Leadership and Business Wisdom - Long-Range Planning - The future requires not just happen if one wishes hard enough.

Byline: S. Kamal Hayder Kazmi

The future requires decisions - now. It imposes risk - now. It requires action - now. It demands allocation of resources, and above all, of human resources - now. It requires work - now.

The idea of long-range planning - and much of its reality - rests on a number of misunderstandings. The long range is largely made by short-run decisions. Unless the long range is built into, and based on, short-range plans and decisions, the most elaborate long-range plan will be an exercise in futility. And conversely, unless the short-range plans - that is, the decisions on the here and now - are integrated into one unified plan of action, they will be expedient, guess, and misdirection. "Short range" and "long range" are not determined by any given time span.

A decision is not short range because it takes only a few months to carry it out. What matters is the time span...