Planning is the process of thinking about the activities required to achieve a desired goal.

It is the
first and foremost activity to achieve desired results. It involves the creation and maintenance of a
plan, such as psychological aspects that require conceptual skills. There are even a couple of tests
to measure someone’s capability of planning well. As such, planning is a fundamental property of
intelligent behavior. An important further meaning, often just called "planning" is the legal context of
permitted building developments.

Also, planning has a specific process and is necessary for multiple occupations (particularly in fields
such as management, business, etc.). In each field there are different types of plans that help
companies achieve efficiency and effectiveness. An important, albeit often ignored aspect of
planning, is the relationship it holds to forecasting. Forecasting can be described as predicting what
the future will look like, whereas planning predicts what the future should look like for multiple
scenarios. Planning combines forecasting with preparation of scenarios and how to react to them.
Planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques.
Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If a person does it
effectively, they can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal. A plan is like a
map. When following a plan, a person can see how much they have progressed towards their project
goal and how far they are from their destination.
Planing is the fundamental management function, which involves deciding
beforehand, what is to be done, when is it to be done, how it is to be done and
who is going to do it. It is an intellectual process which lays down
organization’s objectives and develops various courses of action, by
which the organization can achieve those objectives. It chalks out exactly, how
to attain a specific goal. Planning is nothing but thinking before the action
takes place. It helps us to take a peep into the future and decide in advance
the way to deal with the situations, which we are going to encounter in future.
It involves logical thinking and rational decision making. Planning is very
essential in everyone’s life, we create plans beforehand. Planning enables us to
withstand every circumstance that we will face in the future. Good planning is
important in our lives. When we encounter adversity, instead of breaking we
tend to bend. Planning is present in all types of organizations, households,
sectors, economies, etc. We need to plan because future is highly uncertain and
no one can predict future with 100% accuracy, as the conditions can change
anytime. Hence, planning is the basic requirement of any organization for the
survival, growth and success

Importance of Planning
1. Increases efficiency: Planning makes optimum utilization of all available resources. It helps to reduce wastage of
valuable resources and avoids their duplication. It aims to give the highest returns at the lowest possible cost. It
thus increases the overall efficiency.
2. Reduces business-related risks: There are many risks involved in any modern business. Planning helps to
forecast these business-related risks. It also helps to take the necessary precautions to avoid these risks and
prepare for future uncertainties in advance. Thus, it reduces business risks.
3. Facilitates proper coordination: Often, the plans of all departments of an organization are well coordinated with
each other. Similarly, the short-term, medium-term and long-term plans of an organization are also coordinated
with each other. Such proper coordination is possible only because of efficient planning.
4. Aids in Organizing: Organizing means to bring together all available resources, i.e. 6 Ms. Organizing is not
possible without planning. It is so, since, planning tells us the amount of resources required and when are they
needed. It means that planning aids in organizing in an efficient way.
5. Gives right direction: Direction means to give proper information, accurate instructions and useful guidance to
the subordinates. It is impossible without planning. It is because planning tells us what to do, how to do it and
when to do it. Therefore, planning helps to give a right direction.
6. Keeps good control: With control, the actual performance of an employee is compared with the plans, and
deviations (if any) are found out and corrected. It is impossible to achieve such a control without right planning.
Therefore, planning becomes necessary to keep a good control.
7. Helps to achieve objectives: Every organization has certain objectives or targets. It keeps working hard to fulfill
these goals. Planning helps an organization to achieve these aims, but with some ease and promptness. Planning
also helps an organization to avoid doing some random (done by chance) activities.
8. Motivates personnel: A good plan provides various financial and non-financial incentives to both managers and
employees. These incentives motivate them to work hard and achieve the objectives of the organization. Thus,
planning through various incentives helps to motivate the personnel of an organization.
9. Encourages creativity and innovation: Planning helps managers to express their creativity and innovation. It
brings satisfaction to the managers and eventually success to the organization.
10. Helps in decision-making: A manager makes many different plans. Then the manager selects or chooses the
best of all available strategies. Making a selection or choosing something means to take a decision. So, decision-
making is facilitated by planning.
Therefore, planning is necessary for effective and efficient functioning of every organization irrespective of its size, type
and objectives.

Planning Objectives
The objective of the planning process is to collaboratively develop an action plan
that defines the specific activities that should take place in order to improve
safety. It begins with an analysis of what the situation is today, and then
compares it to where the organization would like to be. This “gap analysis”
identifies specific steps that can be taken to reach the desired goal. The
developers of the plan then decide what specific actions will be taken and in
what order — in other words, generating a prioritized action list. From that list,
the developers build an action plan, which in addition to identifying the actions
to be taken, determines who is responsible for them. The process — and each
step — is illustrated in the flow chart
Some major objectives of economic planning are:
(a) An improvement in the standard of living of the people through a
sizable increase in national income within a short period of time;

(b) A large expansion of employment opportunities for the removal of

unemployment and for creating jobs and incomes;

(c) A reduction in all types of social, economic and regional

inequalities;

(d) An efficient utilisation of the country’s resources for faster growth;

(e) Removal of mass poverty within a definite time limit through land
reform, employment creation, and provision of educational and
medical facilities;

(f) Attainment of self-reliance by reducing dependence on foreign

capital and foreign aid.

Importance of Planning:
The importance of planning lies in the fact that it is an instrument
through which important socio-economic objectives, unrealisable
under free private enterprise, are likely to be effectively realised.

Business Objectives

Companies, large or small, can identify problems and establish overall goals for their business, but
they need specific plans to make progress. The planning stage includes courses of action and
identifies the results that the company wants to see. These results translate into objectives at the
different levels of the organization. A department manager may have the objective to increase sales
by 10 percent. This becomes an objective of selling 15 more systems this month for one of his
employees. To maintain planning clarity, the type of objective must remain the same throughout this
translation down the organization.

1. Time-Related Objectives

One type of objective includes a time factor. These objectives are short-term, medium-term or long-
term, ranging from one month to several years. Planning that includes short-term objectives
specifies what immediate results are expected from actions currently in progress. These objectives
focus on day-to-day activities. Medium-term objectives are results that influence the annual budgets,
reports and strategies. They deal with monthly action plans. Long-term objectives look at results the
company needs to meet its overall goals. They focus on results from yearly reviews. Planning
specifies time-related objectives as an overall framework for plan implementation.

2. Routine Objectives

Some objectives don't have a specific time frame but deal with expected results from routine,
continuous activities. Normal production levels translate into routine objectives. Monitoring safety to
prevent the accident rate from rising involves routine objectives. Such objectives typically remain at
a constant rate. Management monitors routine objectives for deviations from the norm and to
institute corrective action if necessary. Planning specifies routine objectives and assumes the
company will meet them as it has in the past.

3. Development Objectives

While time-related objectives deal with normal activities within a time frame and routine objectives
deal with regular activities, development objectives result from new initiatives. External change
imposed on a business or internal changes motivated by new goals result in planning for new
development. Such plans specify new activities and estimate the results. These desired results
translate into objectives at the various organizational levels. Since the activities are new, the
objectives may not be realistic and managers have to be ready to make adjustments to this type of
objective.

1. Benefits of planning
2. Gives an organization a sense of direction.Without plans and goals,
organizations merely react to daily occurrences without considering what will
happen in the long run. For example, the solution that makes sense in the short
term doesn't always make sense in the long term. Plans avoid this drift situation
and ensure that short‐range efforts will support and harmonize with future goals.
3. Focuses attention on objectives and results. Plans keep the people who carry
them out focused on the anticipated results. In addition, keeping sight of the goal
also motivates employees.
4. Establishes a basis for teamwork. Diverse groups cannot effectively cooperate
in joint projects without an integrated plan. Examples are numerous: Plumbers,
carpenters, and electricians cannot build a house without blueprints. In addition,
military activities require the coordination of Army, Navy, and Air Force units.
5. Helps anticipate problems and cope with change. When management plans,
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.
6. Provides guidelines for decision making. Decisions are future‐oriented. If
management doesn't have any plans for the future, they will have few guidelines
for making current decisions. If a company knows that it wants to introduce a new
product three years in the future, its management must be mindful of the
decisions they make now. Plans help both managers and employees keep their
eyes on the big picture.
7. Serves as a prerequisite to employing all other management
functions. Planning is primary, because without knowing what an organization
wants to accomplish, management can't intelligently undertake any of the other
basic managerial activities: organizing, staffing, leading, and/or controlling.

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qualification of planners