This is a case study of planning in a large metropolitan branch of the bank. The case underlines how creative aspects of the planning process can suffer if planning is reduced to a mechanistic target setting and budgeting exercise, with or without formal use of environmental data. It is widely recognized that long range planning, whose keynotes are creativity and judgment, is the responsibility of top management. It is maintained, therefore, that the role of formal analysis in long range planning is at best marginal. The intangible ingredients, creativity and judgment, do not lend themselves to any formal analysis. The case, however, shows how a formal analytical framework is helpful in the judicious exercise of judgment, and in pinpointing areas of creative thinking.