Planning provides the fundamental basis of an effective and efficient organisation. Planning plays a crucial role in any organisation and underpins the inner working’s of a business. It provides ‘an invaluable framework’ (Mokwa, 1987) and basis for action which facilitates for goals to be achieved and ultimately guide an organisation towards success. The positive implications that planning can have eon a business are varied, numerous and far reaching. There are a range of process and components involved with planning which all must be used synergistically by managers in order for an organisation to successfully reach there goals. The benefits of planning range from: increased employee motivation as a consequence of clear vision, to the extensive benefits of enhanced resource allocation and the consequent increase in resource efficiency derived from well organised logistics. Despite this, business can still be successful with limited planning or adopting a form of ‘informal planning’, yet it cannot be disputed that adopting formal planning techniques will allow an organisation to operate more effectively, in an organised manner and ultimately function at a higher level allowing it to excel, succeed and prosper in the highly competitive modern-day business environment.
Planning is a vastly complex and comprehensive process, it involves a number of interrelated and interconnected components. These can be distilled into 3 main areas: strategic, tactical and operational planning.
Strategic planning
A ‘key component [of planning] is strategic planning’ (Porter 1998)
Michael porter stipulated that the formulation of a competitive, succesfull strategy must include the consideration of four key elements:
1. “Company strengths and weakne...
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... organisational environment. In order for this to occur there must be a manager or management team assemembeled wit hthe skills and capabilities
In conclusion, if organisations fail to plan they are putting themselves in a disadvantageous position where they are more susceptible to the volatile , ever changing external and internal environments. Contrastingly though, through the critical analysis of various sources, limitations of formal planning can be identified, yet ultimately the role of informal planning cannot be dismissed as the benefits it provides outweigh the potential disadvantages and if a holistically, systematic approach is taken to planning, and implementation of said plan, it will ‘consequently provide a fundamental basis’ (Mokwa, 1987) for which an organisation can utilise in order to enhance its performance, efficiency and overall effectiveness.
Planning is an essential but potentially complex managerial function. The main objective of planning is to ensure that the organization is both effective and efficient in its activities and that it achieves its goals.
One of the most common sets of activities in the management is planning (0). In an organization there are many kinds of planning that goes into daily operations and it ranges from highly complex to simple issues. Successful planning and implementation include the following; Set goals and objectives, how to achieve those goals and resources needed, assign task, and review finished task.
Strategic Planning for "Doing it for Jesus Bookstore " Strategic planning cause one to be dedicated working towards having a successful business. Being a Christian and having a relationship with God, one day when praying to the Lord about having extremely bad financial problems He spoke to me and said, "As a carpenter I used my hands to work. " God is tired of giving His people visions for businesses that fall through because we do not follow through.
The planning has to decide on strategies with higher chances of attaining satisfactory performance with a small chance of organizational failure. The executives and the planning team must determine upon selecting the suitable options for the
The Benefits and Limitations of Strategic Planning for Organizations "It was August of 1914 and Germany had committed virtually its entire army to the invasion of Belgium and France. Few German troops remained to defend East Prussia against the invasion of two huge Russian armies. Despite the numerical inferiority, Colonel Hoffmann, chief of the German Eighth Army staff, created an audacious strategy to surround and annihilate one of the Russian armies. He began to plan a detailed attack. At the same time, on a train traveling east, General Ludendorff, the incoming chief of staff of the reinforced German forces in East Prussia, identified the same opportunity and created exactly the same strategy.
The first of these functions, planning, involves creating a systematic process for achieving the goals of the firm. It prepares the organization for the future. Planning can take many forms and a variety of methods may be employed. Creativity and communication becomes very important in the function of planning. For example, during my employment with a tax service, in planning a marketing campaign several people had to be contacted. Communication was initiated in different forms such as e-mail, telephone, written memorandums and creative jingles. Today managers make use of planning through software and technological items such as blackberries in order to be well prepared during the planning process.
Dissimilar sources plan altered steps involved in the planning process, but in this case I will discuss on seven steps that are involved in the entire process. The first step is goal setting. This basically involves coming up with the main objectives and goals that the company wishes to establish within a particular period of time. It is a very important section because the company will operate with a view of the goal in mind, if it is not clearly established, and then the business could lose direction along the way. After goal setting, we have development of the planning premises, where the plans are prepared and any underlying conditions defined. This is where there is an assessment of the environment and any constraints or opportunities are identified.
Businesses do not plan to fail, they fail to plan. In my opinion, the planning process is a vital component towards successful operation of any business, thus i believe the above statement to be correct. According to Stephen Chapman, planning is defined as ‘the process of setting targets and deciding how to achieve them. It acts as a link between the business owner’s ideas and the actual operation of the business’. (2011 pg. 396) It is a managerial and leadership task and is such an integral part of managing a business, especially in today’s rapidly changing environment.
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
Strategic planning is an organizational process in which it looks towards developing and sustaining success or balance in its ever changing environment.
However, in some cases we need to develop strategies for them to improve their efficiency, improve their machinery, install backup generation, etc. In these scenarios, a team is developed with the consultant being the project manager or point man. Therefore, these projects require the four functions to be followed so we can develop the best possible solution. The first function used is “Planning”, which allows us to outline a strategy catering to the specific needs of our client. The “Planning” function also gives us a time table on how long the project will take to complete, who needs to be involved, and how we expect to accomplish each goal.
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.
The planning school of thought is a strategy that emphasizes the need for an organization to ensure that its business strategy is in alignment with the environment that it operates. In other words, an organization’s strategy must ‘fit’ the environment that it chooses
As Schermerhorn states in Management planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are the tools needed by managers to accomplish performance goals. It is crucial that managers be able to recognize and act upon problems or opportunities as they arise. Planning is perhaps the cornerstone of the four processes. All good processes were at some point given great detail so as to anticipate possible problems and solutions to those problems. When the Honda Motor Company decided it needed to refine its inventory they didn't just jump at the first idea that was proposed; they first set their objectives and discussed ways to meet those objectives. After giving careful consideration to processes and the streamlining of those processes human error rose as the top need for change. Sounds simple you might respond; in reality it is much more complicated.
Operational planning is what drives strategic planning goals to a success. On a day to day basis, operational plans are being communicated and decisions are being made. Operational planning is important because it leads to the goals and visions of the organization and by doing that, operational plans must be made daily to keep the organization competitive in the market. Friend & Zehle (2004) discuss operational plans central to the allocation of resources, it uses inputs to scale operations in order to deliver information about all stages of the primary value chain activies and the support of those activities. Without operational plans, an organization would have no way to reach its goals that were set. The market is changing constantly and operational plans help keep organizations making effective