Business English Vocabulary - VV 20 The Planning Process 1 | Project Management English

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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  

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