strategy, planning and sheduling

This weeks reading taught me the importance of strategic planning, and if you don’t put strategies, tactics and plans into your work you are unlikely to succeed. This was great news to me because as nerdy as it may sound I like to plan things out in this way and thought all of the strategies shown were very good. I do the same thing with my studies, I make check lists of what I need to do, I break it down into different sections and schedule when I need to do what (although not quite as detailed as the examples). It also opened my eyes to a new technique – questioning, for example; “What business are we in? Why does the business exist? What are our aims? What values and beliefs do we stand for?”1. I think this is so important because it not only gives you a great overall view of where you should be heading and the purpose for your actions but it gives greater understanding about the organisation you are with or what you are doing. I also found the Zawai-Johnston strategic public relations plan very helpful. It put things into perspective, teaching me that if you use these organisational skills things are so much clearer and easily dealt with to effectively achieve your goals. The plan asks you to state each of the following:

1. Executive summary
2. Vision and mission
3. Background and situation analysis
4. Define strategy
5. Define publics
6. Define main message
7. Select tactics and communication methods
8. Implementation and scheduling
9. Monitoring and evaluation
10. Budget

One point I found of particular interest was “You are only likely to be as good a practitioner as your CEO will allow you to be. Therefore, the first strategic move often needs to be made internally” 2. This showed me that Public relations practitioners have more sway and power in the organisation than I initially thought. The reading also gave a mention to budgets and how important it is to plan out your expenditures so you don’t run into funding troubles. It told us to include the main expenditures such as advertising for example, but also things as small as paper and photocopying and around 10% of the budget for unexpected expenses. This is very smart; when I usually work out my personal budget I don’t include unexpected expenses. My money situation would be far more relaxed if I took this into account.

This week I took away from the reading not only a far better understanding of the planning involved with Public relations practitioners but also skills that I can use in everyday life... always a bonus! I also finally learned what a mission statement is! I’ve heard the term a lot and never new what it was. I was most happy with the text this week.

References:

1. Chapter 7 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed. Page 174

2. Chapter 7 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed. Page 171

Chapter 4 - A Typical Public Relations Program. In C. Tymson, P. Lazar, P and R. Lazar, (Eds.)The new Australian and New Zealand public relations manual (5^th ed.) (pp. 74-117) Manly: Tymson Communications. 2006