The strategic plan does not substitute numbers for important intangibles, such as human emotions, but it does use computers and quantification to illuminate choices. It attempts to go beyond a simple surrender by the organization to environmental conditions, and in this sense it is by no means a way of eliminating risks. What a strategic plan does is place line decision makers in an active rather than in a passive position about the future of their organization. It incorporates an outward-looking, proactive focus that is sensitive to environmental changes but does not assume that the organization is necessarily a victim of changes in its task environment. “The aim of strategic planning is to place the unit in a distinctive position relative to its environment.