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welcome back to video vocab TV this is the first of a two-part series on the planning process in
this episode we'll focus on the beginning stages of the planning cycle all businesses
and organizations need to decide where they want to go and how to get there to do this they rely
on good planning and the planning cycle planning can occur on a large scale like strategic planning
which determines the overall direction of a company it can also happen on a small scale
like project planning in which a specific piece of work is organized by an individual or project
team the first step in planning usually involves analyzing the situation problem or opportunity
from there the organization can determine the goals and desired outputs of the plan
it must then devise effective strategies to achieve these goals with the given resources
planners must carefully assess available inputs do a cost-benefit analysis and
conduct an environmental scan for large projects pest analysis is one commonly
used method of examining the external influences that may help or hinder a plan
now let's look at the vocabulary in more detail with some definitions and examples
planning planning in any organization planning is the process of creating and maintaining a plan we
often hear about the planning cycle which includes the creation implementation and review of plans we
also talked about different types of planning like strategic planning and project planning
mastering the entire planning cycle is crucial to the success of any business or organization
to analyze to analyze to analyze means to examine something very carefully or in great detail
analyzing involves breaking a situation down into its separate parts to figure
out how it works or to assess its strengths and weaknesses when the team analyzed the
production process they discovered a number of problems in the distribution process
goals goals goals are the accomplishments that the planning process is designed to achieve goals are
the entire purpose of plan they help a business or organization advance its overall mission the
goal of Tony's plan was very clear increase sales by 40 percent over the next six months
outputs outputs a plans outputs refers to what we want to have
or see accomplished at the end of a plan
outputs include our overall goals as well as the specific things or situations we want to create
the outputs of my cost-cutting plan included a 20% reduction in materials
costs and increased efficiency in our distribution methods
to devise devise to devise means to create arrange or form we often see this verb with nouns related
to plans for example you may hear devise a plan devise a strategy or devise a solution
when my boss told me about our scheduling difficulties I devised
a plan to have schedules updated automatically
strategy strategy a strategy outlines the methods or processes used to move a plan
towards its goals strategy relates to how we do things the senior managers had several
long meetings to work out the strategy for expanding into new markets inputs inputs
the resources that we put into a project or plan are fittingly called inputs inputs can
include human resources technologies money raw materials and ideas I had to revise my original
plan because it required very costly inputs particularly in terms of labor and materials
cost-benefit analysis cost-benefit analysis when we do a cost-benefit analysis we compare
the cost of different options against the expected benefits doing this type of
analysis helps planners choose the best goals and strategies the cost-benefit analysis of
expansion showed that it was better simply to increase sales to existing customers
environmental scan environmental scan in an environmental scan we examine the factors that
will affect the direction goals and processes of a plan an environmental scan done in the initial
stages of planning helps to create realistic expectations and goals an environmental scan
revealed that the company's plan to expand internationally would mean overcoming major
legal obstacles pest analysis pest analysis a pest analysis is one type of environmental
scan that examines political economic social and technological influences I commissioned a
pest analysis before deciding whether the new product would be accepted in the marketplace
external influences external influences external influences affect a plan or
project from outside an organization the project team was talented but they failed
because of several external influences including competition from another company
now it's your turn to practice some of the words we have studied in this
episode you'll hear a series of sentences with a word replaced with beep repeat the
whole sentence including the missing word for example if you hear the engineer had
to carefully the problem before deciding what needed to be done
you should say the engineer had to carefully analyze the
problem before deciding what needed to be done
we'll play an example answer after each question ready let's begin the
tech department was asked to a solution to the problem with the local area network
answer the tech department was asked to devise
a solution to the problem with the local area network
of all the plans required the most expensive is labor answer of all the
plans required inputs the most expensive is labor
the planets view the recent political turmoil as a very dangerous
answer the planners viewed the recent political turmoil as a very dangerous external influence you
I complain to my manager that we didn't have the resources needed to achieve the plans
answer I complain to my manager that we didn't
have the resources needed to achieve the plans goals
that's it for this episode of video vocab thanks for watching and see you
again soon video vocab is now available on a new website www.videoculinary.com