The process of setting goals, developing strategies, and outlining tasks and schedules to accomplish the goals.
What should a plan be?
A plan should be a realistic view of the expectations. Depending upon the activities, a plan can be long range, intermediate range or short range. It is the framework. Within which it must operate. For management seeking external support, the plan is the most important document and key to growth. Preparation of a comprehensive plan will not quarantine success, but lack of a sound plan will almost certainly ensure failure.
Planning – a result-oriented process – can be summarized in 3 easy steips:
Purpose of a plan
Just as no two organizations are alike, so also their plans. It is therefore important to prepare a plan keeping in view the necessities of the enterprise. A plan is an important aspect of business. It serves the following three critical functions:
- Helps management to clarify, focus, and research their businesses or project’s development and prospects.
- Provides a considered and logical framework within which a business can develop and pursue business strategies over the next three to five years.
- Offers a benchmark against which actual performance can be measured and reviewed.
Types of plans or planning
- Architectural planning
- Business plan
- Comprehensive planning
- Contingency planning
- Economic planning
- Enterprise architecture planning
- Environmental planning
- Event planning and production
- Family planning
- Financial planning
- Land use planning
- Life planning
- Marketing plan
- Network resource planning
- Operational planning
- Strategic planning
- Succession planning
- Urban planning