ENGLISH 1.3

Topic: 

Why do people in general and business managers in particular need to plan ahead? What are the side effects of not planning?

I.                   Introduction

No one wants to think about a time when you have to face with difficulties. So planning ahead for this possibility often gets put off. Your options are often limited by lack of information. Therefore, planning ahead allows you to have more control over your future.

II.                Focus

The importance of the planning

            What is the plan?

Planning mean looking ahead and chalking out future courses of action to be followed. It is a preparatory step. It is a systematic activity which determine when, how and who is going to perform a specific job. Planning is a detailed programmer regarding future courses of action. It is rightly said “Well plan is half done”. Therefore, planning takes into consideration available and prospective human and physical resources of the organization so as to get effective co-ordination, contribution and perfect adjustment. It is the basic management function which includes formulation of one or more detailed plan to achieve optimum balance of needs or demands with available resources.

You’ve got to have a plan. A Plan is a map, a guide, a target, a focus, a route, a signpost, a direction, a path, a strategy.

It says you are going to go somewhere, do something, be somewhere by a certain time. It gives your life structure and shape, gravitas and power. If you allow life to turn up any old thing you’ll be floating downstream as quick as you like.

Ok, so not all plans work out, not all plans lead to treasure. But at least you’re in with a better chance if you have a map and a shovel than if you just dig at random – or, like most people, don’t dig at all.

            The importance of the planning

The importance of the planning function should have be clear to you.  We can recognize the importance of planning function as follows:

Provides Direction: Planning provides a clear sense of direction to the activities of the organization and to the job behavior of managers and others.  It strengthens their confidence in understanding where the organization is heading and what for,  how best to make the organization move along the chosen path, and when should they take what measures to achieve the goals of the organization.

Provides opportunity to analyze alternative courses of action:  Another source of importance of planning is that it permits managers to examine and analyze alternative course of action with a better understanding of their likely consequences.  If managers have an enhanced awareness of the possible future effects of alternative courses of action, for making a decision or for taking any action, they will be able to exercise judgment and proceed cautiously to choose the most feasible and favorable course of action.

Reduces uncertainties: Planning forces managers to shake off their inertia and insular outlook; it induces them to look beyond those noses, beyond today and tomorrow, and beyond immediate concerns.  It encourages them to probe and cut through complexities and uncertainties of the environment and to gain control over the elements of change.

Minimizes impulsive and arbitrary decisions: Planning tends to minimize the incidence of impulsive and arbitrary decisions and ad hoc actions; it obviates exclusive dependence on the mercies of luck and chance elements; it reduces the probability of major errors and failures in managerial actions.  It injects a measure of discipline in managerial thinking and organizational action.  It improves the capability of the organization to assume calculated risks.  It increases the freedom and flexibility of managers within well-defined limits.

King-pin  function: As stated earlier, planning is a prime managerial function which provides the basis for the other managerial functions.  The organizational structure of task and authority roles is built around organizational plans.  The functions of motivation, supervision, leadership and communication are addressed to implementation of plans and achievement of organizational objectives.  Managerial control is meaningless without managerial planning.  Thus, planning is the king-pin function around which other functions are designed.

Resource Allocation: Planning is means of judicious allocation of strategic and scarce resources of the organization in the best possible manner for achieving strategic goals of the organization.  The strategic resources include funds, highly competent executives, technological talent, good contacts with government, exclusive dealer network and so on.  If the organization enjoys a distinct advantage in possession of such resources, a careful planning is essential to allocate them into those lines which would strengthen the overall competitive position of the organization.

Resource use efficiency:  For an ongoing organization, planning contributes towards a more efficient functioning of the various work units.  There is better utilization of the organization's existing assets, resources and capabilities.  It prompts managers to close gaps, to plug loopholes, to rectify deficiencies, to reduce wastage and leakages of funds, materials, human efforts and skills so as to bring about an overall improvement in resource use efficiency.

Adaptive responses:  Planning tends to improve the ability of the organization to effectively adapt and adjust its activities and directions in response to the changes taking place in the external environment.  An adaptive behavior on the part of the organization is essential for its survival as an independent entity.  For a business organization, for example, adaptive behavior is critical in technology, markets, products and so on.

Anticipative action: While adaptation is a behavior in reaction and response to some changes in the outside world, it is not enough in some situations.  In recognition of this fact, planning stimulates management to act, to take hold initiatives, to anticipate crises and threats and to ward them off, to perceive and seize opportunities ahead of other competitions, and to gain a competitive lead over others.  For the purpose, some enterprises establish environmental scanning mechanism as part of their planning systems.  Thereby such enterprises are able to direct and control change, instead of being directed and controlled by the pervasive external forces of change.

Integration: Planning is an important process to bring about effective integration of the diverse decisions and activities of the managers not only at a point of time but also over a period of time.  It is by reference to the framework provided by planning that managers make major decisions on organizational activities, in an internally consistent manner.

The side effects of not planning

As we know as, planning ahead have many advantages. I sure that if you don’t have a plan before working, you can’t succeed. You believe, don’t you? Now, we together research about: What are the side effects of not planning?

Firstly, You can’t identify problems before implement.

Everything contains opportunities and hidden perils. You can be very very talent but you don’t anticipate all things. So, if you don’t plan, you will be caught in perils or miss out opportunities. Of course, you expect your business to succeed, but what you have to remember is that, on the way to succeeding, there will be pitfalls. If you do not plan, your business could be mired into the pitfalls and never get out of them

On the contrary, when you plan, it can help forecast future problems and make any necessary changes up front to avoid them. Of course, surprises — such as the 1973 quadrupling of oil prices — can always catch an organization short, but many changes are easier to forecast. Planning for these potential problems helps to minimize mistakes and reduce the “surprises” that inevitably occur.

Secondly, Wrong direction

You’ve got to have a plan. A Plan is a map, a guide, a target, a focus, a route, a signpost, a direction, a path, a strategy.

It says you are going to go somewhere, do something, be somewhere by a certain time. It gives your life structure and shape, gravitas and power. If you allow life to turn up any old thing you’ll be floating downstream as quick as you like..

Not planning results in setting up in appropriate objectives or plans. Inappropriate objectives cause the organization to direct its efforts in the wrong directions, or to put in too much or too little efforts. A business introducing a new product in a market may follow different objectives such maximizing immediate profit, or maximizing sale sales volume, and the prices it sets for the product will be very much influenced by the objective.

Immediate profit maximization may point to setting up high skimming prices, while objective of sales maximization is better served by low penetration prices. Unless there is clarity about the objectives of setting the price levels, the likelihood of setting the prices at correct levels are low.

Similarly, the selling and advertising efforts to be put in for this product will depend on target sales volume. If the sales volume targets are too low full sales potential will not be achieved. It the sales targets are too ambitious, efforts and cost incurred in sales and advertising will be wasted in following unrealistic objectives.

Thirdly, Lose control:

A plan indicates you’ve had a bit of a think about your life and aren’t just waiting for something to turn up. Or, again like most people, not even thinking about it but going through life perpetually surprised by what happens.

Work out what it is you want to do, plan it, work out the steps to take to achieve your goal, and get on with it. If you don’t plan your plan, it will remain a dream.

So what happens when you don’t have a plan? Well, you reinforce to yourself, your sense of being ‘not in control’. Once you have a plan everything falls into place. Once you have a plan, the logical steps to achieve that plan also become available, accessible. Not planning causes:

- Long transitions and waning enthusiasm.

- Unnecessary stress.

- Possibility of behavioral challenges due to waiting

- An activity may not to complete

What if you don’t have a plan? You will end up in other people’s plan. Yes, indeed, if you don’t have a plan, then you will end up becoming part of people’s plan. If you don’t have a plan, then it will be the same as you’ve arrived to a new city and don’t know where to head to. You will end up in nowhere. Having a plan is equally important as having a clear goal. A goal without a plan is just a dream.

A plan isn’t a dream – it’s something you intend doing rather than something you want to do. An having a plan means you’ve thought through how you’re going to do it.

Of course, just because you have a plan doesn’t mean that you have to stick to it, to follow it, to obey it to the letter come hell or high water. The plan is always up for review, for improvement, for changing as and when you need to. The plan shouldn’t be rigid. Circumstances change, you change, your plans change. The details of the plan doesn’t matter. Having one does.

Lastly, Failure

The failure to plan is planned failure. Without an action plan to begin to guide a business or even an individual, the end result is usually walking down the wrong path along with a lot of spraying and praying going on.

In order to succeed at anything you've got to have a plan. Business is no different. Yet, depending on the type of business you're operating, the plan will vary.

For example, if you are raising money from investors or bringing a company public, you need a lengthy and comprehensive plan. It must not only provide a realistic strategy for running the business successfully, but it must also demonstrate to potential investors your knowledge of the business and your ability to foresee problems and solve them. A good plan will also include comprehensive market research and your response to it, and a detailed performa that shows worst case, best case and most likely financial projections over a three to five year period. It takes three to five months to put a comprehensive business plan together.

Few days ago, my neighbor told me that he had a string of bad luck. After he and his partner purchased an established business, two key employees left and so did a significant part of the revenue. Also, with the retirement of the owner, existing loyal customers left because their loyalty was to the past owner and not to the current ones. This was all contributed to bad luck!

After listening to the individual complain, I asked him: "Would your outcomes be different if you had taken the time to ask yourself this question: What happens if a key employee left?"

The response was "Sure, but I did not think about any employee leaving. The business was over 30 years old and very well established. All the records were in tact and everything looked good on paper.

An old quote states: "Good luck happens when preparedness meets opportunity."

So possibly the reverse is true that "bad luck happens when no planning meets the unknown."

This creates a working harder not smarter business environment. The business owners in the earlier story are both discouraged because what they believed to be some easy money now has become a daily effort just to keep the doors open.

If you want luck, then make it part of your action plan. Commit your goals to writing. Work your action plan, plan your work. Then see all of the luck come your way or if you want believe that you have been lucky.

III.             Conclusion

As a military said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. This is very true. Without a plan, people are set up to encounter errors, waste, and delays. A plan, on the other hand, helps people organize resources and activities efficiently and effectively to achieve goals. Nothing in our life happens automatically, everything needs a plan. Every successful people know this, if they want to succeed, they will need to have a plan which leads them there

Did you know what you should do now? If you don’t, you must plan your steps now. What are you going to do to achieve your goals? This is another great key you need to keep in your pocket and use it when necessary. Use it wisely to open the door to success.