The strategic plan does not substitute number 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 in place line decision - makers in an active rather than a passive position about the future of their organization. It incorporates an out ward 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 encironment.”52