Planning In Large Organization

As with most things, planning in large enterprises is done in multiple departments and company-wide meetings. It consists of a wide range of activities such as marketing, finance, operations, supply chain, IT, R&D, and sales.

The planning process at large enterprises should contain business and sales strategies, cross-functional and multi-functional plans, and departmental performance indicators. Furthermore, planning should also take into account risk management, cash flow predictions, and financial impact.

Planning is critical for enterprises to create a long-term strategic plan while ensuring smooth functioning in each business unit. Planning is the backbone that keeps you ahead of the competitors. Large companies can also streamline their planning process through the large amount of data the company gathers.

In this article, we explain how important is planning for a large organization when having access to real-time data for decision making.

What is planning in a large organization?

May it be a large company or a small one, planning serves as a blueprint that guides businesses to success. Through the planning process, managers can rally around their teams, make informed decisions, and utilize resources the right way. When it comes to a large organization, effective planning is the backbone that keeps you ahead of the competitors. Large companies can also streamline their planning process through the large amount of data the company gathers. As large organizations have more departments and business units, planning becomes a natural part of running the business and promoting communication between multiple departments. Such planning is a standardized process that is conducted routinely for each month or each year.

What is the difference between strategic planning and corporate planning?

While the two may seem interchangeable there are some noticeable differences between corporate planning and strategic planning. Here are some major differences:

• Strategic planning deals with the entire company and corporate planning is for specific functions.
• Strategic planning is used to guide the company in a specific direction while corporate planning relates to the foundation of the business
• Strategic planning helps the overall business stay competitive and move forward while corporate planning helps deal with the internal functions of the company.
• Strategic planning is done for longer periods while corporate planning has shorter time spans.

What are the steps of planning?

Planning can be divided into the following steps:

1.     Study the Market

The first step to planning is assessing the industry you’re operating in and answering important questions related to competition, customer trends, and expectations.

2.     Conduct SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It helps assess your company internally.

3.     Craft a Mission and Vision

Once your internal and external evaluations are complete you can set a mission statement and a vision statement.

4.     Define Goals

Now that you have a vision in mind an idea about how your industry and your company works, you can get down to the high-level business goals that will make that vision a reality.

5.     Form Specific Objectives

Start forming some specific objectives and initiatives according to each department. Make sure to form goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-Oriented, and Timebound.

6.     Get Down to Basic Needs

After the goal-setting, you are now ready to assess whether all the financing, staffing, and budget needs for those objectives are being met. This can be done by creating a combined plan, structure, and budget.

What is the importance of planning?

Planning is how organizations accelerate towards success by achieving their goals in a structured manner. Here are some reasons why planning is so important:

Efficient Resource Utilization

Planning allows organizations to allocate resources in an efficient manner to ensure that the organization meets all its objectives.

Effective Goal-Setting

Planning helps organizations set smart goals that drive better performance, allowing the organization to improve with each iteration.

Risk Management

Organizations often have to deal with unprecedented events due to the volatile nature of the business world. Planning ensures that there’s always a backup plan which considers all the risk factors and worst-case scenarios to help the organization adapt.

Cooperation and Teamwork

Planning helps members rally around a common cause, letting everyone know their responsibilities and the value of their work.

Generating Competitive Advantage

Planning helps organizations analyze the weakness, strengths, and areas of concern while keeping track of competitors.

What is a good planning process?

Here are some features of an effective planning process:

It is Goal-oriented

A good planning process is based on well defines goals and objectives that are easy to understand and quantify to track progress.

Favors Simplicity

Effective planning processes are simple and streamlined so there is no extra overhead for the organization.

Has Flexibility

A good planning process includes some flexibility in the plans to ensure that the plans are adaptable to rapidly changing situations.

Results in Effective Decision-Making

At the end of a good planning process, you should have a plan that can be used to make effective decisions.

It Includes Different Opinions

A good planning process is inclusive and welcomes participation from people at all levels in the organization.

How planning can help in organization performance?

Planning can help organizations improve their performance by improving time management, streamlining resource management, and optimizing operations. With planning, organizations can map out their goals and a path to achieve them. It also enables organizations to make the most out of the strengths and competitive advantages of the company while dealing with the weaknesses. The set goals allow employees to be more motivated and thoughtful about the work that they do and how it affects the organization as a whole. All this and more allows the organization to boost its overall performance.

How do you implement planning in the workplace using KanBo?

KanBo brings together design, execution, and delivery to help enterprises plan in a predictable yet flexible way. Here are some of the robust planning features in KanBo:

Modern Gannt Chart

You can ditch the cumbersome spreadsheets as KanBo introduces its modern take on the highly useful Gantt chart. The Gantt chart combines timing and deadlines to bring you a comprehensive view of all your plans. The feature also allows you to adjust your plans on the go, stay updated with deadlines, and keep others up to date with the plan. Deal with resource allocation and dependency issues to ensure a smooth-sailing pipeline with KanBo’s modern Gantt chart.

Date Dependencies

It can be tedious to keep track of all dependencies that are slowing you down in a large enterprise. With KanBo, you can always keep track of these dependencies to see how the puzzle pieces fit together to form the bigger picture. With KanBo, you can find out which work contexts are slowing you down and improve them for better performance.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

KanBo utilizes card dependencies and due dates to calculate and visualize the critical path through the critical path method. This allows you to identify activities that are not critical and helps you manage time and resources efficiently.

User View in Board

Evaluate availability and capacity with KanBo’s User View in Board that clearly visualizes work distribution. KanBo’s User View allows you to:

• Ensure available resources are utilized optimally by assigning cards to team members.
• Stay updated about resource availability to spot and resolve bottlenecks.
• Assign and reassign tasks by simple drag and drop.
• Notify team members of all progress and assignations

Board Scorecard

The KanBo board helps you assess the success of your project and provides a new way of performance evaluation. The scorecard is a simple visual representation of your progress that allows you to map KPIs across a timeline for an effective representation.

Conclusion

Planning provides a backbone through which your business can stand tall and succeed in a competitive environment. May it be strategic planning or corporate planning, the planning process can help organizations at different levels to boost performance, motivate employees, and give the business a direction for success.