tactical planning
(noun)
an organization's process of determining how to optimize current resources and operations
Examples of tactical planning in the following topics:
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Strategic, Tactical, and Operational Control
- Tactics for organizational control are developed based on existing goals and strategies to establish specific objectives in the context of an overall strategic plan.
- These objectives should suggest a strategic plan that provides details (tactics) for achieving these objectives.
- Tactics are practical steps for implementing strategy.
- Other tactics for the travel-agent strategy might include:
- One can see from this that strategy always comes first, followed by tactics.
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Defining Promotion
- As a key marketing element, promotion comprises communications tactics used to educate consumers, increase demand, and differentiate brands.
- These communication tools serve as tactics within the promotional plan to accomplish objectives such as:
- As organizations implement their promotional plan, they also seek to educate consumers, increase consumer demand, and differentiate their products and services in the marketplace .
- For example, retailers often use promotional tactics including discounts, store rebates, free items, contests, and other special offers to drive new sales and repeat purchases.
- Promotional tactics such as reward programs are used by companies to increase sales and customer acquisition.
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Planning and Decisions
- In the short run, planning is easy to postpone.
- Companies often use SWOT analysis when planning.
- Tactics: Who, what, when, where and how activities will take place to accomplish a goal.
- A budget is an example of a financial plan that formalizes strategic plans in monetary terms.
- On the other hand, project plans are more granular and lay out the specific tactics that need to be followed by members of the organization in order to execute the strategy.
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Responding to Uncertainty in Strategic Planning
- Uncertainty exists when there is more than one possible outcome; it is best managed using scenario-planning tools.
- Scenario planning helps to understand how the various strands of a complex tapestry move if one or more threads are pulled.
- For example, an initial plan for a project may have to be adjusted if the budget changes.
- Numerous organizations have applied scenario planning to a broad range of issues, from relatively simple, tactical decisions to the complex process of strategic planning and vision building.
- Recognize the inevitability of uncertainty in strategic planning, alongside planning for effective responses to these uncertainties
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Operations: the logistical rim on the wheel
- The operations of your business are the tactics and processes you implement to run your business.
- Operations in a startup begin with the composition of a business plan.
- Business plans are usually written to obtain financing for a new venture.
- Operations for Investors explains what tactics you will undertake to finance the venture and the exit strategy you plan to utilize for the initial investors to make a profit on their investment.
- With a draft business plan in hand and your legal company business entity established it's time to fully map out the operations/processes you plan to utilize to implement your business plan.
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Marketing Plan Elements
- A marketing plan's elements, length, and focus can vary depending on the company, the industry it is in, and whether the plan is written for:
- This element of the marketing plan states what the organization plans to achieve through the implementation of the marketing plan.
- The tactical program gets down to specifics.
- Implementation involves presenting an action plan which lists the specific actions that need to be taken to reach the goal of the marketing plan.
- This element of the marketing plan specifies the total resource allocation available for the marketing plan and the potential return on this investment.
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Conclude with Action Plan
- A marketing plan is a comprehensive blueprint and timeline that outlines a company's marketing efforts.
- It may be part of a business plan but it should be founded on a solid marketing strategy and incorporate proven business tactics.
- The steps act as the game plan by which the objectives are reached.
- Action plan -including time line, deadlines, sequence of events.
- All those having a stake in the company's success and the plan's implementation must be unanimously behind the plan, its development and the actions that will have to be taken to meet each objective.
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McClellan's Peninsular Campaign
- On January 27, President Lincoln issued orders that all armies begin offensive tactics by February 22, and four days later, he issued a supplementary decree that the Army of the Potomac specifically move to Manassas Junction and Centreville to attack Confederates there.
- McClellan rebutted this decision in a 22-page letter to the president, outlining his Urbanna plan.
- Although the president doubted the utility of the plan, he allowed McClellan to enact Urbanna and named specific officers as corps commanders to report under McClellan directly.
- The first heavy fighting of the campaign occurred in the Battle of Williamsburg, in which the Union troops managed some tactical victories, but the Confederates continued their withdrawal.
- In turn, the Union’s morale was crushed following McClellan’s retreat and what was perceived to be poor strategic planning on the part of Union army leadership.
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Blitzkrieg
- Blitzkrieg refers to German tactical and operational strategies in the first half of the second World War.
- The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively.
- Soviet defensive tactics were by now hugely improved, particularly in the use of artillery and air support.
- Some assert that Operation Citadel was planned and intended to be a blitzkrieg operation.
- Pier Battistelli wrote that the operational planning marked a change in German offensive thinking away from blitzkrieg and that more priority was given to brute force and fire power than to speed and maneuver.
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Conducting a Physical Inventory
- There are three phases of a physical inventory: planning and preparation, execution, and analysis of results.
- Businesses may use several different tactics to minimize the disruption caused by physical inventory.
- In the planning and preparation period, a list of stocks that need to be counted is set up.