Strategic Planning in the Small Business

Unit 4

HO 4-1 (continued)

CONFLICT AMONG GOALS

No business will

have a single overriding goal. All gloups, all businesses,

all individuals

have

multiple goals. Many of the goals are congruous,

but some are not. Some goals will al­

ways be in conflict. For example,

goals to be successful business owners

sometimes conflict

with goals of being successful

parents.

Within a business, the conflicts among

goals can affect the strategy of the firm. The

con­

flicts may be of two types:

Mutually Exclusive Goals

Managers

of a business may have mutually exclusive goals.

On occasion, a manager

may have a goal in conflict with another

manager, or a manager may have two goals

that con­

flict

with each other. In either caste the exclusivity means

that we can not achieve one without

serious damage to the

other. Here the owner or manager must resolve

the conflict which has

arisen.

If the owner has complete power

over subordinates, it may entail only announcing

a final

decision. But even in this

case, the decision may alienate one or more workers;

so, it makes

sense for the owner to

attempt to resolve differences amicably if possible.

The manager should

strive to negotiate and accommodate rather

than alienate.

Goal Priorities

Psychologists

and those in the medical profession suggest

that individuals must establish

priorities

for themselves. People can never attain all that

they want to attain nor do all that they

want to do. Somehow they

have to learn to prioritize their lives and determine

which of life's

objectives

are most important.

The same holds for businesses. Businesses

will have multiple opportunities and multiple

goals, and, it will be

difficult, if not impossible, to adequately achieve

all goals. It is necessary,

then, to prioritize

the company's goals. Planners may decide

that the major emphasis this year

is on hiring new employees

because the major emphasis last year

was on expanding into a new

area. Sales increased dramatically,

making it necessary to address the personnel

needs. Thus,

although growth and expansion

received first priority last year, it now

must take second place

to personnel considerations.

Prioritizing goals is of particular importance

in the product development area. If

our

firm has a number of products that

could be marketed, we may decide that produce A and

B will

receive attention
next year, with products C, D, and E being
funded the following year. Simi­

larly,
we may budget to replace some of our old equipment
this year while the remainder is

scheduled for replacement
two years in the future. These are examples
of prioritizing goals and

then insuring
that the goals are planned into the budget.

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