Reviewing your operations may be your basis of a long range plan. Many companies basically just look in the window at their own operations, reviewing where they were yesterday and where they are today, and then basically projecting this data forward to determine where they want to be in the future. Now, obviously that is long range planning, but in the estimation of the author, it is not good future planning. In future planning, you first have to look out the window. You have to look out the window to see whose is walking by. You have to look at your industry. You have to look at market segments. You have to look at the customer. You have to examine the customer's needs, desires, and wants. Not only today, but into the future. You have to critique competition and try to determine where they are going, where are their strengths, and where are their weaknesses. Then, after looking out the window, you look in the window at your own operation and determine where you want to be in the future. The purpose of the future plan should be to get you from where you would be if you kept doing what you had been doing to where you want to be in the future. The difference between these two points is referred to as the planning gap and the future plan is an attempt to fill that planning gap..