The Impact of Strategic/Corporate Plan on Ghana Post Company Limited

The impact of Strategic/corporate Plan on the performance of corporate bodies in contemporary times; especially Ghana Post Company Limited could not be overemphasized. Strategic/Corporate Planning encompasses the process of vision, mission and objective settings, situation analysis, alternatives consideration, implementation and evaluation that enables the organization to achieve its goals and objectives. Many organizations, particularly the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs),have corporate plans prepared and submitted to the State Enterprises Commission (SEC) as an annual requirement, but none of the plans see the light of day. For those who implement up to a point, there is no performance measurement criterion or tool to ascertain the level of attainment of set goals apart from the usage of management account variances. It is upon this premise that this study was initiated with specific reference to Ghana Post Company Limited for the period 2004-2008. The information obtained in the course of the study is to guide the Management of Ghana Post to develop and implement a realistic Corporate/Strategic Plan, so as to attain a strategic advantage in the Postal-Courier Industry (both domestic and foreign); and also align its strategies with performance measurement systems. Primary and secondary information were collected and analyzed from forty (40) Departmental/Sectional/Unit Heads of Ghana Post, representing 57.14% of the sample size of 70. Apart from scheduled interviews with officials of the corporate level which could not come on due to the unavailability of those officers, interviews of other executives were also conducted, since not all the information would be divulged on the questionnaires. The results of the survey indicated that there was no commitment on the part of management to the attainment of the set goals of the 2004-2008 corporate plan. It came out that since 2003 when the document was published; it has never been reviewed before, even though all projections in the first year of its operations fell below expectation. Invariably, the corporate plan has been collecting dust over the period. No wonder, for two consecutive years the company has been running at a lose; and is having serious cash flow problems due to poor financial management. The product life cycle of existing products and services are not known, new products are also introduced without recourse to logistical support and the required controls system being established. This has lead to the company loosing billions of cedis through under postage and embezzlements. Currently, the company is being advised to adopt harvest strategy due to the existence of several old and obsolete assets. The number of General Managers {i.e. twelve (12)} should be cut down to by 50% so as to eliminate the overlap of duties. Again the workforce of 2500 has to be reduced to at most and the entire operations of the company are automated or computerized. This will go a long way to eliminate or reduce wastage in the system to its barest minimum. Management should avoid the use of shot-term loans for the long-term projects and above all remain focused by allowing the corporate plan to be its tool of direction in reality. The adoption of Business Excellence Model or Balanced Scoreboard will enable the company to clarify its vision and strategy and translate them into action.

Source: KNUST