"Henri Fayol (1949) is generally considered as the father of planning. As early as 1917, he led a nationally owned French mining concern from the brink of bankruptcy to international dominance. This was clearly the result of his development of a specific system. This system involved forecasts from various levels and persons within the organization. Managers from each level submitted their best estimates of the coming years activity and, based on this information, the Chief Executive Officer would make up a one to five year plan. Financial evaluations and control of departments were then based upon these projections. Based on the business practices and policies of 1917, this was a radical and unsettling approach. Prior to Fayol’s innovation, the charisma and entrepreneurial abilities of the firm’s leadership was believed to be the major factor leading to its success. As more firms became corporations and the size of business entities continued to grow, Fayol’s planning approach became widely accepted. General Motors adopted this approach (during the 1930s and 1940s and provided an excellent example of this (Sloane, 1963) in the United States. Since World War II, the evolution of planning approaches can be viewed as three distinct phases (Camillus, 1986). The first of these phases lasted through the 1950s and was, in actuality, an evolution of Fayol’s approach. Its base of operation was in the accounting department of a business. Budgeting and financial projections were used by management to develop future projections and to control operational decisions. From this writer’s experience, this appears to he the primary planning process used in the field of child and youth care today. How many of our present day agencies are operated (in reality) by a business office..."