Question

3. Many people state that their organization has no customers. Is it possible for a business, or department within an enterprise, not to have customers? Why or why not? How does the customer influence an operations strategy? What is the difference between a strategy and an operations plan?

Answer 1

Answer 3= Each department or organization serves either some sort of external customer or the internal customers which are within the organization. The external customers can be seen as the people or organizations which depend on the product, service, or information from the organization or department while the internal customers are the other departments of the firm that need some types of input, resources, or information from the other department. Thus each department or organization has some type of customer that can be either internal or external.

The operational strategy of the firm is greatly affected by the customers as the focus of the organizations is to serve the customers better and for this, the organizations have to focus on the demand and requirements of the customers and accordingly they need to change their operations or develop the new policies, processes that can address the needs and wants of the customers.

The main focus of developing the strategic plan is to assist the organization to fulfill its long term goals and visions. On the other hand, operations plans are mainly focused on determining the different things that are needed to be done by the organization to accomplish their tactical goals. Operational planning is mainly formed to assist the organization to fulfill its strategic objectives