Control
Organizations are built with the goal of profitability through processes in mind. The organizational control approach incorporates goals and the strategy used to reach them. These strategies and tactics are developed with the foresight of specific operational objectives, such as market share, return on investments, earnings, and cash flow. As a result, organizational control consists primarily of reviewing and evaluating overall performance against the strategies, tactics, and operations used to define the organization itself. Tactics for organizational control are developed based on existing goals and strategies to establish specific objectives in the context of an overall strategic plan. Organizational control is essentially a benchmark, moving the company toward optimal levels of operation.
Example of management levels
The Government Business Reference Model shown here illustrates three levels of control: strategic (purpose), tactical (mechanisms), and operational (operations support). Strategic control includes policy-forming and -enforcing bodies such as the Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement; tactical control includes direct services such as financial assistance and credit and insurance companies; and operational control includes oversight bodies, revenue collection, and resource allocation.
Strategy
Strategic management provides overall direction to the enterprise. Strategy formulation requires examining where the company is now, deciding where it should go, and determining how to get it there. Strategic assessment involves situation analysis, self-evaluation, and competitor analysis, both internal and external, micro-environmental and macro-environmental.
Objectives are determined by the results of the strategic assessment. These objectives should run parallel on a timeline, some short-term and others long-term. This involves crafting vision statements (long-term projections for the future), mission statements (describing the organization's role in society), overall corporate objectives (both financial and strategic), strategic business unit objectives (both financial and strategic), and tactical objectives. These objectives should suggest a strategic plan that provides details (tactics) for achieving these objectives.
Tactics
Strategy involves the future vision of the business; tactics involve the actual steps needed to achieve that vision. For example, a marketing strategy for a motel might be to develop a business package targeting travel agents that includes an e-commerce solution. Tactics are practical steps for implementing strategy. Other tactics for the travel-agent strategy might include:
- building a list of local travel agents
- preparing a business incentive scheme
- outlining how they can use the motel website to make reservations and keep up-to-date
- personally visiting the agents to follow up
- monitoring the response to determine if the sales target is met
One can see from this that strategy always comes first, followed by tactics. For example, a value-based commitment to environmentally responsible hospitality could be reflected strategically by working toward Green Globe certification and tactically by incorporating energy efficient appliances in the motel retrofit.
Operational Control
Operational control regulates the day-to-day output relative to schedules, specifications, and costs. Are product and service output high-quality and delivered on time? Are inventories of raw materials, goods-in-process, and finished products being purchased and produced in the desired quantities? Are the costs associated with the transformation process in line with cost estimates? Is the information needed in the transformation process available in the right form and at the right time? Is the energy resource being used efficiently?
Operational control can be a very big job, requiring substantial overhead for management, data collection, and operational improvement. The idea behind operational control is streamlining the process to minimize costs and work as quickly and efficiently as possible.