Accounting

Success in business is never a product of guess work or sheer lack. Neither is it as a result of coincident or accident. All success can be attributed to the ability by the management team of the business to carefully strategize and come up with different ways of approaching a given business issue that is deemed invaluable to business success. Of all the business strategies ever to be considered, planning has been universally accepted as very critical to business performance, as planning will make or break an organization. The failure to plan will more often than not lead to business failure, while careful planning will almost guarantee success in business. Apart from planning, the deliberate setting of targets is another very critical practice in business. When targets are set before one embarks on the journey to achieve them, the tendency is that such a person will meet those targets than if he/she went on the business journey without having set any targets.
Targets will always lead the business manager to the place where he/she will remain focused and looking forward to the set goal. A target is actually a goal to achieve. It is only acceptable that everything be done with a specific goal in mind. Life itself is lived because people want to accomplish a certain purpose. Just like life becomes boring and a monotonous formality when it is lived without any specific purpose, the lack of goals or targets in business operations is boring as work will be performed out of a sense of duty and not purpose. Such are fertile grounds for the breeding of failure. The following five sources are ideal in their presentation of information on planning and target setting.


Shannon, Kilkenny 2006 “The planning Session” in The complete guide to successful event planning. Atlantic Publishing Company
One of the most crucial areas in business where planning is very critical is events. Events are usually activities that are very important to an organization and whose success is an important milestone to the organization as well. Planning for an event is a must-do activity for all businesses. This book chapter clearly provides a stepwise approach to planning for an event. It points out that planning ought to come before any other operation is undertaken, and that any failure to plan is tantamount to planning to fail. It emphasizes the value of allocating time to planning.
This view extends what has been discussed in all the other sources in that the value of planning is emphasized. However, the book chapter’s coverage of the subject of target setting is just implied. It presents target setting as being ingrained in the overall planning process, unlike in most of the other sources where planning and target setting are divorced from each other. This chapter’s information is necessary for any business manager, not necessarily one who is planning for an event. The value of this book chapter can be deduced from the manner in which the author tackles the subject of planning, giving it a comprehensive coverage throughout the book. The information is authentic in that the author uses cases to illustrate points. The overall point communicated is the value of planning, and how indispensable it is in general business operations and events in particular.

This web page presents the idea of planning from the context of the business environment. It comprehensively covers the role that planning as well as target setting plays in achieving business success. The page actually offers the advantages that come with planning for every business venture, and the possible outcomes that come when planning is not done. Unlike the information provided by the book chapter above, the web page does not comprehensively address target setting differently from planning, implying the two are related or work together to produce synergistic effects to the advantage of the business that adopts their use. Using various examples and illustrations, the web page presents planning as a core component of business strategy and as ideal for all managers.
The author of the web page is of the opinion that planning and setting targets are essentially children of the same mother, even though they can be used and applied in different settings differently. The reliability of this information, however, has not been proven except that it concurs with all the other sources analyzed in this report as far as the importance of planning and setting business targets is concerned. On the whole, however, the web page seeks to point out that success in business is linked to planning and setting goals. Compared with other sources on the area of subject coverage, this web page addresses the subject well in a relatively shorter time frame (the information is precise and straight to the point)


Allison, Michael 2005 “Get ready” in Strategic planning for nonprofit organizations: a practical guide and workbook. John Wiley and Sons

This book extract is a pointer to what it means to have an organization moving forward towards its set goals. According to the extract, preparedness is the way to start before making any move. The author categorically exposes the value that is to be found in careful, goal-driven planning that seeks to make preparations with the overall goal in perspective and as the main aim. The book extract underscores the importance of seeking to understand the reasons why planning is important and has to be implemented as the first step in the strategic execution of a business. This extract is a part of a larger discussion in adjoining chapters about the much wider topic of strategic planning for businesses.
The author conveys the message of planning or preparing to plan. The book extract, just like the other book chapter, does not provide a separate discussion of targets and goals but incorporates them into the discussion of planning and preparing for the future. As far as the views put across by the book extract are concerned, they are in conformity with those presented in all the other sources, that planning is indispensable; and is directly responsible for the performance of any organization or business. The information provided by this book extract is relevant in that it offers one of the most issue-based approaches to the subject, drawing from relevant illustrations and primary sources for its arguments. Its information is authentic based on the author’s open reference to other scholarly secondary and primary sources.


Bowes, Brent 2009 “Investors Pay Little Heed to Business Plans.” The New York Times, May 13, 2009

This newspaper article gives the information about planning in a rather different approach. The article does not offer the importance of planning directly as the other sources have been addressing the issue, but uses the other side – the negative side of the matter, to prove this importance. In essence, the article is pointing out what risks organizations expose themselves to when they fail to plan. In fact, the article uses a case to prove the authenticity of its information, citing from recent primary sources that have statistical information on the negative impacts that certain managers have undergone for failing to pay close attention to business plans. Business planning starts at the point of setting up the business itself.
The author argues that if indeed senior managers can ignore to adhere to such valuable resources as plans, then the failure by some of the large business corporations can be directly attributed to this. In a rather unusual way, the author agrees with the other sources on the great importance of plans in business, and almost metaphorically lashes out at such acts of negligence by some managers. The article agrees with others on the critical role that is played by planning, and adds that business plans are no less critical to the organization. Although not referencing any specific sources, the information can be relied on based on the verification that results from its matching with others on the importance of planning and target setting.


Aharony, Joseph 2009 “Corporate Long-Range Quantitative Goals: Profit or Growth?” b Journal of Wealth Management, Summer2009, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p75-88

This journal article gives a comprehensive coverage of the subject of planning and setting of business goals (targets). It also compares the long-range quantitative targets that are put in place by corporations, with a particular focus on growth and the making of profit. The article uses a rather different kind of setting, focusing more on how goals and plans are put in place in the larger corporations. The message, however, does not change in any way. Instead, just like the other four sources, it reiterates the elevated place of the plans and goals or targets in society as far as importance and use is concerned. Planning, argues the author, can never be substituted by setting goals.
Instead, goals ought to be the focus of the plans, with the planner having in mind what is to be achieved. The author invariably uses goals and targets, adding more weight to the ideas developed by the other sources that goals are no much different from targets. The article not only covers the subject of importance and use of planning and target setting but also does so with an illustrative approach that draws from real-life cases. It is explicit in its approach and its authenticity and reliability is proven by its wide referencing to other sources of current information.

Conclusion
The role that is played by planning and target setting in the business environment is a critical one because both planning and setting of business targets are important components of the overall strategy of an organization. Strategic management plans for organization are essentially used to serve as direction pointers to the future of business or organization. Goals or targets, on the other hand, provide the impetus that a business needs to navigate forwards. As part of the larger strategy of the business, both plans and targets enable businesses to realize their long term and short term success as far as profitability is concerned. The five different sources used in their report are in agreement regarding the importance and use of plans and targets in businesses. Where they are lacking, the success rate expected for the organization is lowered. On the whole, therefore, all businesses and organizations ought to adopt the use of targets and plans to spur their operations to faster, more focused growth.