The AMA Handbook of Financial Risk Management

Chapter5Profit Planning

PLANNING

A major role of the financial manager is setting corporate goals and the policies to achieve them. The major departments, including marketing, production, personnel, and finance, participate in the activity of determining the firm’s direction and courses of action. This involves the management of resources and decision making, both in the near and in the long term.

Planning is the specific process of setting goals and developing ways to reach them. Stated another way, planning represents the firm’s efforts to predict events and be prepared to deal with them. In many firms, the task of planning is coordinated by a department of one or more persons designated as the corporate planning department, the long-range ...