation is to make sure the stakeholders are willing to devote time in order to ensure success of the strategic plan. According to Bryson, Anderson, and Alston, (2011), a stakeholder holds a strong position of importance, which should ensure that stakeholders, sponsors, and champions are involved in the process always.
The second recommendation to develop the process of Mater implementation is coordination. This ensures that division managers and functional areas work as team together in order to develop the procedures, budget and programs to implement the strategies (Hunger & Wheelen, 2007). It is not enough that each department ‘do their part’ incoherently, but should work together to achieve the successful implementation.
The last recommendation is to focus on overcoming the weaknesses of the Mater hospital. As such these need to be identified by the leaders and a specific change management plan put in place. By removing these weaknesses, the quality of the project can be improved (Sanders &Worthen, 2004). This relies on the leaders to guide the process of change. These leaders should be not only ready to face problems but also create motivation to achieve effective change. According to Dobson, Starkey and Richard (2004), it is the leaders who are responsible to create urgency for change.
In conclusion, this paper has provided a critical analysis of the leadership which guides the implementation of a strategic plan for the Mater hospital. Two theoretical underpinnings were used to guide this discussion and allow a depth of analysis to occur on this topic. Three recommendations were provided which utilise the key skills of the leadership team to facilitate effective change within the organisation, and to guide the successful implementation of the plan. Implementation of these three recommendations would allow the Mater hospital to effectively implement the strategic plan.

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