Having an action plan in any situation helps to achieve the goal with more economical means. The basic principles of strategic planning in management are the basis for organizing activities at the enterprise. The plan allows you to coordinate the actions of all participants in the process and correctly allocate available resources. Therefore, in management so much importance is attached to the planning processes.
Concept of planning
From the moment when a person began to think about his prospects, the simplest planning appears. Gradually, humanity is gaining experience, improving methods of building action programs that lead to results. So there is planning, the essence, the basic principles and methods of which are studied today by a whole science - management. It is understood as a system and sequence of actions that must be completed in order to achieve any goal. This is a kind of bridge between the current state of affairs and the desired state.
Strategy and Planning
It is customary to distinguish between strategic and current planning. The goals and basic principles of planning the organization of the enterprise’s work related to the solution of long-term tasks are necessarily correlated with the company's strategy. The need for a strategy is explained by the need to facilitate the process of making managerial decisions. The manager must understand where the company is going, and within this direction he can make decisions. Strategy development is the highest form of planning, and already within its framework simpler forms are implemented. Current planning is impossible or ineffective without a strategy. Just as tactical decisions ensure the realization of long-term goals, since it is impossible to reach them “in one step”.
Targets and goals
Goals and main tasks, planning principles, of course, are associated with the specifics of the company, however, there are universal goals that are characteristic of any enterprise. These include:
- the need to optimize the expenditure of resources (monetary, human, temporary, production);
- adaptation of the company and management to changing external conditions and reduction of risks associated with doing business;
- coordination of all efforts and processes in the company and release of resources;
- organizational improvement, improving the structure of the company and production processes to increase productivity and enterprise efficiency.
Basic principles
Any type of planning It has unique properties due to the specifics of the enterprise. However, there are universal postulates that are characteristic of any type of such activity. The French management theorist A. Fayol spoke about the five rules of a good program of action, about the basic principles of planning. In management today you can find a wide and narrow list of key provisions. According to a narrow list, the basic principles of planning are: unity, accuracy, continuity, flexibility, participation. In a broader interpretation, the following postulates are added to them: information content, economic feasibility, as well as complexity, timeliness, focus, integration. Optional principles include optimality, stability, consistency, concreteness and measurability, etc. The list can be continued, since planning is an extremely complex and diverse process. Therefore, traditionally in management they talk about 5-7 universal principles.
Unity
All the basic principles of planning obey the first leading rule of unity, or holism. It states: all elements of planning must coexist in the system and interaction. Unity is expressed in a systematic approach to setting goals and the selection of means to achieve them. The relationship between the subjects of planning and structural elements of the enterprise should be ensured at the horizontal and vertical levels. It is impossible to plan the activities of a single unit in isolation from other departments and services. Any changes in the plans of one structural element of the organization should be reflected and taken into account in the plans of all other departments. Only a single, end-to-end planning of the organization’s activities allows us to realize the general goals of the company and achieve the private goals of departments and employees.
Flexibility
It should be understood that a plan is not a dogma or a sentence; it is influenced by many factors of the external and internal environment. Therefore, the concept, the basic principles of planning should always meet the rule of flexibility. Even the best and most reasonable planning is unable to foresee everything, so the plan should initially have some flexibility so that it can be updated in a timely manner if there are changes in the circumstances and conditions of the company. However, this should not reduce the other characteristics of the plan: its concreteness, reachability, temporal certainty, etc. More often than not, flexibility is expressed in the fact that reasonable possible additional investments and variability of actions in certain situations are laid in the plan. For example, in the event of force majeure or crisis cases.
Participation
Listing the basic principles of planning, one should especially dwell on participation: the maximum possible number of company employees should participate in the planning process, ideally, all employees. Participation in planning allows a person to emotionally live up to their goals, and this involvement motivates them to work more efficiently. A participatory planning style reveals the creative potential of employees, ensures the integration of efforts in creating a plan, which increases its quality and effectiveness. Participation in planning also benefits the company by developing an employee, motivating him to reflect on the fate of the enterprise. Joint work on the organization’s plan creates a special corporate spirit in the company, strengthens the activity and innovation of the team.
Continuity
Despite the fact that the plan should always have a time limit for implementation, listing the basic principles of organization work planning, A. Fayol speaks about the continuity of this process. There is no end to planning in management, since even starting the implementation of an action program, it is necessary to monitor the situation and control the compliance of the plan with current circumstances. If necessary, adjustments can always be made to the plan. After achieving the goals, it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan, taking into account achievements and mistakes, begin a new planning cycle. Practice shows that the manager first develops a strategy, then plans ongoing actions of different urgency, then carries out weekly and daily planning. Thus, all his actions are connected with the planning processes.
Accuracy
Like other basic principles of planning, accuracy depends on the external and internal impact on the organization. However, when planning should strive for the greatest possible concretization and detail. The more accurate the plan, the easier it is to implement it. Typically, strategic plans have less granularity than current and tactical ones.The shorter the time period and closer to the present moment for which the action program is being developed, the more accurately you can plan steps to achieve the goal. Accuracy should be expressed in the measurability of the goals, in the set timelines, in the certainty of the resources spent.
Informational content
All the basic principles of planning are based on a wide informative support. To develop effective plans, managers need to own a lot of data: economic, industrial, social. The analysis of macro- and microeconomic circumstances, the elucidation of the company's position in the market, the assessment of the competitiveness and stability of the enterprise - all this is possible only with high-quality informative planning support. Therefore, the organization should build a reliable and effective information system that accompanies the work of the manager.
Economic expediency
The basic principles and methods of planning are always aimed at ultimately achieving the economic success of the company. Therefore, the manager must understand that all his goals and plans should be economically viable for the organization and economically justified. Any planned decision should be made on the basis of economic criteria. The plan should strive to maximize the company's profitability, unless it is a social, non-profit organization. Therefore, final planning decisions should be made on the basis of a detailed system analysis, economic forecasting and justification.
Planning stages
Any planning consists of approximately the same sequential actions. The planning steps include:
- assessment of the current external and internal situation in the company;
- setting goals for the plan;
- generating ideas on the possibilities of achieving goals, evaluating and ranking these ideas;
- determination of the set of necessary and possible actions;
- development of timelines and sequence of actions;
- determination of available and necessary resources;
- the formation of the plan;
- preparation of plan options in case of force majeure, development of a work schedule and a clear program of action;
- implementation of the plan, control over the course of actions, correction of the plan;
- achieving a result, evaluating the productivity of the plan.
