Every March, Meena Ltd. conducts its Annual Management Programme, where the top managerial personnel gather to formulate plans for the upcoming year. Their goal is to analyze and predict the future, enabling the organization to effectively navigate forthcoming events. Given their responsibility for steering the organization, these managers meticulously verify facts using scientific calculations. Thorough discussions with professional experts contribute to the preparation of detailed plans, and preliminary investigations are conducted to assess plan viability. Since this is an intellectual undertaking demanding intelligent imagination and sound judgment, it is primarily undertaken by the top management. The implementation of plans is generally carried out by the remaining team members, with middle-level managers expected to adhere to the plans without deviation or independent action. The top management oversees the entire process, ensuring that the expenses incurred in formulating the plans are justified by the benefits derived from them. This approach maintains a strategic and thoughtful approach to planning and execution within Meena Ltd.

Which of the following features of planning is highlighted in the above passage?

Both 1 and 2

The correct answer is option 4 i.e. Both 1 and 2.

* Since this is an intellectual undertaking demanding intelligent imagination and sound judgment, it is primarily undertaken by the top management- This line state that planning is a mental excercise.

* Their goal is to analyze and predict the future, enabling the organization to effectively navigate forthcoming event- This line highlight that planning is futuristic.

Planning is futuristic: Planning essentially involves looking ahead and preparing for the future. The purpose of planning is to meet future events effectively to the best advantage of an organisation. It implies peeping into the future, analysing it and predicting it. Planning is, therefore, regarded as a forward looking function based on forecasting. Through forecasting, future events and conditions are anticipated and plans are drawn accordingly.

Planning is a mental exercise: Planning requires application of the mind involving foresight, intelligent imagination and sound judgement. It is basically an intellectual activity of thinking rather than doing, because planning determines the action to be taken. However, planning requires logical and systematic thinking rather than guess work or wishful thinking.