Nature and concepts of planning

Nature and Concepts of

Planning

Germae M. Decatoria&

Jeremy Jay B. EstiloMAED

The Planning Function of Management

It is the basic management function which includes formulation of one or more detailed plans to achieve optimum balance of needs or demands with the available resources.

• Planning is important in management because it provides security and organization to the company.• A manager needs to plan the expectations and regulations that the company needs.

What is planning?

Planning (is also called forethought) is the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve a desired goal.

•Planning is basic or primary function of management.

•Planning is the process of setting goal and selecting best course of action to reach the goal. It is looking ahead.

•Planning is deciding in advance, what to do, who is to do, how to do and when to do.

•Planning bridge the gap between where we are and where we want to go.

• Planning provide target, they allocate resources in a coordinate manner.

•Planning also solve as standard for control.

•Planning is mental exercise and intellectual process.

•Planning may be long term and short term.

•Planning may be strategic, tactical and operational.

• What are the types of plans?

Strategic Plans

To best understand the relationship between the different types of plans, let's start at the top. Strategic plans are designed with the entire organization in mind and begin with an organization's mission. Top-level managers, such as CEOs or presidents, will design and execute strategic plans to paint a picture of the desired future and long-term goals of the organization. Essentially, strategic plans look ahead to where the organization wants to be in three, five, even ten years. Strategic plans, provided by top-level managers, serve as the framework for lower-level planning.

Tactical Plans

Tactical plans support strategic plans by translating them into specific plans relevant to a distinct area of the organization. Tactical plans are concerned with the responsibility and functionality of lower-level departments to fulfill their parts of the strategic plan. For example, when Martha, the middle-level manager at Nino's, learns about Tommy's strategic plan for increasing productivity, Martha immediately begins to think about possible tactical plans to ensure that happens.

Tactical planning for Martha might include things like testing a new process in making pizzas that has been proven to shorten the amount of time it takes for prepping the pizza to be cooked or perhaps looking into purchasing a better oven that can speed up the amount of time it takes to cook a pizza or even considering ways to better map out delivery routes and drivers. As a tactical planner, Martha needs to create a set of calculated actions that take a shorter amount of time and are narrower in scope than the strategic plan is but still help to bring the organization closer to the long-term goal.

Operational PlansOperational plans sit at the bottom of the totem pole;

they are the plans that are made by frontline, or low-level, managers. All operational plans are focused on the specific procedures and processes that occur within the lowest levels of the organization. Managers must plan the routine tasks of the department using a high level of detail. Frank, the frontline manager at Nino's Pizzeria, is responsible for operational planning. Operational planning activities for Frank would include things like scheduling employees each week; assessing, ordering and stocking inventory; creating a monthly budget; developing a promotional advertisement for the quarter to increase the sales of a certain product (such as the Hawaiian pizza) or outlining an employee's performance goals for the year.

Operational plans can be either single-use or ongoing plans. Single-use plans are those plans that are intended to be used only once. They include activities that would not be repeated and often have an expiration. Creating a monthly budget and developing a promotional advertisement for the quarter to increase the sales of a certain product are examples of how Frank would utilize single-use planning. Operational plans are made by low-level managers.Ongoing plans are those plans that are built to withstand the test of time. They are created with the intent to be used several times and undergo changes when necessary.

Contingency PlansEven the best plans can fail, especially in

today's fast-paced, chaotic business environment, and as such, it is important for managers at all levels to engage in contingency planning. Contingency plans allow a manager to be flexible and change-savvy by providing an alternative course of action, which can be implemented if and when an original plan fails to produce the anticipated result. Having a contingency plan might seem like extra work, but much like a reserve parachute when skydiving, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

•What are the characteristics of planning?

Characteristics of Planning

1. Intellectual process: - Planning is mental exercise and intellectual process.

2. Future oriented: - Planning is always future oriented.

3. Goal focused: - Planning aims to achieve goal in future.

4. Pervasiveness of plan: - Planning is needed at all level of management.

5. Increase efficiency: -Planning increase efficiency. Planning aims to achieve goal at low cost.

6. Decision making: - Planning and decision making are interrelated. Planning is selecting right course of action to reach the goal.

Planning PrinciplesBy: John C. Maxwell

1) The Principle of Passion

When we're passionless, we procrastinate on the plan or burnout trying to execute it. With passion, we approach our plans with excitement and a sense of urgency. Passion gives planning energy. Passion also gives planning focus. As Tim Redmond says, "There are many things that will catch my eye, but there are only a few things that will catch my heart. It is those I consider to pursue." Passion narrows our vision so that the plan dominates our attention and distractions fade into the background.

2) The Principle of Creativity

Of the seven planning principles, we violate the principle of creativity the most. By gravitating to concreteness, we sacrifice creativity. We settle for what's easy to wrap our minds around, and we neglect to wrestle with harder, more difficult dilemmas. Leaders are too busy doing to think and provide ideas. Even the rare leaders who think creatively often neglect to encourage the people around them to do the same. Consequently, a majority of teams rely on one person for creative thought and end up starved with good ideas.

3) The Principle of Influence

When you prepare your plans, ask yourself the question, "Am I able to influence the resources needed to fulfill my planning and mission?" To accomplish your plan, you'll need influence over people, finances, and you schedule. The support of people, especially other influencers, can make or break your plan. Make a priority to build relationships with them. In particular, find the key to their lives by learning what matters most to them. If you continually add value to the influencers around you in meaningful ways, then you'll be more likely to receive their assistance when you need it.

4) The Principle of PrioritiesGiving importance to the things you have to do or

deal with, or must be done or dealt with before everything else you have to do. You have no right, nor any reason, to start planning your life until you know what you're living for and what you're willing to die for. It's important to find your purpose so that you run, not on the fast track, but on your track. The key to a prioritized life is concentration followed by elimination. As Peter Drucker observed, "Concentration is the key to economic results. No other principle 4 of effectiveness is violated as constantly today as the basic principal of concentration. Our motto seems to be, let's do a little bit of everything." We must cease to dabble in everything before we can become excellent at anything”.

5) The Principle of FlexibilityIn leadership, be mentally prepared that not

everything will go according to your plans. Then, when plans unfold unexpectedly, you'll be prepared to see new opportunities. Some of the best things we received in life have been surprises that we could never have planned in advance. When plans go awry, don't just stand there. By staying in motion, you createmovement. Be resourceful enough to improvise when circumstances push you off course.

6) The Principle of Timing

Most of the time, our decisions are based on our emotional environment rather than reality. When we're in the valleys of life, we don't see clearly. Our perspective is limited, and all we see are the problems around us. In the valleys we make decisions, not to better ourselves, but to escape our problems. Never make a major decision in the valleys. Wait until you get to the peak where you can see clearer and farther. By reserving big choices for the peaks, you'll avoid making rash decisions that you’ll regret later.

7) The Principle of Teamwork

A worthwhile plan ought to be bigger than your abilities. You shouldn't be able to accomplish it alone. Each of us has areas of weakness, blind spots, and shortcomings. Unless we rely on a team to help us, our plans succumb to our personal limitations. A sign in Coach Bill Parcells' office stated his philosophy plainly, "Individuals play the game but teams win championships." What we can do alone pales in comparison to the potential we have when we work together.

•What are the different barriers to effective planning?

Barriers or Limitations of Planning

1. Planning is an expensive and time consuming process. -It involves significant amount of money, energy and

also risk, without any assurance of the fulfillment of the organization’s objectives.

2. Planning sometimes restricts the organization to the most rational and risk free opportunities.

- It curbs the initiative of the manager and forces him to operate within the limits set by it.

3. The scope of planning is said to be limited in the case of organizations with rapidly changing situations.

- For example, it is claimed that for industries producing fashionable articles or for industries engage in the publication of textbooks, working on a day-to-day basis is more economical than plan basis.

4. Flexibility of planning cannot be maintained when there are unforeseen changes in the environment.

- such as business recession, change in the government policy, crop failure etc. When such events take place, the original plan loses its value and there is a need to draw up a fresh plan.

5. Another limiting factor in planning is the difficulty of formulating accurate premises.

- Since these premises are the background against which a set of plan is made, they necessarily deal with the future. Since the future cannot be known with accuracy, premising must be subject to a margin of error.

6. Planning may sometimes face people’s resistance to it.

- In old, established organizations, managers are often frustrated in instituting a new plan simply by the unwillingness or inability of people to accept it.

“Thinking well is wise; planning well, wiser; but doing well is the wisest and best of all.” - unknown

Thank you!