Planning is very essential in every business. the strategy and means by which planning is carried out is enlisted in this document. The importance of planning is discussed with chapter reviews and tests to aid your understanding
UNIT2
Planning
Chapter 4: Planning Processes and Techniques
Chapter 5: Strategy and Strategic Management
Chapter 6: Organizational Change
If you are planningfor oneyear,plant rice. If you are
planningfor 10 years,planttrees.If you are planning
for 100 years,plant people.
Indian Proverb
,4 PLANNING PROCESSES
AND TECHNIQUES
1.Understand why and how managers 3.Describe useful planning tools and
plan. techniques.
2.Identify and describe the types of plans 4.Understand how plans can be well
managers use. implemented.
LEARNING FROM OTHERS
THINK NOW AND EMBRACE THE FUTURE
The aim of Cognos, a software company owned by IBM and located
in Ottawa, is to help businesses crunch the numbers for better
organizational planning and control. And businesses like what they
domore than 23,000 organizations worldwide have adopted
Cognos performance management solutions.
With businesses facing an ever-changing marketplace, Cognos helps
companies gain aflexible approach to their strategic plans by pro-
viding software to analyze business data. A world leader in busi-
ness intelligence and performance planning software, the company
provides businesses with a competitive advantage by integrating
key areas of budgeting, performance, and sales. Companies can
analyze the numbers to monitor and change strategic direction so
that resources are directed toward areas that are financially and
commercially viable. Cognos TM1, Cognos Express, and Cognos Now!, the company has
a full line of enterprise planning software for budgeting, forecast-
What is Cognoss own plan? It continues to research and develop ing, and analysis. As IT consultant Philip Howard notes, What
new software. With products such as Cognos 8 Business Intelligence, Cognos has recognized is that planning is more than just afinancial
, activitythat it is something that needs to spread across the enter- software is one thing; supporting it in practice is another. This is
prise and be coordinated across multiple departments. However, where the Cognos blueprints come in, enabling users to adopt these
appreciating that fact and supporting it in principle in the planning practices relatively easily. It sounds as if Cognos has a plan.1
The best plans often go wrong. The problem is with the details. We often hear these expressions, but Cognos shows that you can
make great things happen with good insight and the right plans. Even when things dont go as intended, plans and their implementation
can often be adjusted to achieve important goals.
LEARNING ABOUT YOURSELF
TIME MANAGEMENT
Time Management Planner
Time is one of our most precious resources, and time management List 1 What I have to do tomorrow
is an essential skill in todays high-pressure, fast-paced world of
A. Most important, top priority
work. Some 77 percent of managers in one survey said the digital
age has increased the number of decisions they have to make; 43 B. Important, not top priority
percent complained there was less time available to make deci-
C. Least important, low priority
sions. BusinessWeek reports that interruptions steal 28 percent of
the average workers day and that the lost productivity costs the U.S. List 2 Time wasters
economy $650 billion per year.2
A. Things I can control
Dont you wonder about the time you waste dealing with email, instant B. Things I cant control
messages, voice and text messages, drop-in visits from friends or
co-workers, waiting on the phone for customer service, and more?
plan, letting events take you where they may. And perhaps on many
days you end up not accomplishing much at all.
Of course, you have to be careful in defining waste. It isnt a waste
of time to occasionally relax, take a breather from work, and find Learning to better manage your time can serve you very well in the
humour and pleasure in social interactions. Such breaks help us future, both at work and in your personal life. Take a step forward
gather and replenish energies to do well in our work. But it is a waste in time management. Complete the lists requested in the boxed
to let friends dominate your time so that you dont work on a school time management planner. Double-check all the List 1 B activi-
project until it is too late to write a really good one, or delay a deci- ties. Reclassify any that are really As or Cs. Look at your As
sion to apply for a job or internship until the deadline has passed. and reclassify any that are really Bs or Cs. Also check your time
wasters. Make a commitment to take charge of the ones you can
Perhaps you are one of those who plan to do so many things in a day control, and see if you really could do something about items marked
that you never get to the most important ones. Perhaps you hardly uncontrollable.
GET TO KNOW YOURSELF BETTER
1. One of the best ways to improve time management is to keep a daily time log for a day or twolisting what you
do and how long it takes. Make such a log, and then analyze it to determine where you seem to be wasting time
and where you are using it well.
2. Use the Time Management Profile at the end of the chapter to help you think further about your time manage-
ment skills.
, 112 CHAPTER 4PLANNING PROCESSES ANDTECHNIQUES
To survive and succeed, IBMs Cognos knows it has to plan for the future by
constantly reinventing itself and its products. In this chapter, you will learn how manag-
ers use planning to help turn insight and opportunity into real performance accomplish-
ments. Managers need the ability to look ahead, make good plans, and help themselves
and others meet the challenges of the future. However, the future is full of uncertainty;
the likelihood is that even the best of plans will have to be adjusted and changed at some
point. Thus, managers need the insight and courage to be flexible in response to new cir-
cumstances. They also need the discipline to stay focused on goals even as complications
and problems arise.
Why and How Managers Plan
In Chapter 1, the management process was described as planning, organizing, leading,
and controlling the use of resources to achieve performance objectives. The first of these
Planning is the process of set- functions, planning, sets the stage for the others by providing a sense of direction. It is a
ting objectives and determining process of setting objectives and determining how best to accomplish them. Said a bit dif-
how to accomplish them.
ferently, planning involves deciding exactly what you want to accomplish and how best to
go about it.
IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING
When planning is done well, it creates a solid platform for the other management func-
tions: organizingallocating and arranging resources to accomplish tasks; leading
guiding the efforts of human resources to ensure high levels of task accomplishment; and
controllingmonitoring task accomplishments and taking necessary corrective action.
This centrality of planning in management is shown in Figure 4.1. In todays demand-
ing organizational and career environments, it is essential to stay one step ahead of the
Planningto
set the direction
Decide where you
want to go
Decide how best to
go about it
Organizing Leading
to create structures to inspire effort
Controlling
to ensure results
Measure performance
Take corrective action
Figure 4.1 The roles of planning and controlling in the management process.
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