Planning does not take place in a vacuum. Neither does it occur automatically. Rather, good planning and development involves of interrelated and important steps.

1. Choosing objectives- expressed very simply, objectives are goals sought to be attained through proper planning. As such they should not be confused with the methods that are adopted for the accomplishment of stated goals. Rather they should be understood as the desired end result obtained through the use of planning.

It should be noted that the setting of company objectives represents the first step in the planning process in as much as an organization's goals give direction to all future activities. Based upon expected time of accomplishment, objectives may be short+ term or long term. Short- term objectives involves a short span of time, as for instance, filling up the sales quota within a relatively short period of time, say month after month. Long-term objectives, as formulated by a business enterprise are expected to be attained only after a stated number of years, ranging from five to ten. Venturing into the export market after ten years of continuous successful operation is an example of a long term objective and development will follow.

Objectives may like wise be specific or general in character. General objectives state the organization's goals in broad terms. Specific objectives are tied to certain specific goals as for instance, increasing company profits at an average of 50percent every year.

2. Communicating objectives- one common clause behind the failure of planning is the lack of proper understanding on the part of the personnel of company objectives. This could be eliminated through proper communication. A two- way communication of objectives is essential to the fulfillment of any plan.

3. Recognizing assumptions- in a view of the impossibility of looking the future with perfect accuracy, it follows that all plans at best, are nothing more than mere first be recognized and then clarified if predictions are to prove fairly accurate. Such is only possible if correct data and information are at hand. This data gathering is important at this stage.

4. Forecasting-forecasting is the estimation of future values of an economic variable or variables from known values of tje same or another variable or variables on the assumption that a best known relationship of lag by the first variable continues to exist. At this stage in the planning process, it is necessary that managers must be aware of both the realistic limitations on planning as well as thr projected trends based on collected data. Limitations may revove around facilities, time, money, market, raw materials and other constraints.

5. Formulating policies- policies furnish the framework for plans. In the case of a business policy, such as serves as a useful guide for the organizations thought and action in the accomplishment of uts objectives. It does not work both managerial and operative, but moreover become deeply imbedded into them.

6. Identifying alternatives- it may be found necessary to formula alternatives when the projected course of action seem incapable of generating desired results. Thus every option must be duly considered if planning is to be truly effective. This is done through brainstorming where all managers and experts are gathered around and toss their own ideas, with no holds barred. No idea is wrong and no questions are asked. Rather they have arrived at an accepted course of action.

7. Evaluation of alternatives- identification of alternatibes becomes meaningless unless they are properly considered and evaluated with respect to their practically, feasibility and potentially for attaining the stated goal.

8. Choosing a plan of action- after the evaluation of alternatives- and objectives chosen and communicated a plan of action becomes necessary. As such rules and procedures are formulated for carrying out plans into execution. Like planning a procedures are sequential sets of actions designed to achieve a particular goal. While rules are also guides to action, nevertheless they are not specified in a time sequence.

9. Drawing up the budget- a budget is a detailed plan of future reciepts and expenditures for successive periods of time so that profits are maximized. More generally a budget is any plan pertaining to one or more of the financial aspects of a business.

10. Establishing deadlines- any plan and its implementation must take place within a time schedule. For this reason deadlines are set. It may be noted that any plan is not only circumscribed by a given span of time but moreover, sets standards for performance. Success in meeting objectives is integrally related to the quality of standards set forth by the plan and development. A plan can be successfully worked out.

If the manager imagines there are four partners sitting behind the desk: the past , the present, the near future, and the far future. This is because in thier rush to take care of present problems most people fail to consider the effects of thie actions on the past and the future. Thus every new plan negotiated with an employee is linked to past relationships with that employee and with others. Any new plan is bound to effect the short and long term future. The intelligent manager will carefully consider and satisfy the needs of the procees of planning and development for the future ahead.

Sche-Shang here!

Stay blessed 💞