From: Group 3

Ms. Souksakhone Phiavong

To Teacher: Souvanny Rattanavong
Subject: Essentials of Management

Report on Planning

I. Definition of Planning
Planning is the process of thinking about the activities required to achieve a
desired goal, or it’s the process of thinking before doing.
It helps us to take a peek into the future and decide in advance the way to deal
with the situations. In other words, planning is the action based on the light of the
fact rather than of guesses.
We can say that it is a process of decision-making regarding what to do, how to
do, when to do and who is to do. Planning is kind like overseeing the process of
control strategies for achieving the goals and developing plans to integrate and
coordinate work activities. It is required for all organizations and also for every
level of organization. Therefore, Planning is a prerequisite of effective
management. In addition, planning is the first primary function of management,
followed by other functions.
II. Steps of Planning

1. Analyzing opportunity
Opportunity analysis refers to demand, competitive analysis, and study
market conditions to be able to have a clear vision and plan strategies
accordingly.

2. Setting objective
Plans should reflect organizations' objectives. In addition, objectives
should be clearly defined for what needs to be accomplished by policies,
procedures, rules, strategies, budgets and programmed.

3. Developing premise
The premises include actual forecast data, policies and plans of the
organization. Planning involves looking into the future, which requires the
organization to know how future conditions affect the activities of the
company.
 4. Identify alternatives
Alternative identification is a technique used to find methods or how the
project works. For example, brainstorming may be used to find other ways to
achieve a particular project objective.

5. Evaluating alternatives
Evaluation involves studying the effectiveness of various actions.
Factors such as profitability, investment, requirements, etc., should be
considered and be studied closely to determine its appropriateness.

6. Selecting an alternative
After evaluating, the most appropriate alternative is selected. In this
way, the plan can be considered certified.

7. Implementing action plan

Implementing a plan involves implementing plans to achieve business
objectives. This requires the establishment of policies, procedures, standards,
budgets, etc.

8. Reviewing
Information is required on how well the plan is performing and whether
it has been successful so that the operator can improve the way the plan is
implemented and learn from their experiences and respond to changing
conditions.

III. Types of Planning

There are four types of planning: strategic Planning, tactical planning,
operational planning, and contingency planning.

1. Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning is the foundation of a successful organization. It gives
the instruction for the important decisions in the organization. Strategic plans
have a huge potential to change the definition of success of an organization.

2. Tactical Planning
Tactical planning is the backbone of the strategic plans. It gives the right
tactic to fulfill strategic plans in an organization.
 3. Operational Planning
Operational planning is all about the guidelines of how to accomplish
the mission which is set. It is also described as ongoing or single-use. On-
going plans are creating policies for imminent problems, rules, and regulations
to achieve a specific objective.

4. Contingency Planning
Contingency Planning is the main reason for doing planning to get rid of
the upcoming problems. Contingency plans are for this uncertain situation
when all other plans can’t work.

IV. Why planning is important?

Of course, it is not impossible to start a business organization without
planning because when you are required to run a business or whatever. If you
do not have a plan, all the business activities of the organization will become
meaningless, because you do not know what to do next and it will certainly be
difficult to guess the uncertain events of the future. So planning is the
important doorway where you start to think about your organization or
business. Planning is the process of making a plan and it is the first function of
management. It is one of the most important skills a leader must have.
Planning is the step which comes from your idea or your thinking, actually
from organized thinking. It will help you to create the best plan and proper
plan for your business organization. Also it provides you the way to think on
how you will improve or maintain your business organization. So planning is
like a map, when you see the map you will conduct your journey, and reach the
desired destination.

 The following facts show some important examples of planning for a business
organization:
 Planning is the doorway for your business organization: you know where
to start, and what your goals are. So, it is clearly defined why you are
going to give effort and you can set standards for controlling you can set
standards to control your business activities in advance.
 Planning Provides you Direction: In this way, you will know what to do,
and what not to. So the result of this is that all the employees get direction
and all their efforts are focused towards a particular.
 You can achieve innovative ideas: As you have enough time to think
before starting the business, you can find out innovative ideas.
In this way, planning imparts a real power of thinking in the managers. It
leads to the birth of innovative and creative ideas. For example, a company
wants to expand its business. This idea leads to the beginning of the planning
 activity in the mind of the manager such as should some branch be opened
somewhere else for the existing or old product?
 You have your defined goals: you have done enough brainstorming. Now
you know what your goals are. You can also change your goals if needed
because you have enough time to think or get the best idea
 Planning reduces fewer difficulties in decision making: As you already
know what you are going to do, you will take less time on additional
decision making.

V. The Advantages and Disadvantages of planning

1. Advantages of planning
- Planning helps in achieving the objectives and vision.
- It reduces the risk of uncertainties and it has the effect of minimizing the
cost of operations.
- It acts as a binding force and facilitates coordination among people and
departments.
- Planning creates an organizational atmosphere of order and discipline.
- It helps in controlling and correcting as planning involves setting
objectives, and when the standards differ from the targets, it shows the
potential for improvement.
- Planning leads to more effective and faster achievements in any
organization.
- Since planning foresees the future and also makes a provision for it, it
gives an added strength to the business for its steady growth and
continuous prosperity.
- It ensures an even flow of work, minimizes false steps and protects
against unwanted deviations.
- It provides an effective basis for control in all organizations whether
small or big.

2. Disadvantages of planning
- Planning may not work in an uncertain and dynamic environment where
conditions change rapidly.
- Planning is a Time-consuming Process.
- Planning involves prediction regarding the future and it is full of
uncertainties so at times it may fail.
- Planning can sometimes give a false sense of security of everything being
well while it may not be so. Therefore, revision and review of plans are
critical.
VI. Conclusion

In conclusion planning is very essential for any organization to achieve

its shorts and long term goals. Especially with the boom and busts of the global
economies in the last few decades, it has become even more important for
companies to execute their strategies carefully. A very important part of the
planning is to plan in order to get ready for any future changes and to be well
placed to face any complex changes. This is why; planning could be reduced to
minimizing the threats and maximizing the opportunities which can be
successful.

Planning is one of the most important project management and time

management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to
achieve some specific goal. A plan is like a map. When following a plan, a
person can see how much they have progressed towards their project goal and
how far they are from their goals.

Planning is not use only in the organization but planning is used for
everywhere, every time, every work, even when we having meals, we still have
a plan for what we going to eat today because when we do something, we need
to have a plan in order to know what we should do first and second, also we
will know how much time it will take to achieve the goals that we setting up.
So, planning is better than not planning anything.

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning
https://www.iedunote.com/planning-types
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-planning
https://businessjargons.com/planning.html
https://accountlearning.com/7-important-steps-in-planning-process/
https://online.alvernia.edu/articles/types-of-planning/
https://www.thestrategywatch.com/why-planning-is-the-most-important-function-in-management/