Section Twoon the basis of new information. Such planning is not
“muddling through,” “disjointed,” or “unconscious.” Further,
man-aged or logical incremental planning is not inconsistent
with formal planning, but instead leads to quicker
implementation and reduces the likelihood of catastrophic
errors that might result from rigid adherence to formal
rational/comprehensive planning.^27 Logical incrementalism is
consistent with adapting to input from organizational subunits
and functional areas as information becomes available. This
appears to be the case as more of the responsibilities of
strategic planning are being shared with line mangers.^28
Although the two types of strategic planning differ, their
use is not mutually exclusive as companies tend to employ both
approaches. It is probably more useful to think of strategic
planning as a balance between rational/comprehensive and
incremental planning or a matter of degree.^29 Regardless of the
degree of formality versus incrementalism, strategic planning
serves a number of vital functions, which are presented in
Table 2-2.^30