Goals and Objectives of Planning

For swift goal attainment, it is crucial to move towards them systematically and progressively. Unorganized, spontaneous work in chaos will yield the opposite outcome. You’ll find yourself merely treading water, dealing with piles of accumulated tasks, without completing any of them fully. To avoid disarray and anarchy in your tasks, you need to learn how to plan them. By creating realistic, viable plans for a month, week, day, or any other time frame, and making necessary adjustments in a timely manner, you can achieve success with less effort.

Planning is a significant component of management aimed at predicting the state of an economic system, seeking optimal paths and methods to achieve both global and current objectives. Let’s delve deeper into understanding the tasks of planning. We’ll explore how to formulate them correctly for successful activities within a company or individual project.

What is meant by the term “planning“

The concept of planning can be interpreted as the ‘ability to formulate the strategic goals of enterprise development and the capability to anticipate the results of company activities by selecting resources to achieve them.’ This process is accompanied by an extensive complex of research related to preparing for managerial decision-making. This involves comparative analysis and evaluation of various alternative actions under expected conditions.

The creation of plans is necessary for the allocation of material and temporal resources available to the company. Based on these, a list of actions within a project is developed. This is one of the primary functions of the management system, consisting of the following stages:

• Formulating the company’s mission;
• Approving its objectives;
• Developing a comprehensive action program;
• Seeking resources necessary for plan implementation;
• Defining the performers of assigned tasks, acquainting them with their functions and responsibilities;
• Documenting the results.

Any plan contains the following information:

1. Company objectives;
2. Means of achieving them;
3. Stages, deadlines for completion of work;
4. List of performers with specified responsibilities;
5. Methods for achieving set goals and means of controlling plan execution.

Planning is organized activity for achieving goals and rational distribution of the organization’s resources. In a narrower sense, it is the process of creating documents necessary for coordination and increasing work efficiency.

Types, Objectives, and Principles of Planning

Planning is carried out to envision a picture of the future, in which all upcoming events are displayed clearly and comprehensibly, while events of future periods are outlined broadly. Its main tool is plans – forecast programs developed for a certain period. They contain information about methods to achieve goals, resources needed for their implementation.

Plans can cover different periods of time, be prepared for specific workers, divisions, business units, or for the entire economy as a whole. They vary in content, obligation, and urgency of execution.

Planning can be:

• Directive, implying mandatory execution of all tasks set. Directive plans are usually developed in state-owned enterprises.
• Indicative, without specific deadlines and detailed task specifications. This type of planning is advisory in nature.

Based on the time of task execution, plans can be:

• Short-term plans, prepared for a period of up to a year. They are actively used in the current activities of any company. They can be developed for a week, a month, a quarter, or a day.
• Medium-term planning covers a period from one year to five years.
• Long-term planning involves developing forecast programs for five or more years. This type is used in the economy to solve large-scale strategic tasks.

In terms of content, planning can be:

• Strategic. It determines the direction of the company’s development. It includes analyzing market trends, target audiences, and studying work processes within the enterprise for optimization.
• Tactical. Aimed at solving tasks outlined in the strategic plan.
• Calendar-based. Used to create action schedules tied to specific dates.
• Personnel-related. Aimed at forming the staff of employees in the company.
• Production-related. Used to plan production volumes.
• Financial. Includes a forecast of cash flow, profits and losses, and the organizational balance plan.

To assess the effectiveness of activities in companies, business planning is used. A business plan is a thoroughly developed program that includes all the key indicators of business activity.

Principles of planning:

• Unity. All small tasks within the plan must lead to the achievement of the overall goal.
• Involvement. All employees participating in the project should be involved in planning.
• Continuity. Plans must be executed progressively and systematically. Their disruption due to force majeure circumstances is not allowed. If necessary, they can be adjusted considering changed conditions.
• Flexibility. The plan should be adaptable. Adjustments can be made at any stage to minimize risks or costs.
• Scientific basis. Planning is built on scientifically grounded theories using proven methods in practice.
• Accuracy. All activity outcomes should be reflected in plans in detail.
• Coordination. Planning covers all departments of the organization to ensure smooth internal work.

To achieve success in business, it’s important that tactical and strategic plans of the company are interconnected. For example, developing new software, launching a product on the market, entering a new market, or increasing profits by a certain percentage are global, strategic goals. Tactical plans are specific actions needed to achieve these results.

When planning at all levels, it’s important to adhere to the principle of prioritization. Different tasks in any activity vary in importance and priority. Managers and subordinates should work with them taking into account their complexity and importance. Executors need to learn to prioritize tasks that are most important at the moment, rather than those that are easier to complete.

Tasks and Popular Planning Methods in an Enterprise

In order to make goals realistic and achievable, it’s necessary to plan them using effective algorithms and efficient programs. Considering this trend, the main tasks of planning are formulated as follows:

• Determine the organization’s position in the economic system.
• Conduct an analysis of its activity results and available resources.
• Identify a list of actions to solve tasks.
• Select alternative options for their implementation.
• Define final and intermediate results to be achieved.
• Develop action plans and monitor the progress of their execution.

To bring the achievement of any global goals closer, strategic plans are divided into smaller scale tasks. These are like checkpoints or stages that bring the company closer to the ultimate goal.

The following methodologies and tools are used for planning:

Balanced Method:

Used for analyzing fixed assets, financial condition of the company, or the industry. It includes several types of balances:

• Material (evaluating costs of electricity, fuel, construction materials, and other resources).
• Labor (composition and quality of staff).
• Financial (analyzing expenses/income, accounting balances, cash flow plan).

Normative Method:

Consists of a system of norms and indicators that assess the effectiveness of resource distribution and usage within the company. This includes norms for output, headcount, labor intensity, equipment and machinery usage, materials, fuel, etc. It is effective when a progressive normative basis is developed, taking into account new technologies and improved work organization and processes.

Program-Target Method:

Used for planning scientific and technical progress. It allows focusing the company’s resources to ensure the implementation of scientific and technical developments in production. It provides comprehensive planning at all stages, from idea to industrial launch.

For time planning in time management, the following methods are used:

Eisenhower Matrix:

This method prioritizes tasks by dividing them into four main categories:

• Important/Urgent
• Important/Not Urgent
• Not Important/Urgent
• Not Important/Not Urgent

By categorizing tasks based on their importance and priority, it’s easier to identify key, high-priority tasks and allocate sufficient time for their execution.

80/20 Rule or Pareto Principle:

This method simplifies the organization of work and personal tasks by illustrating the relationship between results and efforts. It’s often used in marketing and management to analyze sales, audience, and calculate advertising investments.

The essence: if you allocate 20% of your time to solving key and serious tasks, they will yield 80% of the results.

Decomposition:

To avoid getting overwhelmed by complex tasks, you can break them down into smaller tasks in the initial stages. By dividing a major goal into smaller steps, you can achieve task specificity. This gives you a clearer idea of what to do and which direction to move in to solve the main task.”

What Else to Consider in Planning

When creating plans for a month, day, or year, it is important to consider the influence of the external environment on the business. To do this, it is necessary to track trends and monitor competitors. You should be informed about the innovations they are introducing to the market, the activities they are promoting, and the original products they are offering to consumers.

Within the development of any business, performing systematic profitability analysis is crucial. When planning this indicator, it is important to consider the impact of external factors on the company’s expenses and revenues. For example, increases in raw material prices or a decrease in product demand. Regardless of their positive or negative impact, handling prices should be done prudently, without attempting to manipulate them in one direction or another. Prices should be realistic and economically justified.

Without planning, a business will not develop and function properly. Employees will encounter difficulties in their work and will struggle to meet their assigned tasks. Endless meetings, discussions, and blaming each other for failing to meet obligations will not yield the desired results. Operational planning provides the following advantages:

• It ensures coordination and proper allocation of responsibility zones among performers.
• It provides an objective assessment of performance results.
• It allows for effective risk management.
• It enhances company manageability by minimizing the influence of the human factor.

Automation can be considered an effective aid in planning. By using software solutions, many organizational and routine processes within the company can be significantly streamlined. This makes them transparent and understandable for all employees.

Effective Planning Organization with the Use of LeaderTask

LeaderTask is a modern digital application designed to tackle various tasks in management and planning. The program’s functionality includes all well-known techniques and the best global systems for project planning and management.

The service supports various types and methods of planning. It is suitable for creating and managing personal and team projects, formulating and distributing tasks. Tasks can be sorted by importance, priority, and assigned to other performers. You can break down major goals into smaller-scale subtasks, set reminders for upcoming events, meetings, or impending task deadlines.

The program is suitable for project managers, freelancers, specialists, and managers. It helps entrepreneurs and businesspeople focus on key objectives and bring order to their affairs. It teaches how to achieve 80% success with 20% effort.

The application combines the capabilities of a planner, electronic daily planner, organizer, task manager, and CRM system. It offers a quality free version and works efficiently on all digital platforms, including offline usage.

Conclusion

Planning is an effective management tool. It can be utilized for attracting investments, developing company growth strategies, analyzing market risks, and gaining a better understanding of one’s own business. It is one of the fundamental functions of management, overseen by top leadership. Its primary goals include the rational allocation of company resources and the formulation of an efficient action plan to achieve set objectives.

To ensure that formulated plans are viable, realistic, and attainable, they are crafted taking into account external and internal factors impacting the company’s operations. Any changes in conditions should prompt timely adjustments and modifications. Plans should be flexible, adaptive, and up-to-date.

Effective methods and tools, including modern software, which facilitates rational time allocation and efficient team collaboration, are essential for successful planning.