‘Plans are nothing; planning is everything’. (Dwight D Eisenhower) ‘When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.’ (Napoleon Hill) ‘You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don't believe in little plans

I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can't possibly foresee now.’ (Harry S Truman) These three quotes give differing views on the approach to making plans

Eisenhower emphasises the importance of the actual planning approach. Hill suggests that good plans will mean that goals are achieved. Truman suggests that we should always aim high. In a business, as in many other areas of life, we need to have plans .. Having understood the content and context of the plan we are then going to move on to think about the process of creating the actual plan. We are going to look at a number of different tools that can be used in the analysis. We are going to look at ways of comparing one business with another, and we are going to think about how these analyses can be used to put in place measures that can be evaluated and monitored. Finally, we are going to think about some management attributes that are required to ensure successful achievement of the business plan