Control is looking back

Planning involves selecting missions and objectives and the actions to achieve them; it requires decision making, which is, choosing from the alternatives available in the future course of actions. Plans thus provide a rational approach to achieve preselected objectives. Planning also strongly implies managerial innovation. This implies that for a manager to be innovative, he or she has to think out of the current context, i.e. into the future to get the probable solution. Plans can be classified as: * Purpose or Missions

* Objectives or Goals

* Strategies

* Policies

* Procedures

* Rules

* Programmes