Managers who claim not to have this much time to devote to planning are generally failing in their other areas of responsibility as well, and should be retrained. Operating plans are generally prepared quarterly and reviewed monthly. Improvement plans are prepared monthly and reviewed weekly. When this is true in an organization, it is generally the result of having a poor planning technique or system. Plans that end up in a binder on the shelf are not worth the time and cost to produce them.
Managers are capable of doing both.
To neglect one of these tasks in favor of the other is like choosing which way one prefers to die. Not managing the plan is a slower means of death, perhaps, but it is still death. The purpose of a plan is to ensure that budget dollars are spent wisely in the pursuit of meaningful business objective accomplishments. One cannot have a plan without a budget and one shouldn't have a budget without a plan. Levels of Planning.