Planning and controlling are two different functions of management and many people think that there is no relation between the two; however they both are related to each other closely. Planning and controlling are related to each in the same way as pen and paper are related, just as without pen a piece of paper would be of no importance and without paper pen will be of no use in the same way without planning there is no use of controlling and planning has no significance without controlling. Let’s look at relationship or interdependence between planning and controlling in detail –
How Planning is helpful for Controlling
Planning is done right at the beginning by the company and it involves careful analysis of all variables like company’s financial position, target market, technical specification, human workforce and so on. With the help of planning an organization knows what is the responsibility of a particular department or person is and if that department or person does not perform according to the role assigned by the planning function then controlling fixes this issue by finding out where the mistake has been done and how to solve the problem. If there was no planning then controlling function would have been redundant as there would not have been any standards against which the actual performance can be compared.
How Controlling is helpful for Planning
It is all right to make a plan but it is also important to see whether the plans made by the company are implemented correctly or not and that is where controlling helps the planning function. Controlling involves a comprehensive analysis of the tasks done by the company during the year and then finding the difference between the plan and actual performance and if there is any deviation then reporting this deviation to the management so that they can take the corrective steps. Hence without controlling planning would fail because without controlling there is no checkpoint where one can check the planned performance.
Example to show relationship between planning and controlling
The relationship between planning and controlling can be understood with the help of real life example, suppose as a parent you have formed a study schedule for your kid for the entire year so that your kid knows when to study and when to play which will result in him or her getting better grades and after the results controlling function comes into play. So if your kid scores good grades then there is no need for doing anything and if the grades are not as per expectation then reasons for bad grades needs to be looked at and analyzed so that in the future same thing does not happen.
Above was a simple example but in corporate world things are much more complicated as it involves many variables and complex or dynamic situations, however one thing is for sure even though planning is the first function and controlling is the last function of management they both have close relationship and company cannot succeed without implementing both planning and controlling in the organization.