Effective Planning: Objectives, Strategies, and Implementation

Posted on Apr 2, 2025 in International Business Economics

Planning Stage: Key Elements

• Purpose: The fundamental aspirations or purposes pursued qualitatively or semi-permanently by a social group.
• Research: A process applying the scientific method to obtain relevant and reliable information to explain, describe, and predict the behavior of phenomena.
• Assumptions: Assumptions about future conditions or factors that may affect the development of a plan.
  1. Internal: They originate within the company and can influence the achievement of purposes.
  2. External: From a political, legal, economic, social, and other perspectives.
• Policies: According to the hierarchical level in the formulation and the areas encompassing:
  1. Strategic or general.
  2. Tactical or departmental.
  3. Specific or operational.
  As to their origin:
  1. Formulated
  2. Consulted
  3. External
  4. Implicit
• Programs: A scheme which sets the sequence of specific activities.
  1. Tactical: They are established for an area of activity.
  2. Operational: Are those set out in each of the units or sections of an area of activity.
• Budget: A plan of some or all phases of business activity expressed in economic (monetary) terms, with subsequent verification of the achievements of that plan. In relation to the hierarchical level:
  1. Strategic or corporate
  2. Tactical
  3. Departmental/Operational
  According to the way it is calculated:
  1. Fixed or rigid
  2. Flexible
  3. For programs
• Procedures: Establish chronological order and sequence of activities to be followed in carrying out repetitive work.
• Plans:
  • Short-term: Operational plans – tactical subdivision of each department’s operational plans for each task.
  • Medium-term: Tactics and interpretation – conversion strategies into concrete plans at the departmental level.
  • Long-term: Strategic – mapping of environmental assessment, weaknesses, opportunities, strengths, threats, and uncertainty.

Planning: The determination of objectives and choice of courses of action to achieve them based on the investigation of a detailed scheme to be carried out in the future, setting where the company is headed and minimizing risk.

Importance of Planning: It is important that efficiency is not achieved through improvisation. We first need to make plans as we carry out the actions and conduct.

Planning Principles

• Feasibility: It is planned to be feasible; the planning must adapt to reality and conditions available to the media.
• Objectivity and Quantification: Building on real data and exact reasoning, not on subjective opinion, speculation, or arbitrary figures (precision) in terms of time and money.
• Flexibility: There should be margins of slack to allow dealing with unforeseen situations and provide other courses of action to follow.
• Unity: All plans should be integrated into an overall plan and the achievement of the purposes and objectives.
• Change of Strategies: When a plan is extended, you must redo it completely. The company will have to change the courses of action (strategies) and consequently the policies, programs, procedures, and budgets to achieve them.

Types of Planning:

• Procedure: Pre-allocation of specific tasks to be performed by people in each of its operating units. Usually covers short periods. The main parameter is efficiency.
• Tactics: Refers to much of the planning of a product or advertising. It handles external and internal information. It is oriented towards the coordination of resources.
• Strategy: The planning of a general nature designed to achieve the company’s corporate objectives and basic aim the establishment of general guidelines of action of the same. Usually covers a long period. It does not define detailed guidelines. The main parameter is effectiveness.