Many organisations do conduct annual manpower planning, but very few have a clearly defined process for identifying and responding to strategic talent gaps. They fail to address the talent challenges most critical to the organisational long term strategy. The manpower plan needs to be focussed on short term as well as long term needs as determined by the business strategy. Effective manpower planning in addition to being strategy driven should also identify risks to strategy execution as well as offer a proactive solution that explores a broader set of activities.