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Planning

Planning is concentration on the future. Planning is required for any activity and needs to happen before costs are incurred and before commitments are made for expenditure in the future. A plan may be undertaken, and usually is undertaken, because it results in some benefit in the future. Usually the adoption of a plan requires the commitment of resources and therefore is an intention to incur costs. Often the benefits of a plan are related to the earning of income/revenue. Usually costs and benefits are both monetary and non-monetary. Often costs and benefits resulting from a plan can impact on third parties and have social implications. A plan usually begins its life as a proposal to commit resources to achieve a particular objective. A formal 'plan' is a fully thought out set of steps to be taken in the future, written down and presented to key players to encourage them to read, understand, discuss, alter, and support/reject the steps. Since resources are scarce, usually more than one formal plan is prepared so that they can be compared to one another and one plan accepted over others, to reduce the costs and/or increase the benefits from activity in the future.

Different forms of formal planning have been adopted over the years:

1. Business plan
2. Strategic plan
3. Budget
4. Operational plan
5. Project plan
6. Campaign
7. Financial plan
8. Business case

Are you wanting to write:

• 1. Business plan
  A 'business plan' is a particular form of strategic plan that seeks to raise investment funds from investors for the formation of a new business. It establishes a general mission that describes the reason for formation and provides general limitations to what the business means, what activities it will be include and what it will exclude, throughout its life.
  
  

• 2. Strategic plan
  A 'strategic plan' is a longer term plan related to modification of longer term objectives or overall mission. It is similar to a business plan but for an existing operating company. Usually this relates to looking at a period (such as the past 5 or 10 years) and comparing plans to outcomes and determining if objectives agreed to at the start of this period have been achieved. Reasons for successes and/or failures are revealed and analysed and explained. Future changes to objectives or overall mission are agreed to and a modification to the original business plan is carried out and represented in the new strategic plan. The strategic plan is agreed by the board after interaction with key managers responsible for success/failure and used by key managers to modify objectives and operational plans.
  
  

• 3. Budget
  A 'budget' is a general commitment to spend. Usually a budget refers to the whole business 'next year'. A budget therefore is agreed prior to the commencement of trading in the year being focussed on. Details of the budget usually are included in last year's annual report but must be agreed to earlier, before the start of the year. The budget comes from the board and must be agreed to by managers who have accepted responsibility for the actions required to achieve the objectives for the year that the budget represents. Usually costs included in the budget represent a limit to planned expenditure in the year. Usually the manager is required to report budget vs actual to the board, monthly. Any significant excess of actual expenditure over budgeted expenditure needs to be approved by the board and future budgets modified.
  
  

• 4. Operational plan
  The operational plan is a yearly plan related to production; there are different operational plans for different divisions/departments. That is to say, there is usually an operational plan for each division/department (each item at the second level of the organisation chart). The operational plan represents a particular year in the business plan or the strategic plan and follows the publication of the yearly budget.
  
  

• 5. Project plan
  A project plan is a particular strategic sub-plan undertaken to achieve particular objectives resulting from a modified mission. A project usually impacts on budgets over a number of years, and could be controlled by and impact on any division/department, depending upon what objectives are involved. Usually a project refers to a particular type of investment, such as systems upgrade or infrastructure development or new productive processes.
  
  

• 6. Campaign
  A campaign is a particular form of project plan, that is to say a particular strategic sub-plan undertaken to achieve particular objectives resulting from a modified mission, related to the sales process. A campaign usually impacts on budgets over a number of years, controlled by marketing/sales but impacting on production.
  
  

• 7. Financial plan
  A 'financial plan' is a particular type of campaign, that is to say a particular strategic sub-plan undertaken to achieve particular objectives resulting from a modified mission, related to the sales process for a financial product. A financial plan usually impacts on budgets over a number of years, controlled by marketing/sales but impacting on production.
  
  

• 8. Business case
  A 'business case' is usually a sub-project plan but could be a sub-campaign. It is used to give project or campaign managers/employees a chance to introduce new ideas to influence general budget or project plans and take up money already allocated in those plans.
  
  

• Internal: Calendar
  
  
  

• Internal: Yearly planner