Planning

Meaning……….
Planning is the first and foremost function of
management. Planning is an attempt to
anticipate the future in order to achieve better
performance.
Koontz and O’Donnel
“Planning is deciding in advance what to do,
how to do it, when to do it and who is to do it.
It bridges the gap from where we are and to
where we want to go. It is in essence the
exercise of foresight”
M.S. Hardly
“Planning is deciding in advance what is to be
done. It involves the selection of objectives,
policies, procedures and programs from among
alternatives”.
Heying and Massie;
“Planning is that function of the manager in
which he decides in advance what he will do.
It is a decision making process of a special
kind. It is an intellectual process in which
creative mind and imagination are essential”.
 Importance of planning
1) Primacy of planning
2) To minimize risk and uncertainty
3) To focus attention on objectives
4) To facilitate control
5) To increase organizational effectiveness
 Importance of planning
• Provide a sense of direction
• Prerequisite to successful growth
• Set up the organizational framework
• Helps delegation
• Helps motivate people
• Serves as a communication media
• Lays the basis for control
• Provides coordination
• Facilitates efficient use of resources.
• Reduces uncertainty by anticipating change
 CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD
PLAN
• Must be realistic
• Must be implementable
• Must be cost effective
• Must be simple to understand
• Must be a clear description of the future
direction
Types of aspirations
Hierarchies of plans
 Vision
• Vision is the nonspecific directional and
motivational guidance for the entire organization.
Top leaders or the common plan should have a
clear mental picture an out the future context
about the company will operate in the long run.
• “A mental image of what the future will or could
be like.”
• Example:
• Vision of University of Jaffna: Our vision is to be
a leading centre of excellence in teaching,
learning, research and scholarship.
 Mission
The mission describes the organization’s values,
aspirations and reason for being.
The mission statement is a broadly stated
definition of purpose that distinguishes the
organization from others of a similar type.
Mission means as an organization’s reason for
being. It is concerned with scope or the business
and what distinguishes this business from similar
businesses. Mission reflects the culture and
values of top management. Mission defines the
business in its scope and philosophy.
Some mission statements also describe company
characteristics such as desired markets and customers,
product quality, location of facilities and attitude
toward employees.
 Goals
Goals are general guidelines that explain what
you want to achieve in your community.
A goal is a desired result or outcome that
a person or a system envisions, plans and
commits to achieve a personal or
organizational desired end-point in some sort
of assumed development.
 Objectives
Objectives are the goals, aims or purposes that the
organizations wish to achieve over varying periods of
time.
A specific result that a person or system aims to
achieve within a time frame and with available
resources.
Objectives define strategies or
implementation steps to attain the identified
goals.
The organizational planning process
Step: 1 Develop the plan
Mission
Strategic goals
Step: 2 Translate the Plan
Tactical objectives and plans
Strategy map to align goals
Contingency and scenario plans
Intelligence teams
Step: 3 Plan Operations
 Operational goals and plans
 The measures and targets
 Crisis plans
Step 4 Execute the Plan
 Management by objectives
 Performance dashboards
 single-use plans
 decentralized responsibility
Step 5 Monitor and Learn
 Types of planning
Planning can be classified on the basis of
 Coverage of activities
 Importance of contents in planning
 Approach adopted in planning process
 Time dimension and
 Degree of formalization in planning
process
 Time dimension
• Strategic Plan
• Tactical Plan
• Operational Plan
 Strategic Plan
• Strategic plans are designed with the entire
organization in mind and begin with an
organization's mission.
• Top-level managers, such as CEOs or presidents,
will design and execute strategic plans to paint a
picture of the desired future and long-term goals
of the organization.
• Essentially, strategic plans look ahead to where
the organization wants to be in three, five, even
ten years or more.
 Tactical Plan
• Tactical plans support strategic plans by
translating them into specific plans relevant to
a distinct area of the organization.
• Tactical plans are concerned with the
responsibility and functionality of lower-level
departments to fulfil their parts of the strategic
plan. (Between one to two years scope)
 Operational plans

• They are the plans that are made by frontline,

or low-level, managers. All operational plans
are focused on the specific procedures and
processes that occur within the lowest levels of
the organization.
• Managers must plan the routine task of the
department. (Within one year scope)
 Types of Plans

Plans

Single use plan Standing plan

(for non-repetitive (for repetitive activities)
activities) Mission
Programs Objectives
Projects Strategies
Budgets Policies
Procedures
Planning for a turbulent environment

Contingency planning Building Scenarios Crisis planning

It defines company Scenario building crisis planning
responses to be taken involves looking at enables managers to
in the case of current trends and cope with unexpected
emergencies, discontinuities and events that are so
setbacks, or visualizing future sudden and
unexpected conditions possibilities. devastating
 Planning for a turbulent
environment
• Contingency planning
• Building Scenarios
• Crisis planning
 Contingency planning
Contingency plan defines company responses to be taken in
the case of emergencies, setbacks, or unexpected
conditions
• A contingency plan is your organization's
"Plan B" or "worst case scenario" plan. Also
called a business continuity plan or disaster
recovery plan, it creates an organized and
coordinated set of steps to be taken if an
emergency or disaster strikes.
• Contingency planning is done to avoid or
minimize damage, loss or injury, and to ensure
that the organization's key operations continue.
 Example -01
If sales fall 20 percent and prices drop 8 percent, what
will the company do?
Managers can develop contingency plans that might
include layoffs, emergency budgets, new sales efforts,
or new markets
 Real life example from the Oscars
What happens if writers or actors go on strike
just before the annual Academy Awards
show?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has to
have contingency plans in place to put the show on using
alternatives such as film clips, historical background,
and other out-of-the-ordinary ideas.
 Example -03
After several outbreaks of the HINI flu revealed the
dangers of widespread diseases, Mike Claver, State
Farm Insurance Company’s emergency management
superintendent, oversaw the development of a
through contingency plan designed to protect State
Farm employees during any potential outbreaks in the
future.
Continued…..
In addition to coordinating with area agencies and
encouraging employees to get vaccines, Claver tested
the company’s ability to function should managers
have to ask employees to work at home during the
outbreak.
Continued…..
More than 1000 people, about 10 percent of the workforce at
the Bloomington, Illinois, headquarters, logged into the
company computer network from their homes one august day.
Managers used the results of the dry run to fine-tune
contingency plans.
 Building Scenarios
Scenario building involves looking at current trends and
discontinuities and visualizing future possibilities
Example
After the United states became involved in a military
operation in Libya in early 2011, leaders created four broad
scenarios of what might happen – two that were positive for
the United States and two that could have highly troublesome
consequences – and developed plans for how to respond.
 Crisis planning
Crisis planning enables managers to cope with unexpected
events that are so sudden and devastating that they have
the potential to destroy the organization if managers are
not prepared with a quick and appropriate response
• Crisis planning refers to actions taken by an
organisation to maintain its credibility and good
reputation after a situation has occurred that may
affect it in a negative manner and therefore
reduce sales its products or services.
• It is reactive rather than proactive. Managers
respond to events, which threaten the business
and could even lead to its closure. The managers
can do little but minimise the potential damage
to the business and it is likely to result in a rather
autocratic approach..
Examples of Crisis
 Two Stages of Crisis Planning

Prevention
* Build relationships
* Detect signals from the environment

Preparation
Designate crisis management team and spokesperson
Create detailed crisis management plan
Set up effective communication system
 Example
After the Deepwater Horizon oil rig drilling a
well for BP exploded in the gulf of Mexico,
U.S. congressman Hentry Waxman (D-CA)
observed that “ a striking feature of the
incident is the apparent lack of an adequate
plan to contain the spreading environmental
damage.”
BP’s CEO at the time, Tony Hayward,
admitted Waxman was right.
Because BP saw a deepwater leek as highly
unlikely and touted the Deepwater Horizon as
one of the world’s most technologically
advanced drilling platforms, it had no specific
crisis plan for an uncontrolled blowout.
Since then, BP has committed up to $ 1 billion
to cleaning up both the damage to the gulf
and the damage to the BP brand
 Innovative approaches to planning
• top executives or planning experts work with managers in major divisions or
Decentralized departments to develop their own goals and plans
planning

• reasonable yet highly ambitious and compelling goals that energize people and inspire
Stretch goals excellence

Business • It helps managers oversee plans and measure progress toward goals.
performance
dashboards

• a cross-functional group of people who work together to gain a deep understanding of

An a specific competitive issue and offer insight and recommendations for planning.
intelligence
team
 Limitations of planning
• Plans can create a false sense of certainty
• Plans may cause rigidity in a turbulent environment
• Plans can get in the intuition and creativity
 Program
A program is a sequence of activities directed towards the
achievement of certain objectives. A program is action
based and result oriented
 Budgets
A budget is a statement of expected results expressed in
quantitative terms i.e. rupees, man hours, product units
 Policies
According to George R Terry
“ Policy is a verbal, written or implied overall guide, setting
up boundaries that supply the general limits and directions
in which managerial action will take place”.
 Procedures
Policies are carried out by means of more detailed
guidelines called procedures. A procedure provides a
detailed set of instructions for performing a sequence of
actions involved in doing a certain piece of work
 Rules
Rules are detailed and recorded instructions that a specific
action must or must not be performed in a given situation
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Holstee

There is nothing more important than pursuing your passion

 Strategy
According to CIMA (UK)
strategy is a course of action, including the specification of
resources required, to achieve a specific objective.