BUSINESS: Planning

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Introduction You have just read about the plans of Indian Oil Company Limited (IOCL). Of course, these are broad statements given by the company and they have to be broken down into steps for im ... plementation. This is an example of a company with a nation‑wide reach striving to be one of the top companies in India. Further more, every organisation whether it is government-owned, a privately owned business or a company in the private sector requires planning. The government makes five year plans for the country, a small business has it’s own plans, while other companies have big plans, sales plans, production plans. All of them have some plans. All business firms would like to be successful, increase their sales and earn profits. All managers dream of these and strive to achieve their goals. But to turn these dreams into reality managers need to work hard in thinking about the future, in making business predictions and achieving targets. Dreams can be turned into reality only if business managers think in advance on what to do and how to do it. This is the essence of planning. Concept Planning is deciding in advance what to do and how to do. It is one of the basic managerial functions. Before doing something, the manager must formulate an idea of how to work on a particular task. Thus, planning is closely connected with creativity and innovation. But the manager would first have to set objectives, only then will a manager know where he has to go. Planning seeks to bridge the gap between where we are and where we want to go. Planning is what managers at all levels do. It requires taking decisions since it involves making a choice from alternative courses of action. Planning, thus, involves setting objectives and developing appropriate courses of action to achieve these objectives. Objectives provide direction for all managerial decisions and actions. Planning provides a rational approach for achieving predetermined objectives. All members, therefore, on a project basis IOC will certainly go into the market — both India and Overseas, depending on which is cheaper — to borrow money, if needed. Source: https://www.business-standard.com/article/ companies/ioc-to-invest-around-rs-20-000-in-2017-18- plans-expansion-acquisitions-117051600438_1.html. Rationalised 2023-24 Planning 93 need to work towards achieving organisational goals. These goals set the targets which need to be achieved and against which actual performance is measured. Therefore, planning means setting objectives and targets and formulating an action plan to achieve them. It is concerned with both ends and means i.e., what is to be done and how it is to be done. The plan that is developed has to have a given time frame but time is a limited resource. It needs to be utilised judiciously. If time factor is not taken into consideration, conditions in the environment may change and all business plans may go waste. Planning will be a futile exercise if it is not acted upon or implemented. Do you think from the above we can formulate a comprehensive definition of planning? One of the ways to do so would be to define planning as setting objectives for a given time period, formulating various courses of action to achieve them, and then selecting the best possible alternative from among the various courses of action available. [Show More]

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