CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Corporate planning strategy sets the overall direction in which a company will follow and determine how resources will be allocated. Corporate strategy sets the strategic goals and plans at the top of the hierarchy in the organization planning process, determines the broad path for managers through the organization to follow in achieving the organization mission. Top managers are responsible for formulating corporate level strategy and define how company will compete in each of its chosen business including the product market choices. When a company is composed of numerous businesses, each business should be designated as a strategic business unit (SBU) a separate set of managers, products, resources, customers and competitors should be managed independently of the other business.
Functional level strategy supports business level strategy by specifying activities in each of the functional areas within an organization, such as marketing finance and other level strategy generally drives the operation goals and plans that are the means for achieving the tactical goals in the hierarchy of goals of the organization. Strategies at the functional level are typically developed by the middle level managers who head each functional area and they tend to focus on the short term goals. Mission are keyed to the corporate strategy of growth through increased sale and improved profitability.
Statement of the Problem
A company without a comprehensive corporate plan is wandering aimlessly. It is imperative that a company has a plan in place particularly if the company is growing or moving into another field of endeavor. A company is interested in better decisions by developing plan to solve problems and take advantage of objectives and goals of the organization as a whole based on the outcome of the surveillance and interpretation of the threats and opportunities in the external environment by the top management.
Corporate planning is a requirement for all businesses to survive and without corporate planning business will find it difficult to coordinate their activities, meet their production schedule, minimize their cost of production and respond to environmental changes. The result of this will be lack of customers’ satisfaction which will finally result in extinction. This study is therefore to investigate the effect of corporate planning on business survival.
Objectives of the Study
The following objectives were formulated for the study:
To examine the effect of corporate planning on coordination of business activities.
To examine the effect of corporate planning on meeting production schedule.
To examine the effect of corporate planning on minimizing cost of production.
To examine the effect of corporate planning on responding to environmental changes.
To examine the effect of corporate planning on satisfaction of customers.
Research Questions
The following research questions were formulated:
How is the effect of corporate planning on coordination of business activities?
How is the effect of corporate planning on meeting production schedule?
How is the effect of corporate planning on minimizing cost of production?
How is the effect of corporate planning on responding to environmental changes?
How is the effect of corporate planning on satisfaction of customers?
Significance of the Study
It is believed that this research work will be beneficial to investors/business owners as it will greatly enhance the quality of investment decision by enhancing them to properly identify sources of funds, plan well for the funds, and utilize the funds for a better result. The research will surely benefit other researchers who might want to use the work as a reference material.
Scope of The Study
The research work examined the effects of corporate planning on business survival using United Bank for Africa Plc, Ikot Ekpene Branch as a case study.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
The study was limited by the following factors:
Financial Factor: Inadequate funds affected the way data were collected since the research had to travel long distance for the distribution of the questionnaire forms.
Time Factor: This led to the reduction in the size of the sample used for the study because the researcher had only few months to complete the study because the time period allowed for this research work was not adequate given other competing academic demanding for the researcher’s time.
Materials Constraint: Shortage of relevant material and ability to find appropriate material for literature review pose a great difficulty to the study.
