Planning is the fundamental duties of management function. Decision making depends on planning and normally with the following queries what, when, how and who? That is “what is to be done”, “when to be done”, “how it is to be done” and “who is going to do it”.
Planning can also be described as an intellectual process which is the key factor of any business or organization that develops various cases of action, by which the organization can achieve those objectives. It clearly chalks out exactly, what to do and how to attain a specific goal. Planning is thinking before the action takes place. It helps us to take a peep into the future and decide in advance the way to deal with the situations, which we are going to encounter in future. It involves logical thinking and balanced decision making.
Also, we can say planning is the process of thinking about the activities required to achieve a desired goal. It is the first and foremost activity to achieve desired results. It involves the creation and maintenance of a plan, such as psychological aspects that require conceptual skills. Here in the fig. 3 some are the major functions that we need to follow for any planning.
- Managerial function: Planning is the first and foremost managerial function which provides the base for other functions of the management, i. e. organizing, staffing, directing and controlling, as they are performed within the periphery of the plans made.
- Goal oriented: It focuses on defining the goals of the organization, identifying alternative cases of action and deciding the appropriate action plan, which is to be undertaken for reaching the goals.
- Pervasive: It is pervasive in the sense that it is present in all the segments and is required at all the levels of any organization. Although the scope of planning varies at different levels and departments.
- Continuous Process: Plans are made for a specific period or term, say for a month, quarter and year and so on. Once that period is over, new plans are made with consideration of the organization’s present and future requirements and conditions. Therefore, it is an ongoing process, as the plans are framed, executed and followed by another plan.
- Intellectual Process: Think intellectually while planning a goal. It is a mental exercise as it involves the application of mind, to think, forecast, imagine intelligently and innovatively.
- Futuristic: In the process of planning, we need to think about the future of the business or organization. This includes analyzing and predicting the outcome and challenges that any organization may face in future and can handle these challenges effectively.
- Decision making: This is the most important component of planning. A good and effective decision of any organization leads to its success. Decisions are made regarding the choice of alternative courses of action that can be undertaken to reach the goal. The alternative chosen should be best among all, with the least number of the negative and highest number of positive outcomes.
So, we can say planning is concerned with setting objectives, targets, and formulating plans to accomplish them. The activity helps managers analyze the present condition to identify the ways of attaining the desired position in future. It is both, the need of the organization and the responsibility of managers. Here we will discuss some importance of Planning
- By establishing objectives and selecting a course of action it helps managers to improve future performance for the benefit of the organization.
- This minimizes risk and uncertainty, by looking ahead into the future.
- It facilitates the coordination of activities. This reduces overlapping among activities and eliminates unproductive work.
- It provides direction for action. It states in advance, what should be done in future.
- It uncovers and identifies future opportunities and threats.
- It sets out standards for controlling. It compares actual performance with the standard performance and efforts are made to correct the same.
Planning is present in all types of organizations, households, sectors, economies, etc. We need to plan because the future is highly uncertain and no one can predict the future with 100% accuracy, as the conditions can change anytime. Hence, we can say, planning is the basic requirement of any person, organization or business for the survival, growth and success.
Goal setting is a process that identifies what we want to achieve, and creating a plan to achieve those desired results. By setting goals on a routine basis, we decide what we want to achieve. Next, we systematically move towards those goals. Finally, we can say Goals provide us with a focus for life.
Now we will discuss how to set a goal. We must follow SMART goal-setting process when setting goals. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Agreed to, Realistic and Timely).
- Always set Specific goals. Instead of writing “Increase sales of the business,” a specific goal would read, “Increase gross sales by 15 percent by December 31 of this year.” A specific goal makes it easier to plan the objectives we need to reach in order to achieve it.
- Develop goals that can be measured. It is impossible to monitor how well we are doing in achieving the goal without measuring the same. In the above example, a 15-percent increase in sales is measurable. A business owner can easily look at sales reports and income data to determine if sales have increased by 15 percent at year-end. When setting measurable goals, it may be helpful to set mini-goals with it. With example, a business may also implement quarterly increase, that would be needed to reach the overall 15 percent increase in sales for the year. This can ensure that the business progress throughout the year.
- Implement business goals that are attainable by the business and its employees. It is important that the goals we set can actually be reached based on the current resources of our business. If unattainable goals are set, then there is a chance that we are only setting up our business and our employees for failure. So, always try to set reachable goals as a way to motivate employees. Always try to give employees a goal that they can reach, so when each mini-goal is achieved it gives us motivation.
- Be realistic when planning and setting goals. Some business owners will go overboard in setting goals for the business. The goals will focus on areas of the business that are not important or will not have a great impact on the overall direction of the business. Then set secondary goals that support it. This will ensure they are relevant to the success of the business.
- Follow Timeline or attach deadlines to our goals. Without time lines, goals are useless. In first example about increasing sales, “Increase business sales” is not a timely goal. However, specific goal gives a deadline of December 31 of this year to increase sales. This provides a deadline for the goal. It gives a time when the goal should be measured to determine whether the objectives have been achieved. All goals that are set should have a time line attached so that we can measure and track our successes regularly and equally, also we can check where we might need to improve.
Here we will discuss the importance of setting a goal. Setting goals gives us long-term vision as well as short-term motivation. It focuses our acquisition of knowledge and helps us to organize our time and our duties so that we can lead a successful life.
By setting clearly defined goals, we can gain and take pride in the achievement of targeted goals. Also, we will see the progress in achieving the goal. It would also raise our self- confidence, as we recognize our own ability and competence in achieving the goals that we have set. We must try to set goals to give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in our life. Following are some areas where we must set our goals:
- Career- We must set a goal to achieve what we want to achieve in our life.
- Financial- How much do we want to earn in our life and at what stage?
- Education- Is there any knowledge we want to acquire in particular?
- Pleasure- How do we want to enjoy our self?
- Public Service- Do we want to make the world a better place?
Spend some time brainstorming for the above-mentioned things and then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect what we want to do.