What is the use of a plan?The concept that a plan itself means very little isn’t a new idea. Who would think that spending a year doing a business plan is a good thing, or that formal business plans spell success?Business plans are sometimes overdone and misused, but the planning process is critical. About 60 years ago, Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “The plan is useless; it’s the planning that’s important.” That’s still true today. In fact, all business plans are wrong. They’re the work of humans guessing the future, dealing with uncertainty and making assumptions. Still, the planning process is absolutely essential. A startup entrepreneur’s planning process should start with a plan and continue with a plan vs. reality review, progress tracking and course correction.Planning is about controlling your destiny: Establish your business goals and outline the steps needed to achieve them – don’t just react to events. While your plan will be wrong, of course, how would you track what is going wrong without it? You can’t have a route without a starting point and a destination, but even the most well-planned route may require some detours (绕道).For the best results, planning should be concrete and specific. For each step in your plan, create dates, deadlines and clearly assigned responsibilities. You can’t track your progress and steer your company efficiently with vague generalities (概述). In real-world planning, form follows function. When new businesses seek investors they usually need formal plans. Investors who say they don't need formal plans still need to see your strategy, focus, priorities, commitments, dates and deadlines. The content has to be there, regardless of the format. Although you may not need a formal plan, all businesses need to go through the planning process. There will always be examples of businesses with great plans that fail and businesses with no plans that succeed, but I feel it’s very dangerous to tell startup entrepreneurs they don’t need a plan. The truth of the matter is that most of us need more planning, not more rationalizations for not doing it.1. What does the quotation from Dwight D. Eisenhower imply?A) We don’t really need a plan when we do things.B) The process of making a plan is significant. C) A plan is more crucial than how it has been made.D) Planning makes no sense if it does not arrive at a plan.2. Why does the author say that “all business plans are wrong”?A) Because plans are always overdone and misused.B) Because formal business plans may not spell success.C) Because plans guessing the future is of no real use.D) Because plans deal with uncertainty and make assumptions. 3. What’s the most important function of a plan?A) It helps with progress tracking and correction. B) It attracts investors for new businesses.C) It consists of important rules for business.D) It helps businesses not to make mistakes.4. What elements should be included in a plan?A) Generalities of the business process.B) Business goals and outlined steps. C) A plan vs. reality review.D) Strategy and reaction to events.5. What can we infer from the passage?A) All plans are wrong, so no specific plan is necessary for a project.B) Planning should be as detailed as possible with the most well-planned route.C) Awareness of strategy, focus, and commitments is critical to any project. D) Whether you are able to draw up a formal plan or not controls your destiny.