Organisations that perform successfully are products of well-defined and thoughtful planning, hence it can be said that businesses who neglect planning, essentially plan to fail as they ineffectively provide procedures which should be executed in order to provide a positive direction for the organisation to pursue. In essence, planning is crucial as it minimises uncertainty so staff will better construct suitable responses to change or any problems which may arise as they have a guide to refer to, establishes a sense of purpose thus enabling a coordinated effort to fulfil the set goals and reduces waste such as monetary resources and time consequently leading to more efficient outcomes and processes. The potential for either success or failure ensues from how clearly goals are delineated and the manner in which procedures are implemented with the aim of fulfilling them, the type of plan an organisation utilises and the effectiveness of strategic management.
Goals can be delineated as, “statements of intended results that are general in nature … measureable on a naming or ranking scale of measurement” (Kaufman 1988) and are an integral part of an organisation’s plan and when management fail to specify these objectives, they are unsuccessful in establishing a sense of purpose for all within the firm inevitably leading to business failure. They are crucial as they create purpose for the plan and establish its significance, that being, giving a path and meaning to what the firm hopes to accomplish, and outlining the importance for the actions that need to be undertaken hence instituting a collaborated effort amongst all within the organisation to strive to the achieve those goals. Typically, goal setting and the management by objective program consist of an outline and formulation of set goals, collective input regarding decision making, guaranteeing that these goals