Planning

•Planning is all about predetermining future (looking

ahead)
•Process of setting goals and choosing the actions to
achieve those goals
•Attempts to define future roadmap of the
organization
•It helps to select the future course of action from
the number of alternatives
•It specifies ways and means of implementing actions
•Planning takes organization to where it wants to be
 According to,
◦ Stephen P. Robbins: Planning is deciding in
advance about what to do, how to do it, and who
is to do. It provides the ends to be achieved
◦ Ricky Griffin: Planning is setting an organization’s
goals and deciding how best to achieve them
 Characteristics of Planning
 Process: planning is step-by-step systematic way of doing
things. It involves creative thinking and imagination
 Future-oriented: anticipates future opportunities and threats.
It decides in present about what is to be done in future
 Pervasiveness: function of every manager. Its nature and
scope differ according to the level of manager
 Goal-focused: planning is goal focused. It not only sets goals
but also selects actions to achieve them
 Decision-oriented: involves decisions at all levels of
management. It involves interdependent set of decisions
 Efficiency- oriented: efficiency means greater output at lower
costs
 Types of Planning
 According to Managerial Hierarchy
◦ Corporate Plan:
◦ long-term for 5 or more years
◦ Prepared by top management
◦ based on environmental opportunities and threats
◦ Provides long term direction & scope to the organization
◦ It establishes overall corporate mission, goals and
strategies
 Mission: basic function which provides the reason for
existence. It is based on long-term vision of what an
organization wants to become
 Goals: goals are results to achieved. They represent the
end point of planning
 Strategies: are board action plans to achieve goals. They
provide future direction and scope to the organization
 Tactical plan(Departmental Plan)
◦ Prepared by middle management for 1-5 years
◦ Specifies how overall goals are to be achieved
◦ Allocates tasks and resources to programmes
◦ It should be consistent with corporate plan
 Operational plan (Unit Plan)
◦ They are for short-term , generally, quarter,
month
◦ Measurable and more flexible
◦ Concerned with day-to-day operations
◦ Should be consistent with tactical plan
 According to Use
 Single use plan
◦ They are used only once
◦ They are developed to meet the needs of a
particular situation
◦ Prepared for non-repetitive activities
◦ Examples: projects, budgets
 Standing use plan
◦ Developed for ongoing repetitive activities
◦ Used over long period of time
◦ Examples: mission, goals, policies, strategies,
procedures, rules etc
According to Flexibility
 Specific Plans
◦ Have clearly define objectives
◦ Uncertainty is very low and no ambiguity
◦ Specific procedures, specific budgets allocation
and specific schedules
 Flexible plans
◦ Can be change according to changing nature of
environment
◦ No specific objectives and no specific course of
actions
Process of Planning
 Establish Goals
◦ Goals are results to be achieved
◦ Indicates the end point of what is to be done, where
focus to be made
◦ Provide direction to the plan
◦ Goal should be SMART
 Identify Premises
◦ Assumptions on which planning are based
◦ Involving gathering all data and facts about
environmental trends
◦ Premises can be about sales, product, price, technology,
tax rates
 Identify Alternatives
◦ Planning is worthless with out alternatives
◦ Every alternatives has to be carefully studied and analyzed
◦ Alternatives are evaluated in terms of contribution to goals
achievement
 Test the Practicability of Alternatives
◦ Evaluating the alternatives on the basis of feasibility and
consequences in the light of premises and goals
◦ Evaluating alternatives is complex job
◦ This needs the help of mathematical and computing
techniques
 Select and Announce the Final Plan
◦ Final step of planning
◦ Best course of action is selected
◦ Point at which plan is adopted (decision making)
Decision Making
 An act of making choices or achieving ends
 Decision is made from among two or more
alternatives/course of action
 Action on some problems
 According to
◦ Ricky Griffin- Decision making is the act of choosing
one alternatives from among a set of alternatives
◦ James Stoner- Decision making is the process of
identifying and selecting a course of action to solve a
specific problem
Decision Making process
 Definition of Problem
◦ Knowing problem is half of its solution
◦ Defining problems means deciding what is the main issues
of the problem
◦ Identifying nature of problem
 Collecting and Analyzing information
◦ Information is for decision making
◦ Should collect information from various sources
◦ After collection of information the aspects of problems
can be properly analyzed
 Generating possible Alternatives
◦ Information helps to generate no of alternatives
◦ Decision maker should try to generate all the possible
alternatives
◦ Only the most likely possibilities should be retained for
further consideration
 Choosing the best Alternatives
◦ Selecting the alternatives with the highest possible payoff
◦ Alternatives should be selected on the basis of
 Less expensive
 Less time consuming
 Effectiveness
 Greater productivity etc
 Implementing the Decision
◦ At this stage decision is put into action
◦ Actions plans are developed to indicate more
precisely the various roles and responsibilities
 Evaluating the Decision
◦ Progress is monitored and their success is
evaluated