The Need For Planning. Every Company Has Some Sort Of Goal

“Organizational Management and Leadership” defines planning as “the development of goals, which leads to the development of an overall strategy for achieving those goals. Planning can be performed at all levels of an organization. Supervisors are planning when a weekly work schedule is put together for hourly staff. Top executives are planning when they define the mission statement of the company and determine how the organization can maintain its competitive advantage.”

Planning consists of competitive moves and business approaches developed to attract, please customers, conduct operations, grow the business, gain competitive advantage, and achieve performance objectives (Huidan, 2011). There are three steps to planning. A manager must be able to decide what goals to pursue, the best strategy to achieve those goals, and how to use their available resources to achieve those goals as efficient as possible (Bethel University,

Planning is the foundation of all the functions of management upon which the other three areas should be built. During planning, management must evaluate the company’s current situation and then developing strategies to achieve these goals, this is called strategic planning.

The next step will be to prepare the operation plans. The operation plans should also reflect the scope and goals of the business, and they should consider several elements like competition in the market, infrastructure and many things that can be fundamental in ensuring the business gains a competitive advantage. The last step is to integrate plans. It is important to make sure that the plans have been properly balanced so that they can be able to support one another. The plans should be clearly communicated to the people implementing them. It is also important to review the plans from time to time to make sure that they in line with the trends in the business environment.

Planning is considered to be one of the best ways to ensure that an organization remains stable and is able to grow as desired. Creating an annual strategic plan is also a great way for businesses to develop a way to monitor their progress while assessing the results and the impact of their actions at the same time.

When evaluating a strategic plan models, we should first consider the meaning of strategic planning. Strategic planning is when an organisation has a long term project, in between a year or two and this will involve the entire organisation workers to bring ideas together and look into each contributions before working on the plans, and this can be break down in three to four faces in other too be achievable and to meet the said target. Strategic planning can be done when an organization is just started. The strategic plan is usually part of an overall business plan, along with marketing, financial and operational or management plan.

Another important planning step would be monitor and control. On daily basis, operational managers will conduct detailed checks on the operation, while tactical managers perform ensures constant growth of the project, and strategic managers control the direction of the project growth, making sure the company is working towards the ultimate goal. Planning is an ongoing process. When implementing the plan of the expansion, new situations and problems may arise unexpectedly or due to market changes. It is important to constantly update the project with the market to ensure upmost

Strategic planning involves making decisions about the organization’s long-term goals and strategies and how the organization decides to implement their goals (Bateman, Snell, Konopaske, pg. 113). Strategies help organizations to have a clear perspective on how to go about accomplishing the goals they have in place. All organizations have a clear vision of what their mission and purpose as a company is, they know how to fulfill the mission, vision, and purpose and they know how to ensure that they accomplish all their goals. However, the route the organization takes to define these things determines how effective they will be.

I have learned a few things about planning from reading the case study on General Motors. The first thing I learned was that SMART goals are actually very common and once I knew what they were I can see how almost all businesses use them. Seeing them put to use in this case study was very helpful and practical. Goals that may seem unattainable at first can be very attainable as you set out further goals and use the planning/control cycle to tweak your initial plan. GM wanted to boost sales so they offered big incentives, this was how GM worked prior to their federal bailout. Once they realized they wanted to change their goals and switch the company’s

Every organisation must plan every action it intends to take, in the short-term as well as in the long-term. The company, on the basis of the objectives set by the top management of the organisation should plan for growth, expansion, restructuring of business or otherwise. Every company needs to plan out its strategies according to its future plans in order to avoid surprises and to overcome any challenges they may have to face. Therefore, without planning, the organisation cannot achieve any of its goals.

Planning is a process of establishing a mission with clear goals as a means to achieve them. Good planning requires special skills and perspectives allowing decision-makers to understand the challenges they are facing and apply the most effective solution to a problem. In order to achieve success, one must plan accordingly. Planning can be short term or long term. Short term plans are done on daily basis and are easier to achieve than long term plans. Long term plans are also known as strategic plans and are used to achieve a long range vision or mission of a company. In both methods of planning, short term and long term, is necessary to achieve top notch results. Like in any other process, there are both benefits and pitfalls to a

Per John M. Bryson, strategic planning, if properly conducted, can help the leaders and managers of public and non-profit organizations think, learn and act tactically. Strategic planning enables organizational leaders and managers to first identify their organization’s mission and/or purpose. Thereafter, the planning process permits these leaders to pinpoint the actions and activities that will enable the organization to achieve its mission. Finally, the planning process requires the organizational leaders to synthesize objectives and activities into a blueprint or concrete plan of action under which the organization will conduct its business.

In the library atmosphere, these types of planning consist of strategic plans, tactical plans, and operational plans. Depending on the type of plan one is invested in, these can be either long-term, and lasting many years, or short-term, lasting anywhere from a day, to a few months.

French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery gave us a great quote about planning, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”(as cited in "Last word," 2009, p. 27) Goals are important for any business. To avoid failure, businesses have a crucial need to plan. Strategic and operational planning with proper execution would greatly increase their odds of success. Strategic plans set the foundation by defining goals, establishing objectives and bringing an organization together under a common vision. Operational plans help a company achieve objectives and are critical in the everyday functions of an organization, utilizing a company’s most valuable resource, its people. In the following essay I will discuss these two types of planning, their importance in achieving organizational goals and the apposite time of implementation.

Managers and organisations plan because it provides them with some direction and reduces uncertainty within the firm. It is also used to set standards for controlling, it is therefore very important within organisations. (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter et al, 2006)