Essentials Of Planning

Planning involves selecting mission and objectives and the actions to achieve them; it requires decision making, which is, choosing from the alternatives available the future courses of action.

Plan thus provides a rational approach to achieve preselected objectives.

Planning also strongly implies managerial innovation, even planning and control are inseparable.    

Plan can be defined in few steps like:

1. Purpose of plan,
2. Objective of plan,
3. Strategies for completing plan,
4. Policies
5. Procedures
6. Rules,
7. Programs
8. Budgets,

Purpose of plan:

Purpose identifies the basic task of an organization or agency or any part of it.

Objective of plan :

Objectives are the ends towards which the activity is aimed.

Strategies for completing plan:

A strategy is defined as the determination of the basic long term objectives of an enterprise and adoption of action and allocation of resources necessary to achieve those goals.

Policies :

Policies are plans in that they are general statements that guide in decision making, policies define   an area within which a decision is to be made and ensure that the decision will be consistent with, and contribute to, an objective. Policies help decide issues before they become problems. 

Procedures :

Procedures are plan that establish a required method of handling future activities.

Rules :

Rules are usually the simplest type of plan. “Do Not Spit” is a rule that allow no deviation from a stated course of action.

Programs:

Programs are a complex of goals, policies, procedures, rules, and task   assignments, step to be taken, resources to be employed, and other elements necessary to carry out a given course of action; they are usually supported by budgets.  

Budgets :

Budget is a statement of expected result expressed in numerical terms. It can be expressed in financial terms; in terms of labor-hours, unit of products, machine hours; or nay numerically measurable terminology,

 All Managers should take a preliminary look at possible future opportunities and see them clearly and completely , know where they stand in light of their strengths and weakness, understand what problem they wish to solve and why, and know what they expect to gain.

Planning requires a realistic diagnosis of the opportunity situation.  

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