The role, potential and contribution of business planning in Abu Dhabi Police Force

Introduction

The Police Force Organization just like other sectors has undergone various changes and adjustments in the recent decades. According to Abrams and Kleiner 2003, there is a belief that new police forms can restore public confidence and decrease crime level and so the need for various reforms and business plans witnessed in police forces. The number of Police Forces and Security firms is on the rise due to changes in business dynamics and an increase in pressure on Security firms to diversify their operations. The high level of competition faced by Security Firms has led to increased emphasis on the policies that they should be used to improve their positioning in various market segments (Abrams and Kleiner, 2003). Various business plans are designed by security firms to improve their performance and existence in the market.

Police officers are anticipated to undertake proactive and protective chores for example, community involvement. This paper starts by evaluating the role, potential and contributions that business planning has made to Abu Dhabi Police Force. The second part analyses the system factors that impact upon success and failure of business plans taking Abu Dhabi as a case study. The third section critically reviews how business plans are developed and evaluated in Abu Dhabi Police Force examining their acceptability, feasibility and suitability in the Police Force setup. The fourth part review how business plans are prepared, defended and approved in Abu Dhabi and giving recommendations for improvements.

The role, potential and contribution of business planning in Abu Dhabi Police Force

Various business plans have been witnessed in Abu Dhabi Police force in the recent past. There are various advantages of business plans for Abu Dhabi as well as other security firms. The section analyses the contributions and importance of business plans to Abu Dhabi.

First, the business planning in Abu Dhabi Police force creates an opportunity for the organization to reflect the far they have gone, the commitments they have made and how they rate themselves in term of their objectives. Business planning is the first function of any organization’s management and so Abu Dhabi. Planning entails sound thinking through organization goals and deciding what is required to be achieved to attain the aims of the Police Force (Abrams and Kleiner, 2003). Managers have to apply this process in planning for the future of the organization, just like a blueprint to predict possible problems and on possible solutions to avoid these problems and create a competitive edge.

As Bateman and Snell (2007) state, managers should know their subordinates and their abilities so as to organize them well. This is accomplished through staffing, training of workers, recruiting and forming effective work teams. The training is important to equip the new recruits and candidates with the firm’s standards and emerging security issues and how to deal with them (Bradfield, 2005). The training should be relevant to the department and if possible different departments should have different trainings and requirements.

The success of an organization is determined mainly by the leadership displayed.  Thus, managers have to possess powers to influence or motivate their workers and lead them in the performing the duties assigned to them in the planning process. It is through a business planning that Abu Dhabi Police force managers are able to review how services are delivered. This is essential in identifying opportunities to improve the money value and deliver efficiency savings.

Business planning also allows for self-assessment services to identify potential opportunities and weaknesses within the police force and thus help in the identifying and improving service delivery to the public (Abrams and Kleiner, 2003). It is also through a business planning that the police force will be able to realize the savings and meet the needs of the police force. This is necessary in ensuring resilience to coming budgets.

The strategic decision-making commences with identifying the missions and visions of a given business plan and articulation of the responsible stakeholders. Fulfilling the Abu Dhabi Police force’s objectives requires the stakeholders to identify the processes in which the Police Force must excel. As the process by which the Police force is developed and defied is the most valuable process the organization can engage in, then the excellence in business planning remains the most vital issue (ADP, Abu Dhabi Police, 2012). Clear and appropriate objectives or vision are fundamental and are to be articulated to nurture commitment, ownership and involvement and so the importance of business planning in a Police Force. It is also through the business plans that the organization can collect various views and opinions, and so high relevance of the project is enhanced. It also enhances the connection between the employees and the given project and thus full participation of the Police Force workforce and encourages sharing of ideas (Collerette et al., 2010).

System factors that impact upon success and failure in the development and implementation of business plans in Abu Police All organizations and Security firms, whether large or small, private or public new businesses need to operate smoothly and attain their set objectives. To achieve this, the Police Force needs to formulate and implement its own strategies. However, as Bateman and Snell (2007) notes, there are four basic functions each management of an organization must perform, this are; planning, organizing, directing and controlling.  Although system factors that have impacts on the success and failure of business plan development and implementation are complex, often overlapping and interrelated, they can be grouped into two categories, ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ generally referred to as external and internal factors respectively (Nuaimi, 2012). Hard or external factors are those factors affecting business planning that originate from outside the organization while ‘soft’ or internal factors originate from within the organization.

The external factors are unlikely to be controlled by the organization decision makers. Instead, planners and strategies will react to the forces, trying to protect the Police Force from any undue negative effects and seek ways to exploit positive ones (Abrams and Kleiner, 2003). Among the ‘hard’ or external factor that have effects on the success of business plans are economic, social, technological and political factors. The following are considered the hard or external system factors.

Political Factors

The exercise dissects the governmental, legal and political aspects of a given business plan to be implemented since they are key regulators, subsidizers and deregulators of key security business plans. Present and potential development taking into consideration government-driven tax, restraints and trade quota are substantial political realities to be considered when designing a business plan.

Economic Factors

Analysis of economy, a comprehensive study of regional and national performance trend represent a highly vital phase of strategic development for start-up business or business planning. The economic factors have various direct and indirect effects on the potential attractiveness of several business projects. The analysis yields indications on various variables for instance nature of economy, credit availability, government deficits and interest rates among others. The world economy has undergone various distortions and business have floundered and resorted to manpower cutbacks and several both small and medium being forced to close. This reinforces the importance of analysing economic factors before and at the implementation stage of any given business plan in both security and other industries (Collerette et al., 2010).

Social Factors

This relates to assessing the cultural, social and demographic profiles or targeted markets. Taking the United States for instance, demographic and cultural trends do shape the way people live, work, produce and consume.

Technological Factors Technology is a business enabler which has revolutionary effects on the real conduct of a business. Technology helps in achieving targeted productivity and business efficiency. A clear example is the internet, where what was formerly considered impossible in instantaneous global communication is now a cold reality and an urgent necessity for the success all business. This is also applicable in the security industry. The internet continues to change the form of opportunities and threats in every business. It changes the life cycle, enhances information sharing, quickens distribution speed, creates new services and products, redefines business relationships and propagates free transactions (Collerette et al., 2010). Challenge in Security and the opportunities cannot be explained without mentioning the relevance of the information technology in that field. Technology has boosted information technology vital element for security professionals both in their operations as well as when designing a new business plan. In a nut shell, internet in all sectors has become an essential business tool. Technology, however, is a peril, a disruptive component that can cause horrific operational hitches for businesses that do not move with new technologies and innovations (Nuaimi, 2012). The negative side of technology intensifies the necessity of evaluating the technology issues surrounding business viability.

Competitive Factors

Equally vital, in developing business plans, company’s rival firms should be identified and assert their weaknesses, strengths, capabilities, threat, opportunities and strategies they use. The competitor’s weaknesses and strategies can signify opportunities, while key competitive strengths can indicate external threats. The more information a given organization has about its competitors, the better its chances of designing a thriving business plan.

Various strategically-minded organization or firms go to the point of implementing a responsive competitive intelligence policy, which is a methodical and ethical process for collecting, processing, and organizing information concerning the competitor’s actions and general business trends to help them attain their business objectives. The competitive intelligence programs tend to give a general understanding of an industry, and its rival players, recognizing the competitor’s vulnerabilities and assessing the effects of strategic actions against them, and identifying the actions taken by the competitors that might jeopardize an organization’s position in the market or industry.

On the contrary, there exist internal or soft factors. There are various factors that can be grouped as soft factors that affect the implementation and development of a business plan. Factors that affect the six implementation steps have direct impacts on the success or failure of a given business plan. The six processes are alternative goals and plans, evaluation of goals, plan selection, implementation, and monitor and control. The following factors are known to have effects on the success or failure of a business plan.

Priorities

Priority is among the factors that affecting business planning process. Priorities are to be properly examined during the evaluation of a business plan. They are essential since they have to be involved in plan evaluation. Priorities may be shifted, and others may be given up for higher priorities. The factors have an impact on the business plan implementation since it determines the choice to be made and that is beneficial to the business.

Budget

Budget has the direct impact on the implementation of a business plan, and a plan minus a budget during the implementation process is bound to fail in the implementation. Budgets can result to the success or failure of a business plan and ideas about making budgets should always be considered during planning and plan implementation.

Leadership

Leadership skills are essential for the success of an organization. Good leadership skills entail dynamic and diverse skills that enable managers to interact with peers and workers in an open minded way. Adequate skills enable managers to encounter the myriad challenges that affect an organization. It is paramount for leadership skills to encompass organizational management, communication, analytical strategic management and creativity or vision (Bradfield, 2005). Managers who are equipped with these skills are able to handle change and project the future of the organization with certainty. Human skills enhance the building of relationships between managers and employees and thus bring out competency by fostering relationship and thus demonstrating respect for others; the skills in this context are those of team building skills.

It is through managers learning these skills that they are able to create working teams and thus create an environment which is conducive for the operations of the organization. By using team building and social interaction skills, managers should consider cultural diversity and the challenges that come along with it. Thus, the managers learn these skills so that they can create an environment that will allow and appreciate cultural diversity to thrive and at the same time allowing people to interact freely without cultural prejudices.  Equally important, the managers learn human skills so that they can handle and identify talents within the organization (Cole, 2011). This will eventually help in highlighting weaknesses and strengths of people in the organization and thus providing employees with tasks they can easily accomplish. Other skills that managers learn under human skills are the skills that foster mentorship and leadership development. It is paramount that leaders learn to be effective mentors and take their employees through organizational leadership development programs so that all their employees are equipped with relevant skills (NPIA, 2006).

Development and evaluation of Business plans in Abu Dhabi Controlling process is the process that ensures that organization’s plans are implemented in a correct manner. Jeston 2008 explains that, controlling is the final connection in the functional sequence of the management process and it completes the management circle. Controlling permits for easiness of assigning duties to work teams, and since managers might be held responsible for the performance of their subordinates, it would be sensible of them to provide quick feedback of employees’ achievements and performance (Jeston, 2008).

At Abu Dhabi, the company hold departmental meeting on a daily basis. These meetings are then used to evaluate the daily program, establish any possible problems and to find out how to solve the problems immediately and effectively. The company also uses control process to set performance standards of employees, communicate these standards, apply them and evaluate how they are carried out. Managers carry out continuous assessment and appraisals on employees’ performance in order to reward or take corrective measures. Abu Dhabi has been able to maintain high standards of its products range because of effective control measures in the organization.

How plans are developed in Abu Dhabi Police

The responsible departments in the development of CCTV Systems for Abu Dhabi Police Buildings are involved with a structured Business plan. Business plan for the organization commences with a request from any department in the police force requesting for video surveillance system. The enquiry is usually based on operational, security or safety requirements. The needs are majorly generic in nature which the depart plans, design and execute to meet the strict department’s requirements and allow for future adjustments. The proceeding steps are followed after the department gets an official request for video surveillance from a department with in AD Police (ADP, Abu Dhabi Police, 2012). The initial step after getting the official request is to visit the site with the responsible departments and comprehend the requirements from the video surveillance. The team after that assesses the suitability of video surveillance system to meet the Departments requirements and expectations. After confirming the suitability of the plan, the feasibility of the video surveillance system is verified.

A concept design is prepared to expand on the deficiencies and the expected results of the proposed video surveillance. The concept design is discussed with the concerned department and approval if necessary is taken thereafter. Suppose the concept design is approved, the following step is finding both manpower and financial resources. Depending on the concept design, a budgetary expense is prepared (Cole, 2011). The prepared budget is then forwarded to the concerned department to give the required finance for the completion of the project or implantation of the business plan.

After the budget has been approved, the department works on the final design due consideration to scalability, security and system availability. The final design and specification is approved by the concerned department. The accepted specification and final design floated as a tender and published in the local newspapers for bidders to buy (NPIA, 2006). The bids both financial and technical are then received by the department responsible for purchasing before the closing day for the bidders. After that, they are sent to the department for evaluation and recommendations purposes. The concerned department then performs compliance evaluation and recommends three most suitable bidders to the financial department to choose among the three (ADP, Abu Dhabi Police, 2012).

After bid is approved by the purchasing department, our department is responsible for managing the project so that it executed within the time frame and within the allowed budget meeting the quality and expectations of the concerned department. The department responsible for project monitoring ensures that the project complies with the tender requirements and that the expected outcomes are fulfilled.

Suitability, feasibility and acceptability