The importance of planning for times of crisis

When President Dilma was justified by saying “Before the crisis, governments are driven to do what they do not in normal times,” she raised an issue not only of governments, but of most organizations: The failure to understand the importance of planning.

After reelection President Rousseff finally admitted that we have problems in the economy – something he could not do on the campaign trail in 2014 – and justified with the following sentence: “Before the crisis, governments are driven to do what no do in normal times“.

This statement demonstrates that lack a vision for the country is. This vision could guarantee the country a guaranteed roster between those defined as “Developed” place. According to Peter Drucker, “There are no underdeveloped countries. There are countries administered sub” and the lack of planning is the first characteristic of this sub administration.

In the scenario of administration, consider planning (short, medium and long term) just so we can have a horizon to follow and understand the implications of decisions that will be taken in the short term. This will serve to you in case of crisis, predefined actions are already designed and can be applied in order to provide a rapid, objective and effective response to the problems that are affecting the organization of walking into what was previously planned.

In times of crisis, organizations that do not plan tend to find solutions that would not be taken in normal times, and that, as a rule, has no proven or is not appropriate for the context in which the firm is efficient. This happens because of the need to give a solution to the crisis or, worse yet, the need to show someone (in this case show society and voters) who are working.

When we do not have the exact view of the path we are following (insight provided by this long-term planning), we tend to take the easier decisions and can even generate good results in the short term rather than have an enormous potential to create problems in the medium and long term, these problems tend to be much more complex to solve than if we had, at the time of decision making because of occasional crises, the exact vision of the future of the organization. The importance of this long-term vision was summarized by Peter Drucker in the sentence “The long-range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions“.

The planning will be key to the organization’s leadership can quickly build consensus on actions that need to be taken to deal with a crisis, particularly if these actions require tough measures, and especially measures that affect the outcome of the organization.

“The future vision provided by long-term planning that facilitates the understanding of these losses can be justified for the guarantee to achieve the results already planned for the future“.

The Long-term planning – or long-term vision – will give us the horizon and then balizará all decisions in the present. Crises can not change the direction of long term already defined by the organization. Deviations of direction (whether small or large) only if the warranty will justify the rapid return to the path that will lead us to a future previously thought by the organization are.

But the medium-term planning is one that will allow us to validate the actions that may be taken in the short term if unanticipated events may deviate from the target.

When an organization takes seriously its planning cycle, working appropriately with long, medium and short term, no action can be justified by the phrase “Before the crisis, organizations are driven to do what they do in times normal” and the main reason for this is that many scenarios (as many good as bad) were previously thought and action to circumvent them are previously developed.

I remember the 2008 crisis, when regulators decided to run a stress test for European banks in order to ascertain what would be the worst economy in which banks bear. The decision to run the stress test was extreme intelligence since it would provide the worst case scenario in which the economy could work, however, this test could have already been laid in medium-term planning.

The regulators could set a medium term cycle of five years and longer have the stress test of the institutions for that period. With this, economic events with the potential to affect the integrity of the financial system could be more easily detected early and corrective actions were ever taken in the first moments, which would have a huge potential to reduce costs for the recovery of the economic situation.

The culture of planning is something that needs to be instilled in the organizational culture of the company to ensure that all actions point to a larger vision, a vision that will lead the organization to a glorious future.

Full article: http://www.administradores.com.br/

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