Strategic Planning in the Small Business

Unit

1

Notes

for Instructors

Class Exercise

Unit 1

Class Exercise:

Role play
exercise #1

How

to introduce

p.'anning process in

the firm.

Step

1: Select

a group of two

or three students

from the class. Their

job

(role) is to play

the part of staff

members from a

fictitious

firm

called "Candy

Cane Manufacturing"

(CCM).

Step 2:

Assign each student

a specific role.

For example,

one person

would be the accountant,

one the production

manager

and one

the salesperson.

The instructor

will take the

role of president

of the company.

Step 3: Set

the stage as follows:

It's 9:00

am on Monday morning.

The president

has called

the

group into

his office for a

brief staff meeting.

He tells the

group that

he has just completed

his first

weekend in

the

entrepreneurship

training

program. He

goes on to say that

over

the next

three months

he has decided to

develop a strategic

plan for

CCM. The teams

job will be to

work with him

to

prepare

the plan.

Step 4: The

group then begins

to ask questions

and raise concerns.

Marketing

manager -"How

much time will

this take? We don't

have

the time now

to get our work done.

How do you

think we

can find time to

plan?"

Accountant

• "What will this
  plan cost? We can't
  afford to take

time away from

production and

sales. I think this is

not a good

idea."

Salesperson -

"Planning! Isn't that

what the Soviets

did? Look

where they

landed up."

Step 5: .The

president of

the company then

begins to answer

their

questions

and concerns one

by one.

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