In the mid-1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, there weren't many people with the foresight and courage to start up a new company. Yet the husband and wife team of Leo and Lillian Goodwin were up to the challenge. Confident that he could create a successful auto insurance business by marketing directly to carefully targeted customer groups, Leo Goodwin hammered out a business plan during his early career in Texas.
In 1936, he put that plan into action, establishing the Government Employees Insurance Company–the company known and loved today as GEICO. Few people realize that GEICO was initially targeted to federal employees and certain categories of enlisted military officers. From the 1960’s to the early 90’s GEICO had other CEO’s in place but it was not until 1993 that the company began to change as a whole. In 1993, Olza "Tony" Nicely was named GEICO's new chairman, president and CEO, and worked to expand the customer base through a new four-company …show more content…
Through plans managers are able to communicate their expectations and strategic plans to achieve corporate mission. Tony Nicely, GEICO’s CEO understands the importance of planning. Nicely is very involved in the planning process and stays abreast of the corporate business stance as well as how each functional department plans to achieve corporate goals. Nicely meets with top management to develop plans for the upcoming year. The decisions and plans made by top level management are communicated to mid-level management in the form of business level plans. Mid-level management is responsible for creating functional level plans where. The use of this systematic approach to planning ensures that each level of the hierarchy within an organization understands the corporate mission and their role in achieving it. GEICO’s planning is centered around its 7 operating