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Chapter 4 Sulfikar

Planning
Q. Explain The Importance of Planning.
Ans : The major benefits of planning are given below : 1. Planning provides directions : It defines the objectives of individual departments and organisations as a whole in concrete terms. 2. Planning reduces the risks of uncertainty : It anticipates the future events and faces them. 3. Planning reduces overlapping and wasteful activities : As it helps in channelizing and uniting the efforts of various departments. 4. Planning promotes innovative ideas : Provides opportunity to managers to suggest ways and means to achieve targets effectively. 5. Planning facilitates decision making : Planned target provides base on which alternative courses of action are considered and analysed. 6. Planning establishes standards for controlling : Planned target serves the base for all other functions of management. 7. Implement the plan: This is concerned with putting the plan into action.

8. Follow-up action: Monitoring the plans are equally important to ensure that objectives are achieved.

Q. What Are The Limitations of Planning ? Ans : The major limitations of planning are given below :
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Planning leads to rigidity : Planning puts managerial activities in a rigid framework and creates false sense of security. Planning may not work in a dynamic environment : Planning is not practicable during emergencies and crises when on the spot decisions are necessary. Planning reduces creativity : The employees have to work in accordance with plans and therefore it is able to avail oneself of existing opportunities. Planning involves huge costs : Planning process i.e from collection of data to the suggestions involves huge costs and time. Planning is a time consuming process : Planning is a lengthy process and hence time consuming. Planning does not guarantee success : Detailed planning may create a feeling among employees that everything has been taken care of. It may lead to failure.

Q. Explain Planning Process. Ans. They are as follows :

1. 2. Setting Objectives : The first step in the process of planning is to set the targets for organisation as a whole. Then the targets of each department is decided. These objectives and targets must be specific and definite. Developing Premises : The next step in the process of planning is to establish planning premises. These asre assumptions or estimates about future which may effect our plan. These assumptions provide a foundation on which our planning structure is built. Identifying alternative courses of action : There may be many alternatives to achieve the goals. So organisation has to select the best one. Choice of the best alternative : All alternatives are evaluated taking into account the relevant facts and the pros and cons of each alternative, and then the best one is selected. necessary to implement the master plan effectively.

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5. Making derivative plans : Supportive plans are detailed plans which are derived from the master plan. These plans are Q. Explain The Types of Plans. Ans : They are as follows :
1. 2. Objectives: Objectives therefore can be said to be the desired future position that the management would like to reach. For example, an organisation may have an objective of increasing sales by 10%. Strategy: A strategy provides the broad contours of an organisations business. It will also refer to future decisions defining the organisations direction and scope in the long run. For example, which channel of distribution to use ? what is the pricing policy ?

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Policy: Policies are general statements that guide thinking or channelize energies towards a particular direction. For example, the company may have a recruitment policy, pricing policy like a commerce graduate should be the Accountant and no credit sale. Procedure: Procedures are routine steps on how to carry out activities. For example, there may be a procedure for selecting an employee as an Accountant like written text, interview etc. Method : Methods provide the prescribed ways in which a task has to be performed. For example, Depreciation is provided either Straight Line or Diminishing Line Method. Rule : Rules are specific statements that tell what is to be done. For example, No smoking inside the factory premises. Programme: Programmes are detailed statements about a project which outlines the objectives, policies, procedures, rules, tasks, human and physical resources required and the budget to implement any course of action. Budget: A budget is a statement of expected results expressed in numerical terms. It is a plan which quantifies future facts and figures.