Management Planning Paper
La Trisha Bonner
330
November-20-2010
Joe Cheng

Management Planning Paper Planning is a major function that has been put into place by companies large and small, when covering various steps in running their companies. Traditionally, however, large companies have been on the forefront of strategic planning performance. Such companies face several internal and external factors that have an impact on their organization, but more specifically, the planning function of management. These factors are often broad and can include issues such as ethics, legality, and social responsibility. The Altria Group, Inc. is a company that is often criticized for ethical and social issues, and these factors have a great deal impact on organizational planning. Previously known as The Phillip Morris Companies, Altria Group Inc. produces a wide variety of tobacco, beer, and food products. “Altria sells some of the world’s most successful and best-known packaged goods. Altria’s Philip Morris divisions make several leading cigarette brands and other tobacco products in the United States and internationally. The Philip Morris USA division is the nation’s leading cigarette manufacturer. Altria’s food division, Kraft Foods, Inc., produces a variety of popular cereals, prepared foods, and beverages. Altria is also the major shareholder in SABMiller plc, formerly known as the Miller Brewing Co., which makes some of the best-selling beers in the United States and in the world. Altria is located in New York City. The cigarette brands produced by the Philip Morris divisions include Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Chesterfield, and Basic. Kraft Foods is one of the world’s largest food companies. Its brands include Kraft, Maxwell House, Oreo, and Oscar Mayer” (Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD], 2007). Altria has had some highs and lows throughout the years. Kraft Foods has helped consumers make decisions by providing nutrition information in a straight forwarded and clear way. Altria has come under fire from just about every direction; ranging from accusations of excessive political lobbying, being named as a defendant in several tobacco- related lawsuits, and developing a harmful and unethical tobacco advertising campaigns, among other things. When a company must deal with such heated issues, every aspect of management planning is affected. When companies are faced with severe ethical issues or social critique, management teams must scramble to review and revise their comprehensive business plans. This may include redefining their company image to the public via strategy implementation, or reaffirming their social responsibility by disclosing past problems whereas and offering new solutions. Like all business decisions, these actions should be based on a formal planning stage. Most obviously, when a company is accused of several unethical actions, the company’s management team should be looking for ways to correct the problems by taking a look at step one of the strategic planning phase, which is to establish a mission, vision, and goals. “A mission is a clear and concise expression of the basic purpose of the organization. It describes what the organization does, who it does it for, its basic good or service, and its values” (Thomas S. Bateman, 2009). Considering all of the ethical scrutiny aimed at Altria, it would have been a wise business decision to review their mission statement and re-evaluate their goals and values. According to www.allbusiness.com, The Altria mission statement is Integrity, trust and respect Passion to succeed Executing with quality Driving creativity into everything we do Sharing with others Customers and shareholders react negatively to organizations with bad reputations, and so Altria’s management would have had to consider even the most adolescent stages of their strategic planning. From this point, a new general strategic plan could be formed. Perhaps Altria’s executives decided to establish a long -term goal to improve their company’s image? If this were so then Altria could use the tools of strategic planning to lay the foundation for their upcoming planning phases. For example, social analysis could be used to determine current political and social issues and their effect on the well being of the company. If strategic planning involves formulating a plan to achieve a long -term goal, then tactical planning divides a long-term goal into smaller specific goals. Tactical planning, though shorter term than strategic planning, often has a horizon time of one to two years. Tactical plans often focus on the actions that should be taken for a strategic plan to succeed. . For Altria, this could mean relying on their marketing department to devise and launch a positive ad campaign improve company image. For example, “ Since 2002, Altria has collaborated with Keep America Beautiful, a national leader in litter prevention, to research, develop and launch a multi-year Cigarette Litter Prevention Program, through its affiliates and partners organizations, has implemented the program in more than 300 countries”. The Kraft Foods Foundation recently pledged $180 million over three years to receive more food-and better nutrition and information- to children and families” discount-marlboro-cigarettes.com 2009 and kraftfoodscompany.com 2009). In 2003 “Philip Morris changed its name to Altria Group, Inc. The name change was voted upon at a shareholders’ meeting the previous year. Observers noted that the name change was intended to distance the company from its tobacco heritage” (Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD], 2007). These are examples of actions that support a long term strategic goal but were most likely ironed out during a mid-level tactical planning phase before being executed. Operational planning involves procedures involved at lower levels of the planning stages, and often incorporates day- to- day strategic decisions. This level of planning would most likely focus on marketing staff tasked to support Altria’s ad campaign, or perhaps Altria’s legal department. Operational planning focuses on creating short- term goals in support of Altria’s long term strategic and tactical plan. Like all internal and external factors, ethical issues often have a profound effect on the planning phases of an organization. Altria has apparently taken planning quite seriously in the midst facing such issues, and continues to profit in lieu of trying times.

References
Bateman, T. S. (2009). Management: Leading and Collaborating in a Competitive World (8th ed.). Na: McGraw-Hill, a business unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies Inc..
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Kraft. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com statement. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.allbusiness.com