The management process is the basis of the success of any managerial activity. Management planning is the first element of the management process. As the first step of the management process, management planning works with major importance for the successful completion of any management activity.
In this article, we will have a better look at the importance of planning and how to do effective planning to achieve expected results through the management activity.
The process of management is majorly important for any organization when achieving its strategic goals and objectives. As the organizations are existing to achieve a specified task, having a proper plan to achieve the task is very important.
Management planning is about creating a set of requirements and preparing a schedule of activities to achieve the set target. It is about identifying the requirements, what needs to be done and how it should be done to get the expected outcome. There are several important things the managers should concentrate on when planning for any activity.
• Identify the requirement – Managers should identify the need for change. It can be a process change or a system change. Or it can be a resource change in the organization. Managers should first identify why the change is needed for the organization. They should recognize new potential as a result of the change. If it is not providing a new output, the change is not a success.
• Practicability – The change the managers are planning should be practical to implement. It should be aligned with the organizational goals and objectives and they should have the capacity to implement the plan and achieve the expected outcome within the estimated time. The plan should be able to satisfy the available technology and it should be able to comply with the budget allocated for the activity.
• Time frame – For any plan there should be an estimated time frame that the activity should finish. If it is a process change, there should be a time frame that the new process goes BAU. The plan should be created based on the time frame allocated to finish the activity. Time should be decided based on the complexity of the activity and resource availability. Apart from that, the impact of the external environment can also create a major impact on deciding the time to finish the activity.
• External environmental factors – When planning for a specific task, managers should always consider the external environmental factors of the organization. They should carry out a proper study to measure the capability of the organization to fit into the eternal environment after the change. Managers should be specifically concerned about competitors, government regulations, inflation, expected economic and political changes, etc.
The above elements should be taken into consideration when making an effective plan for any activity in organizations. As planning is the initial step of the management process, an unsuccessful plan can ruin the entire management process of that particular activity and it can make a huge impact on the overall performance of the organization.
Effective planning can be a definite help for the managers to carry out all the other activities in the management process. It will work as a solid foundation for the success of the activity to achieve the expected outcome. Apart from that, successful planning will help the organization to face the competition better and to achieve a competitive advantage in the industry.
Management planning plays a major role in the success of any business and it helps the managers in numerous ways to drive the organization towards success. It works as a key element of the success of the organization and help in making an important business decision about organizational activities.