The tactical and strategic plans of most business organizations have been dealt severe setbacks by the recent recession. Many forecasters did not anticipate that the Administration's fiscal program would create a crisis of near‐term economic difficulties. Only a few predicted the persistence of high interest rates and the prolonged decline in business activity, and the present economic crunch caught most corporations by surprise. As a result, management attention is now focused on the immediate financial problems caused by disastrously low sales, excessive borrowing costs, and price cutting, and not on tactical or strategic planning.