AN EXAMINATION OF EFFECTIVENESS OF CORPORATE PLANNING IN MANAGEMENT PROCESS( A CASE STUDY OF DIAMOND BANK)

AN EXAMINATION OF EFFECTIVENESS OF CORPORATE PLANNING IN MANAGEMENT PROCESS( A CASE STUDY OF DIAMOND BANK)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The development of corporate planning in business is a post World War

• Before the period of the World War II, almost all business enterprises were carrying on their business affairs without stating any formal objectives or formal long range business plans. Usually business planning was confined to the lower organizational levels, mainly the functional or the departmental levels and they had only short-term plans which focused mainly on manufacturing product planning, materials ordering and receiving, and hiring of labor. Most companies used to have annual budgets or yearly financial plans to ensure their liquidity Imaga, (2000:1).

Since that period of World War II, higher level that is at the core body of the company level long-range, usually of 3 to 7 years period planning has assumed ever increasing importance. The development of business planning has been a revolutionary movement or as the technological revolution or even the revolution in life-styles due to income demonstration effects from time to time. According to Hberts, (1950), comprehensive business planning now covers long-range in the form of strategic planning involving the entire fabric of the organization and is the concern of the top-most management from where it descends to all. The scope of corporate planning covers not only the whole organization but every functional aspect of the organization. It takes into account the full environments in which the business operates and is a systematic assessment of a most comprehensive nature, leading to the realistic mapping out of long term objectives, strategic and operational plans Akpala (1990).

In corporate planning, top management is concerned with the future direction of the business as a whole, such decisions taken are long-term in nature and are bound to have far reaching implications on employment, the financing of the business and the types of products manufactured.

Thus, corporate planning involves major strategic decisions. It is against this background that this study is set to examine corporate planning with a view to determining its benefits and identifying its problems in Diamond Bank plc Nigeria Limited.

1.2    STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Corporate planning often fails to achieve it’s objectives in many organizations due to some Militating factors. The problem of poor planning which are usually defective due to lack of skills and expertise and reliable and accurate information on the sides of the managers, which will often leads to poor forecast and formulation of vague goals and objectives. Also poor policies and implementation strategies is yet another problem which in most cases leads to deviation of results from the sets goals, and poor feedback.

Finally, the very dynamic nature of the business environment which makes forecasting practically impossible, some times Jeopardizes the organizational policy. Lack of effective monitoring of plan implementation and review of results usually undermine even the most articulated corporate plan.

1.3      OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The  specific objectives  of  the  study include  the following:

1. To determine the problem manager encounter in cooperate planning and suggest solution.
2. To determine the strategic planning approach used by organizations and assesses its appropriateness.
3. To evaluate forecasting methods used by corporate organizations.
4. To determine the corporate planning approach use by organization.

1.4      RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following researcher questions were asked to elicit useful information to be able to deal with the subject matter.

1. What are the problems managers’ encounters in corporate planning?

AN EXAMINATION OF EFFECTIVENESS OF CORPORATE PLANNING IN MANAGEMENT PROCESS( A CASE STUDY OF DIAMOND BANK)