Organisations that Fail to Plan Are Planning to Fail: Yay or Nay?

The statement “Organisations that fail to plan are planning to fail” refers to the idea that an organisation’s success is based around their ability to formally plan in their environment, which although the statement is widely agreed upon, some critics and points against its validity must be acknowledged. The statements strength is amplified through three major factors where; planning can facilitate a sense of guidance and fosters a coordinated workforce, planning reduces the level of ambiguity of the future in the organisation and finally planning will establish the objectives or principles that simplify control (Robbins, DeCenzo, Coulter, Woods, 2013). The weakness of the statement can be seen through two key impacts of formal planning where; Planning may create rigidity within the workplace, planning may inhibit new thinking and originality and finally planning requires a managerial effort to look at today’s competition and not the future of the business (Robbins, DeCenzo, Coulter, Woods, 2013).

Planning may often be referred to as the “primary management function” due to its ability to form the foundations of all managerial tasks (Robbins, DeCenzo, Coulter, Woods, 2013) and as such planning may facilitate a greater level of efficiency within the organisation. Armstrong (1982) argued that rather than using disorganised speculation and conjecture a well-defined formal planning practice facilitates the assembly of information essential to the organisation. In the same way, Ansof (1991) argued that a formal planning practice will result in an organisation performing better financially than those who do not (Miller, C. Chet, Cardinal, Laura. B 1994). Simultaneously through planning an organisations culture and learning capabilities...

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