Planning is a management process that includes setting goals and objectives, both long term and short term in order to achieve target within the stipulated time. Planning is to decide the steps of how to achieve a target or of how to do a particular task.

Planning in any organization is important as it defines the reasons and the parameters of why and how to do management tasks with more efficiency and lesser time consuming activities. If done correctly it increases the efficiency of the organization as a whole and reduces the risk involved in various business activities. It gives the organization the right way to move ahead and provides better control to the managers. For the executives  too planning acts a motivational factor and clears the opportunities ahead. And the most important it helps in decision making.

Now being a process planning also have some steps that are to be followed in a sequence in order to achieve the targets and to take better decisions. Below are the steps:

1) Goal setting: Now whenever we plan something we have some goal in our mind that we have to achieve or something that we want to do. These are called goals or targets. In organizations also there are some goals around which the efforts of the managers and executives revolves. These goals should be clear and measurable so that the efforts made against those goals should be evaluated easily. Goals should not be rigid that is they should be flexible and can be modified, if needed. More, the goals should be information and self motivating so that the executives and the managers should not feel fallen into a rigid process.

2) Identify available resources: Once the goals are set the next step is to identify the available resources in the organization to analyze whether the available resources are enough or its need to have some more. Analyzing available resources means to take into account all the resources including monetary resources, sales people, technical resources, etc. This helps managers to mane necessary arrangements for future needs, so that the required resources should be available when needed.

3) Creating steps and strategies: Now the next step comes with thinking in a practical way as to what will  be the steps to do a particular task. For example, if the sales plans are to be made then the steps and strategies will include as to how to approach a particular client/customer, what should be proposed to him first and in what manner, There should be some alternative strategies too keeping in mind the future scenario. Also whatever the strategies will be, they should be discussed well with the executives or with the team that will be assigned that particular tasks.

4) Review meetings: Regular review meetings should be planned so as to check whether the plans are carried effectively. This also helps to managers to achieve their goals in time. Further the executives and the team is also aware that they are held responsible for the tasks that are assigned to them. This provide better level of control to the managers and the top management.

5) Implement necessary steps: If needed  he managers may require to change the steps or strategies to accomplish their goals. These can be the alternative course of action or can be the solution to the present problems.

Planning process though can never be the same in all the organization. It also depends on the organization/team size as with the small teams the risk factor can be higher as they need to do their tasks in very effective way with limited resources.