INTRODUCTION: Whether starting a business, growing a business or preparing for retirement, the probability of
accomplishing your goal increases substantially when you plan it rather than just start doing it. Planning is even
more critical during challenging economic times or when multiple people and groups need to coordinate their
actions to accomplish the primary goals, as is true of almost all organizational goals. In today’s challenging
economic world, organizational planning has become even more critical, not only to survive but to thrive. Most
business executives will agree, intellectually, with the preceding statement, but agreement is not enough. Many
organisations still fall into one of the following predicaments: • They do not plan. • They do plan, but plan poorly.
• They plan properly, but do not communicate the plan throughout the organization. • They plan properly, but
do not implement the plan. • They plan properly, communicate and implement, but do not measure effectively
so they are never certain if they accomplished the intended result.