even the most charitable of marketing managers would view this
statement as naive and unlikely to be fully achieved. If mangers view
planning as ‘fine in theory’ but failing, in practice, to deliver its full
potential – where does it go wrong?
Clearly, barriers must exist to successful planning. Often, these barriers
are more to do with the human aspects of the business management. They
involve people, politics, skills and culture, to a greater degree, than formal
systems, methodology and data.
Common barriers to successful planning are:
● Culture: The prevailing culture may not be amenable to marketing
plans. If the fundamental principles of marketing are not accepted by
the organisation, any move towards being market led and customer
orientated could be dismissed as ‘not the way we do it’. Often we see
considerable resistance to change and gradual regression back to old
work practices.
● Power and politics: All organisations are subject to internal politics. The
development of strategic planning becomes a battlefield where vested
interests fight each others proposals and squabble over status and
resources. This process absorbs much management time and can result
in ill-advised compromise and unnecessary delay.
● Analysis not action: Much time and energy can be wasted by the process
of analysing data and developing rationales for action, as opposed to
simply acting. While a rigorous process is commendable, it should not
displace action. This ‘paralysis-by-analysis’ barrier tends to substitute
information gathering and processing for decision making. Perhaps
surprisingly, many planning systems do not promote action and are
more concerned with reviewing progress and controlling activity,
rather than tackling strategic issues.
● Resource issues: In any planning situation, the potential exists to nego-
tiate over resources. Indeed, a major aspect of the process is to match
resources to strategic aims. Managers must take a realistic view of the
resource position and endeavour to ensure resources are not over-
committed or needlessly withheld.
● Skills: In some instances, managers do not have the skills (e.g. project
management, forecasting, etc.) required to make the best use of the
planning process. Here, planning takes on a ritual nature – a meaning-
less but ‘must-do’ annual task. Often, planning is reduced to incre-
mental increases/decreases in annual budget and fails to examine
opportunities for business development.
Many of these barriers relate to the implementation of plans rather than
the planning process itself. Chapter 12 deals with the issue of implemen-
tation in detail. However, the sound management practice would advo-
cate the inclusion of implementation as part of the planning process.
Indeed, Piercy (1997) suggests a multidimensional model of planning.
This considers the analytical dimension, the behavioural dimension and
the organisational dimension of any plan. Figure 12.3 summarises the
model.248 Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control