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Planning function of management examples
Functions of management planning
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The Planning Function of Management
Management Planning
The planning function of management provides goals, strategies, direction, and it defines responsibilities in any organization. The types of plans include strategic, operational, tactical, and contingency. Each one of these types allows an organization to have multiple plans to play different roles to achieve an overall common goal. According to Fortune 500, “Entergy has been in their top rankings for the past several years. Entergy constantly exceeds the 10 billion dollar mark in annual revenues.” (Cable News Network, 2008). With revenue of that magnitude, and having an employee base of over 14,000 employees, it is apparent that Entergy’s planning function is one of success.
Entergy’s foundation for strategic planning was created in 1913 by one of the company’s founders, Harvey Couch, during his endeavor into the electrical industry. “Couch’s ultimate goal was to have an integrated electric system with numerous sources of power at a reasonable price. Service reliability was foremost on his mind.” (Entergy Corporation, 2008). Couch’s original philosophy for strategic planning is still implemented by Entergy to this day. The company continues to grow into new markets to increase its sources of power to distribute to its existing and potential customers. With this growth, the strategic plan remains one of the most successful functions of Entergy’s management plan.
Operational planning occurs in the trenches, so to speak. It is the work of lower-to-middle management and all subsequent field workers who perform the tasks that help accomplish the overall corporate goals set forth by the strategic plan. Entergy prides itself in the teamwork and dedication its employees put forth as a productive unit of the company. The operations division experiences all physical attributes of the company’s missions and goals. Some of these attributes include installing new equipment and services in new customer areas, as well as troubleshooting and repairing existing areas of service. Entergy’s operations span across Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana; and many efforts are volunteered to help other regions in times of crisis. It is during those times that operational planning shines because of critical time constraints and levels of severity involved with those crises. Without operational planning, Entergy’s strategic goals would never be met.
Once strategic and operational planning have been established, tactical planning must take place within a company to secure strategic, (not the same as the planning function), targets to provide a successful business presence. Entergy has used this function of planning to place its business operations in markets that could create symbiotic relationships with other businesses that have already had infrastructure in place.
The strategic plan is planned those who influence resources and understand how a set of tactics work together, it is identifying and setting a vision. On the other hand tactical planning utilizes the resources to achieve the goals and support the vision. Those doing this type of planning face having to plan the usage of limited resources into actions to achieve a set of goals. I don’t think the two can really be separated, but rather they go hand in hand (Owyang).
Operating a trucking company requires proper planning, such as strategic planning, to ensure that all goals are met in a timely manner. Strategic planning is a process that includes managers from all parts of the organization in the creation and the execution of strategies and strategic goals (Kinicki & Williams , 2016). The management team for B&G Express and Bill
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2014), “Planning is the process of setting goals, creating organizational strategies and/or outlining tasks and innovative ways to accomplish the goals you have set in order to be a successful organization.” In the world of management or healthcare management planning is a vital importance in that it helps to focus, prepare and clarify the daily projects and assignments that may help an organization become a successful entity. Planning can also be very important in many other ways such as, saving time...
As per Henry Mintzberg, former president of the Strategic Management Society, “strategy cannot be planned because planning is about analysis and strategy is about synthesis. Strategic planning involves a structure or framework, a set of procedures both formal and informal, and of course content. Beyond these basic elements, the underlying assumptions about strategic planning are that the future can be anticipated, forecasted, managed or even controlled, and that the best way to do so is to have a formal and integrated plan about it in place. The process of planning itself may turn out to be more important than the results, and that process requires both analysis and synthesis. Planning simply introduces a formal “discipline” for conducting long-term thinking about an institution, and for recognizing opportunities in and for minimizing risks from the external and internal environments.
A strategic plan is a tool that delivers guidance in achieving a mission or goal with maximum proficiency and control for an organization. Strategic planning is used to transform and revitalize organizations. The plan helps provide an inclusive understanding of opportunities and challenges both internally and externally for the organization. The plan delivers an assessment of the strengths and limitations that are realistic within the company. A well-developed strategic plan will offer a comprehensive approach and empowerment for the stakeholders involved. It is an opportunity for learning and understanding priorities that will drive the business to succeed. Jones (2010), describes how in health care organizations, strategic plans characteristically concentrate on operational and organizational goals such as when to obtain new technology, how to meet competitive challenges, and what staffing, tools, or facilities are needed to ensure organizational survival. The mission and value statements are significant in determining the quality of a strategic initiative. Forcing the organization to look toward the future creates proactive objectives in which both short-term and long-terms plans and goals are necessary in order to succeed.
In addition, include in your scheduling a picture of internal and external certainties that will influence your plan. Then there is a need to expertise an action plan to take gain of opportunities discovered. Tactical Planning Process include identifying the courses of action you will need to achieve those strategic objectives. Strategic planning relates to issues applicable
Strategic planning consist of four steps starting from defining the company’s mission. When talking about a mission were talking about a certain phrase or slogan for say, that is intended to draw attention to customers and make them want to be even more loyal to the company. For example Walmart says, “Save money. Live Better”. Therefore, Walmart’s mission would be to let people know that they have low prices all day every day, insinuating that their products are affordable for everyone. This is a good mission because it gets the majority of the people in this world to want to go out and save money on their everyday necessities and even luxuries. The second step would be to set certain objectives and goals for the company as well. For example, CVS did use “Health is everything” as their mission and this didn’t just set out for a name it became a goal as well. Sooner or later you must set goals on your mission to understand the level that you need to get to and reach. Another example of a goal that I believe CVS set was to start selling healthier products. In the chapter it says that CVS stopped selling tobacco and other products that
Planning aims to reduce uncertainty. It does this by forcing managers to look ahead, anticipate change, consider the impact of change and develop appropriate responses. (Robbins 2012) Through attempted monitoring of conditions in a changing environment, one is able to respond quicker to new information and new circumstances, thereby becoming more flexible. In addition, having the environment under constant observation enables managers to analyse how the organisation will differentiate itself from its competitors, therefore facilitating more chan...
This type of planning usually focuses on day to day activities of the company in order to make sure everything runs
Strategic planning is something all upper management must engage in this type of planning. Allen, Plunkett and Attner (2013) “defines the firm’s position, formulates strategies, and guides the execution of long term organizational functions and processes” (Allen, et al. 2013). This being said strategic planning is a simple step by step guide to creating long term goals according to resources and environment.
There are different types of strategic planning that are currently in use, since this is a widely debated area of management. However, it is concluded that there are two main schools of thought, the prescriptive approach or the emergent approach (Lynch, 2012). As defined by Lynch, (2012) prescriptive strategic planning is the term given to a strategy whereby the objective of the strategy is defined in advance and the main elements are designed and develop...
Once plans have been developed, an organization must address how management will be accomplishing be those plans. This involves operational plans that must flow from strategy; specify resource, time issues, and commitment of human resources. Operational plans at the lower - levels of the organization, have a shorter time horizon, and are narrower in scope (Bateman, Snell 2003 p.113). A good example of this is Wal-Mart's main strategic goal. It is to provide quality merchandise at an affordable low cost to consumers. Its operational goals focus on efficient logistics requiring technology and inventory management systems to help reduce costs so it can be passed on to the customer. Operational plans are derived from a tactical plan and are aimed at achieving one or more operational goals (Bateman, Snell 2003 p.113).
Strategic planning directs every movement in a business and is very essential to business performance (London 2002, pp.26-33). The strategic plan and operational plan are extracted from Best Buy Form 10K to better clarify the current situation and future direction of Best Buy.
If asked what strategic planning is one could interpret it as simply a road map that can guide the organization in the right direction. It is very unlikely that an organization would know which direction to take without a sense of direction. Managers are faced every day with decisions that have a major impact on the direction the organization must take, therefore, strategic planning can play an important role in guiding managers in the right direction. In other words strategic planning is a tool that management can use to give them a sense of direction that will guide them in doing a better job and to ensure that all the members of the organization are working toward the same goals
Planning can be used to help the organization map out a way to efficiently achieve their goals. The beginning of the planning process should include analyzing of the current situation. From this information the company can determine the goals and start to outline the steps that need to be taken to ensure that the goal will be met. Other planning activities that should be completed are determining the company’s objectives and were they want to be in the future. This will help them to choose their business objectives and strategies. In addition, the company should look at the resources that they have available and determine if they are sufficient to achieve the organizations goals.