Reasons Why Planning is Essential for Organizational Success

Planning is imperative to any company to provide for ways to realize their capabilities and develop ways to detect and uphold their tasks and goals. In the State of Union address on January 11, 1962, President John f. Kennedy declared, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” Kennedy’s discernable point with this statement was that without planning when there is apt time and clear focus, one will be left without shelter when needing it the most. That shelter may come in the form of a government without properly prepared military, it may be a company without significantly trained workforce, or it could be an organization without sufficient goals and objectives outlined – but planning is what is key to bringing success and Kennedy was driving that point home. 

As a municipal employee for over 20 years, I have watched firsthand as localities are held to a high standard and bound by ordinances and legislative mandates which severely affect the planning progression of cities and towns across the country. From budgetary aspects to scheduling of employees, from planning what classes to teach kindergartners to selecting the chemicals for treatment of water in the local processing plant – planning in all stages for municipal governments is regulated and has an extra tier of obligatory laws that to which the private sector is not accountable. To the public citizenry, this would be considered the “red tape” of the government, though it is that red tape that provides for quality education, clean water, proper roads, and safety standards during projects that keep employees protected. The municipal requirements for accountability are high and the demand for transparency is increasingly apparent with fewer and fewer Americans trusting the government every day, even at the local level. Private organizations are without the same judgement and culpability that government is so often required to answer for, and rightly so. That culpability adds extra planning stages for government entities to which municipalities have become accustomed to scheduling their projects.

Planning can determine that outcomes for an organization will be met and arranging the layout of goals in place for a project impacts the day to day operations at every level of the hierarchy. The executive level decisions made filter down into the hands on workforce for the knowledge workers and the front level managers and directly influence the outcome and success – or failure – of a company. The goals, both short and longterm, are the obligation of the executives of an organization, who then distributes and encourages the company workers to reach said goals. Planning for those goals is an important step in the management process of any organization as they strive to succeed and uphold their company’s business and ethical standards.

The characteristic principles of your business, combined with your company’s ethics, will contribute to the planning hierarchy of your company. There is an intricate chain of command that is followed in most companies, from a 10-person small office, to a 30,000 multi-city national corporation, to a local municipality with elected officials – who report to the citizens of the community; there is a chain of command. At times, some elected officials may forget how they became positioned “at the top,” and even more so, they may forget that the citizens are above them. One swift election with a topple of incumbents and there is a clear reminder of what the hierarchy is for elected positions. As for companies, with different power types, legitimate, also known as formal; reward power; coercive power; referent power; and expert power, organizations can be quite clear generally on which executive reports where and to whom they go to for direction.

Understandably, a colossal organization with multiple cities and 30,000 staff members would require more planning than a municipality with 200 employees, or a small business with a few dozen employees. Hierarchy would be smaller in scale, though the flow of information would be the same. With smaller scale establishments, managers would be fewer, timelines would be significantly shorter and the construct as a whole would contain less delicate forms of intricacy.

In conclusion, most prosperous entrepreneurs would not advise any individual or company to just throw caution to the wind and “wing it” or gamble on their future without making proper plans and no legitimate, trustworthy builder would begin construction of a skyscraper without appropriate blueprints. Planning is essential to every organization’s mission.