What are major benefits of planning?

There are many ways to state the benefits of planning or anticipatory decision making. The following claimed benefits are discussed in a number of sources.

1. Planning helps decision makers by providing guidelines and goals for future decisions.

2. Planning helps a manager exercise more control in a situation, establish goals "proactively" and consider contingencies.

3. Planning can help quantify goals and establish a means of measuring success.

4. Planning can help insure that a coherent set of actions are implemented that are consistent with the values and priorities of the decision maker.

5. Planning helps allocate limited resources like staff, materials, and time in an orderly and systematic manner.