Explain the Six P’s of Planning?

The six P’s of planning are related with the basic requirements of planning. These are:-

1. Purpose: Purpose is the first need in the process of planning. In order to be effective, the process of planning requires that there should be clear understand regarding the purposes for which planning has to be done. In the same way, the reason behind the existence of the organization should also be mentioned. For example the purpose behind the existence of an organization can be to increase profits or to increase its market share. In the same way, the purpose of some organizations is to introduce new products in the market. Therefore, it is very important that the purpose of the organization should be understood clearly.

2. Philosophy: it mentions the beliefs regarding the ways in which the purpose of the organization can be achieved. The philosophy of the organization can be based on achieving profitability through quality or to increase the turnover with the help of greater customer satisfaction. However in order to achieve growth and long-term survival, the organizations should adopt the philosophy of ethical conduct.

3. Promise: it is the evaluation of the organizational strengths and weaknesses that are based on the knowledge as well as the assumptions regarding the environment. In this regard, some conclusions can be made with the help of business forecasting and also certain other methods that are used for predicting future trends in the business environment. Therefore, when the management of the organization is aware of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, it can effectively deal with the changes taking place in business environment more effectively.

4. Policies: Policies can be described as the general statements that provide guidance to the workforce of the organization. These policies are the guidelines as well as the constraints which help the management in the process of thinking and taking action. For example, there are productions policies, marketing policies, accounting policies, financial policies etc. These policies provide the basis for the action taken by the management.

5. Plans: they can be described as the objectives as well as the action statements. The objectives of the organization are its goals and the action statements are the means that are used for achieving these goals. In this way the plans guide the organization in achieving its objectives and also help in remaining aware of the progress made by the organization towards the achievement of its goals at different stages.

6. Priorities: it is very important that the organization decides its goal priorities. The resources available to the organization like the capital, personal and material are always limited and therefore these resources have to be allocated according to the priorities that have been decided by the organization. It allows the organization to allocate more resources to the goals of the organization that have a high priority. The priorities of the organizational goals has to be decided on the basis of the philosophy and the promises made by the organization and also keeping in view the economic, social and political environment.