Elaborate on the basic steps in the management planning process?

In business , Strategic planning is a process undertaken by an organization to develop a plan for achievement of its overall long-term organizational goals.

 there is no one model of strategic planning. However, the strategic planning process should include a situational analysis. This consists of looking at the current external and internal environment the organization finds itself in, formulating organizational objectives and strategies based upon the environmental assessment, and developing procedures to implement and evaluate the strategic plan.

Strategic plans for business organizations often cover a three-to-five year period, but if the business or its environment is highly dynamic, a shorter period may be advisable.

The main steps for strategic planning.

1. Analysis of the current state

Here, you analyze your organization's external and internal environment. You may conduct a SWOT analysis, which is an examination of your organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You will also carefully examine the specific external environmental factors, such as your rivals, the power of your suppliers, the power your buyers or customers have, whether there is a viable threat that major clients or customers can effectively substitute your product or service, and whether there are any barriers to entry into a new market.

2. Defining the future state

Here, you will develop an organizational vision and a mission statement that describes the future of your organization - where it wants to be, its essential values, and what it wants do. After you have defined the organization's vision and mission, you can begin to formulate a detailed strategy to achieve them.

3. Determination of objectives and strategies

Now that you have defined the organization's vision and mission, you can develop a set of objectives that will lead you to the overall strategic goal or vision. For an example, an objective may be to increase market share year-over-year by at least five percent.

4.Implementation and evaluation

The next step is to implement and evaluate the plan. Implementation in large organizations, such as governmental agencies or large corporations, will be done by a different set of organizational members than the members that created the plan. Different parts of the plan are typically distributed to various parts of the organization. You will also need to constantly monitor and assess the implementation of the plan to determine if the plan is achieving the objectives leading to the strategic goal. If not so you need to adjust the long term strategy.

Management planning is the process of assessing an organization's goals and creating a realistic, detailed plan of action for meeting those goals. Much like writing a business plan, a management plan takes into consideration short- and long-term corporate strategies. The basic steps in the management planning process involve creating a road map that outlines each task the company must accomplish to meet its overall objectives.

Establish Goals

The first step of the management planning process is to identify specific company goals. This portion of the planning process should include a detailed overview of each goal, including the reason for its selection and the anticipated outcomes of goal-related projects. Where possible, objectives should be described in quantitative or qualitative terms. An example of a goal is to raise profits by 25 percent over a 12-month period.

Each goal should have financial and human resources projections associated with its completion. For example, a management plan may identify how many sales people it will require and how much it will cost to meet the goal of increasing sales by 25 percent.

Each goal should have tasks or projects associated with its achievement. For example, if a goal is to raise profits by 25 percent, a manager will need to outline the tasks required to meet that objective. Examples of tasks might include increasing the sales staff or developing advanced sales training techniques.

Prioritizing goals and tasks is about ordering objectives in terms of their importance. The tasks deemed most important will theoretically be approached and completed first. The prioritizing process may also reflect steps necessary in completing a task or achieving a goal. For example, if a goal is to increase sales by 25 percent and an associated task is to increase sales staff, the company will need to complete the steps toward achieving that objective in chronological order.

As the company prioritizes projects, it must establish timelines for completing associated tasks and assign individuals to complete them. This portion of the management planning process should consider the abilities of staff members and the time necessary to realistically complete assignments. For example, the sales manager in this scenario may be given monthly earning quotas to stay on track for the goal of increasing sales by 25 percent.

A management planning process should include a strategy for evaluating the progress toward goal completion throughout an established time period. One way to do this is through requesting a monthly progress report from department heads.

Even the best-laid plans can sometimes be thrown off track by unanticipated events. A management plan should include a contingency plan if certain aspects of the master plan prove to be unattainable. Alternative courses of action can be incorporated into each segment of the planning process, or for the plan in its entirety.

Management planning is the process of assessing an organization's goals and creating a realistic, detailed plan of action for meeting those goals. Much like writing a business plan, a management plan takes into consideration short- and long-term corporate strategies. The basic steps in the management planning process involve creating a road map that outlines each task the company must accomplish to meet its overall objectives , here are the steps

The steps have been elaborately covered in the previous answers esp by Vinod Jetley.

Management planning is the process of assessing an organization's goals and creating a realistic, detailed plan of action for meeting those goals. Much like writing a business plan, a management plan takes into consideration short- and long-term corporate strategies. The basic steps in the management planning process involve creating a road map that outlines each task the company must accomplish to meet its overall objectives

The following are the standard steps in the Management Planning Process:

1.     Scanning of the external and internal environment

2.     Strategy Formulation through setting the Mission, Objectives, Strategy and Policies

3.     Strategy Implementation through development of Programs, Budgets and Procedures

4.     Evaluation and Control of Programs 

5.     Measurement of Performance of  Programs

Thank You Mr Rami for your invitation ... I will agree with the answers that really covered your question  .. Not much to add !

gathering info.

analysis it

check plan

put other plan

make flexibility plan