This Podcast focuses on the debate between formal and informal planning, in order to take a different approach to the textbooks, which focus on formal planning. It is particularly relevant in the context of the current ever-changing business environment, particularly relevant in panic times such as with the credit crunch where management is 'on the hoof'. While textbook planning embraces the idea of control and the possibility of unexpected eventualities, in practice as the Podcast infers many managers find it difficult to deviate from plan until, as was the case with the credit crunch, it was too late. This Podcast refers to some of the issues discussed in the Marketing Dynamics podcast when analysis of the MACRO environment was discussed.