“Planning is not a guarantee of success.” It suffers from various limitations : 

Planning may not work in dynamic environment: The environment in which a business exists is very dynamic. Changes in technology, changes in government policies, legislative enactments, industrial unrest in the country etc. are important external limitation of planning. Thus, it becomes very difficult to forecast the future when the economic policies of the gov ernment keeps on changing continuously.

Time-Consuming : Considerable time is required for collection, analysis and interpretation of information for planning. Sometimes, a lot of time is taken in formulating the plans, as a result of which very less time is left to implement these plans. Planning is not practicable during emergencies and crisis w hen on the spot decisions are necessary.

Rigidity : In an organisation, a well defined plan is drawn to achieve some specified goals within a specified period of time. Employees become more concerned with observing the programmes and procedures rather than achieving the goals. They have to strictly adhere to the formulated plans irrespectiv e of changes in the environment. Therefore, rigidity in plans may create difficulty in an organisation.

Costly Process : Planning is an expensiv e process. The cost is in terms of money, time and effort. Moreover, sometimes the cost incurred in formulating plans turn out to be higher than the benefits actually received from these plans. Management must exercise intelligent judgement to balance the expenses of preparing plans against the benefits derived from them.