FOUNDATION OF

PLANNING

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Planning questions

 Suppose you want to organize a party for the

whole class. What would be your planning
questions?

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What Is Planning?

 A primary functional managerial activity that involves:

 Defining the organization’s goals
 Establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals
 Developing a comprehensive set of plans to integrate and
coordinate organizational work.
 Types of planning
 Informal: not written down, short-term focus; specific to
an organizational unit.
 Formal: written, specific, and long-term focus, involves
shared goals for the organization.

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Why Do Managers Plan?

 Provides direction
 Reduces uncertainty
 Minimizes waste and redundancy
 Sets the standards for controlling

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How Do Managers Plan?

 Elements of Planning
 Goals (also Objectives)
 Desired outcomes for individuals, groups, or entire
organizations
 Provide direction and evaluation performance criteria
 Plans
 Documents that outline how goals are to be
accomplished
 Describe how resources are to be allocated and
establish activity schedules

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Key issues in a plan

 Goals and objectives

 Overall goals
 Indicators and measures
 Components and activities
 Divide the project into different components/activities
 Specify how they fit together
 Timeline
 People in charge
 Resources

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Characteristics of Well-Designed Goals
 Written in terms of
outcomes, not actions
 Focuses on the ends, not
the means.
 Measurable and
quantifiable
 Specifically defines how the
outcome is to be measured
and how much is expected.
 Clear as to time frame
 How long before measuring
accomplishment.
 Challenging yet attainable
 Low goals do not motivate.
 High goals motivate if they
can be achieved.
 Written down
 Focuses, defines, and
makes goal visible.
 Communicated to all
 Puts everybody “on the
same page.”
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Example of Company’s Goals
 Example 1: Company’s goals for 2009
 Become internationally recognized
 By Dec. 2009, we will have branches in 4 more countries
 Improve product quality
 We will reduce the defect from 5 to 4%
 Increase revenue and profit
 Improve customer’s satisfaction
 Example 2: A production team
 Improve quality
 Improve productivity
 Ensure high safety level
 Accident incidents decrease from ... to ...

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Balanced Goals from Different
Perspectives
 Financial Perspective
 Profitability, Return on Investment
 Customer Perspective
 Satisfaction, market share, repeated customers
 Internal Perspective
 System, operation, capability
 Learning Perspective
 New technology, management, ideas,

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Characteristics of Good Plan
 Prediction of environmental trends
 Scenarios
 Goals
 SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic,
and time
 Resources
 Feasible but stretching
 Actions
 Specific, clear, integrated, fit with goals
 Changes: flexible and creative
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Example: A Business Plan

 Business objectives
 Functional objectives:
 Finance, marketing, HR, production, R&D, ...
 Resources
 Finance, HR, management, IT, ...
 Actions

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A Simple Template for Planning

 Objectives:
 What do you want to achieve?
 Activities:
 What do you do to achieve your objectives?
 Resources:
 What do you need to do these activities?
 Timeline:
 When each activity starts and finishes?

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Exercise: Planning a survey research

 Suppose you want to survey firms on

demands of new recruits. Develop a plan for
this project?
 Objectives?
 Create a table that summarizes activities,
resources, timelines, and people in charge

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Exercise: A Simple Template

Activity Start date Finish date In charge Resources

1. Contact possible firms
2. Select a firm to study
3. Review reports and
available information
4. Conduct interviews
5. Analyzing data to
draw key findings
6. Agree on report
outline
7. Compiling report
8. Revising report
....

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Exercise: Develop a Plan for a Task

 Suppose your team is assigned to conduct a

survey on NEU graduates' employment:
 Key information: Have job? Close to
specialization? Salaries? Satisfied?
 Time: March - August, 2020
 Sample: 600 graduates (2018 - 2019) filled the
survey
 Please discuss and develop a plan for
conducting this survey
 You have 30 minutes for this plan
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Case: Bookstore

From Management and Planning perspective,

explain:
 Why did the Bookstore succeed in early

days?
 Why did it fail later?

 What do you learn?

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Team Project: Your Team’s Goals and
Plans

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