If the executives for Office Max LLC, a chain of office supply stores, developed the chain's objectives by asking buyers and store managers to forecast sales and merchandise for the next year, and then transmitted those estimates up the organization to the top level, it would be an example of planning.

It would be an example of bottom-up planning

Explanation:

Bottom-Up Planning is a method of planning that defines objectives and ways to achieve them through the bottom up. It relatively narrows goals that are initially set at the lower levels of the organizational hierarchy. First, relatively close targets at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy are set. They are then gradually integrated into the framework of global goals and global strategy at higher and higher levels. It is therefore a convergent approach.

With bottom-up planning, you give your project deeper focus because you have a larger number of employees involved in the project, each with their own area of expertise. Team members work side-by-side and have input during each stage of the process. Plans are developed at the lowest levels and are then passed on to each next higher level. It then reaches senior management for approval.