Creative strategic planning using imagery

Strategic planning is often dominated by left-brain thinking which emphasizes rational, analytical techniques. Imagery is a technique which has been widely applied in other disciplines such as sports, medicine, learning and counselling, which can be used by planners to enhance more right-brain thinking. The technique is especially useful for creative thinking in scenario building and goal setting. This paper reviews the technique, explains how it has been used in other fields, and how it can be used to enhance planning.     

Mining the Periphery for New Products

Revolutionary products often come from upstart players or companies outside the industry, while mainstream operators follow a risk-averse path of concentrating on their current business. This article urges companies to channel resources into looking at the periphery for ideas that could be profit-drivers of the future. It suggests three strategies for finding new products: frame the landscape; develop game-changing hypotheses; and use targeted hunting. It concludes by saying that these approaches will encourage managers to combine broad searching and thinking with focused evaluation and execution.     

The Culture–Performance Relationship in M&A: From Yes/No to How

Do cultural differences have an impact on the performance of M&A? Despite the widely accepted myth that they do, and in a negative way, a review of extant research provides contradictory findings. In this article, we explore reasons for this contradiction and propose solutions in the form of propositions and a theoretical framework. We begin with a brief overview of extant research on the culture‐performance relationship in M&A. In light of the contradictions emerging from this review, we move on to identifying three areas of complexity explaining this confusion, and for each one, we suggest propositions to guide future research. We then summarize our argument using a theoretical framework. Because of the long‐term and dynamic nature of the M&A process, we argue that instead of studying the simple performance impact of cultural differences in M&A, we should move on to thinking how cultural differences impact on the M&A process and its outcome.     

The V-matrix—A new tool for plotting earnings

The purpose of this article is to extend some of the ideas of Ciaran Walsh and Edward Mock presented in their article ‘Setting Corporate Objectives Using Required Market Earnings’ (Long Range Planning, Vol. 12 No. 5). It takes as its starting point the approach suggested by Walsh and Mock and developed a new type of corporate planning matrix: the V Matrix. It is hoped that the V Matrix will be a useful tool to help corporate planners quickly analyze past trends, assess their present position and plan future strategic actions.     

If we cannot forecast how can we plan?

The purpose of this article is to deal directly and explicitly with the issues and problems currently facing forecasting, planning and strategy and to discuss how the challenges of the 1980s can be realistically and effectively met. The article deals with the various environmental changes that have taken place and their implications for planners; presents empirical evidence, originating from the literature and the area of psychology concerned with human judgment processes; and outlines several new ideas which contribute towards integrating forecasting, planning and strategy and dealing with the turbulent enviroment of the future.     

Planning in a state of turbulence

This paper is concerned with an exploration of the role of the long range planner, whether in the private or public sector of the economy, and the impact made upon the processes of his work by government's increasing propensity to manipulate the economy. The authors' researches over the last 2 years into the comparative nature of planning processes in the U.K. economy have made it abundantly clear to them that planners are increasingly concerned at the dangerous potential of such impact upon their forecasting procedures. The emphasis here will rest upon the planner in private enterprises, although the authors' work in both local government and the nationalized enterprises suggest that the problem is of equal importance in these sectors.The authors consider first the past nature of the search processes in long range planning and the context of such attempts to narrow down the range of variables that form the enterprise's perception of its future. Secondly, they examine the emerging discontinuity and the changing role of government, with particular reference to indicative planning concepts. Then they introduce some of the findings of a recent survey of attitudes towards long range planning in the construction industry of the U.K., a sector vitally influenced by turbulence in the economy and with particular interest in government's ideas of macro-planning. Finally Edwards and Harris examine the implications to government and to planners of their findings.     

Reconsidering Scale: Using Geographic Information Systems to Support Spatial Planning Conversations

How do planners compose plans that fit complex environmental systems? How do they align mismatched ecological and governance landscapes? We studied a small group of practitioners planning for groundwater sustainability to explore these questions. We recorded and transcribed their talk as they worked with geovisualization tools to diagnose and resolve future water shortages. Our findings showed how these planners crossed scales and levels as they reconsidered the relationships between groundwater supplies and consumers. While they recognized the urgency of aquifer overdraft, they complained about a lack of fine-grained hydrogeologic data, which they rely on for managing local water shortages.     

Strategic planning in the Scottish health service--a mixed-scanning approach

A programme of research into the development of effective planning processes for the Scottish health service has been undertaken. This has led to proposals that a mixed-scanning approach be developed with the aim of introducing more systematic and rational thinking in a way which is technically and politically realistic. This paper discusses these general proposals in outline and the basis on which they were designed; it also focuses on one of the key components--the concept of a scanning or review process--which will provide an overall appreciation of what has been happening within the health service and what the future could hold. The research is continuing but even at this stage the emerging concepts could be of wide relevance and interest.     

Systems Analysis of Failures as a Quality Management Tool

Managers and quality practitioners are familiar with the linkage of the words quality and systems to denote a systematic approach to quality, as in BS5750 Quality Systems, say. There is, however, a more specialized use of the word systems that indicates the application of systems thinking and which gives rise to the adjective systemic (of, or pertaining to a system) rather than systematic (carrying out in a planned and orderly fashion). This paper examines the potential for applying systems thinking to the management of quality with particular reference to one branch of systems work: the study of failures. The paper draws comparisons between quality and systems analysis of failures and points out that some failures could equally well be described as quality problems and vice versa. The paper argues that problems at the system level are frequently overlooked or avoided by those undertaking quality improvement programmes, partly because individuals within an organization may experience only different, smaller aspects of a systemic problem and partly because the problem solvers may lack the means or motivation to tackle complex, poorly defined problem messes. It then goes on to suggest that use of a meta–method for problem analysis would enable such problems to be addressed. One such method that has been widely applied in the study of failures, the failures method, is described in detail and its application to a failure/quality problem is outlined.     

Experience,Service Operations Strategy,and Services as Destinations: Foundations and Exploratory Investigation

This paper explores the customer experience paradigm as it pertains to service operations strategy and design. First, we operationally define and discuss the concept of customer experience. In this context, we propose a reframing of the strategic role of operations strategy as one of choreographing experience‐centric services. We then introduce the concept of services as destinations as an emerging business model for classifying experiential service strategies. Our conceptual typology of experience‐based strategies uses two dimensions: (1) the depth of use of experience as a source of value creation, ranging from brand experience to the services as a destinations business model, and (2) the degree of integration of experience internally within the firm. Using this conceptual typology, we develop five propositions and use multiple cases to illustrate firms' use of these experience strategies. Laying the groundwork for future research, we highlight insights from the qualitative, multiple‐case data as they pertain to service operations strategy and the business model that employs services as destinations. A number of questions for further research are suggested.     

Assessment of aircraft logistics planning models

An assessment of military logistics planning models offers a great deal of information about the modelling state of art. Such tools include both analytic and simulation model types. They can deal with both static and dynamic characteristics of the environment. They require highly detailed data for their operation and can compute over a large number of interacting variables. Unfortunately, these models do not satisfy adequately the requirements of the particular logistics issue for which they were assessed, which is whether such models can be used in early logistics planning for new weapon systems. One difficulty is that such planning must make extensive use of tradeoffs and sensitivity analysis to take account of the flexibility and uncertainties existing at the early stages. Another is that the existent models call for detailed data which is usually not available at that time. Therefore, although the models do fulfill a particular useful planning function, they must be replaced or augmented by a new class of models that will much more closely satisfy the planning need. This new capability requires a serious research effort that will benefit not only the military logistics planners, but also other planners dealing with large capital development programs.     

The value of rescheduling functionality within standard MRP packages

One of the basic functions of an MRP system is to issue rescheduling messages that urge the planner tospeed up or slow down open orders. It seems in practice that these messages are not used at all by planners. This is mostly due to the inaccuracy of MRP, that more or less ignores safety time, safety stocks and lotsize flexibility in the calculation of reschedule-in messages. Reschedule-out messages are usually ignored because planners do not see the value of the message. Other reasons for not adhering to rescheduling messages are a lack of maintenance of MRP parameters or simply the wrong use of the MRP function. In the future, MRP rescheduling functionality will be used even less than today, due to the changing role of MRP within the planning framework. With the uprise of finite capacity scheduling packages, MRP is being pushed one level upward in the planning hierarchy. This means that rescheduling functionalities for the short term will become completely obsolete in MRP systems.     

A novel portfolio selection model in a hybrid uncertain environment

The future returns of each securities cannot be correctly reflected by the securities data in the past, therefore the statistical techniques and the experts’ judgement and experience are combined together to estimate the security returns in the future. In this paper, the returns of each securities are assumed to be fuzzy random variables, then following the ideas of mean variance model a new portfolio selection model in a hybrid uncertain environment is proposed. Moreover, the λ-mean variance efficient frontiers and λ-mean variance efficient portfolios are defined, and the properties of λ-mean variance efficient portfolios located on different λ-mean variance efficient frontiers are discussed. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the proposed portfolio selection model. On the basis of the results, we can conclude that the proposed model can provide the more flexible results.     

Strategic Cognition of Operations Executives

The nature of operations executives’ strategic cognition, as the antecedent to their choices about operations strategy, remains underexplored in the literature. This mixed‐methods study examines executives’ thinking about supply chain strategy through the lens of managerial cognition. Our qualitative study at a pharmaceutical distributor, which examined 25 executives’ outlook on the future of the turbulent U.S. healthcare sector and their suggestions for adapting the company's supply chain strategy to that future, suggests that an executive's strategic cognition can be defined by its regulatory focus—whether the executive envisions the future environment in terms of opportunities or threats—and the level of optimism in regards to the envisioned future. We propose a typology that predicts the strategic choices of operations executives based on four types of cognition: pioneering, pushing, protective, and provocative. It describes whether an executive's strategic choices target traditional or novel sources of revenue, and if they seek to influence either the firm's structure and practices or its environment. Our empirical test of the typology using quantitative data collected in a survey of senior operations executives supports the study's propositions associating three of the four types of cognition with their respective preferred strategic choices.     

Innovative leadership: generating ideas.

One of the most challenging functions a physician executive performs is being an innovator--coming up with new ideas to keep ahead of the pack and to solve problems that need fresh solutions. Robert Hodge, MD, CPE, FACPE, and Barbara Linney interviewed Roger Schenke, Executive Vice President of the American College of Physician Executives, and gleaned seven pointers that you might consider to help generate a flow of new ideas or when you get "stuck." They are: (1) read voraciously and link unlike things together; (2) talk to people whose circle is bigger than yours; (3) stop thinking about the problem and focus on something else; (4) care enough to keep wrestling with a problem and not give up; (5) stay open to new ideas even if they are uncomfortable; (6) be willing to risk and take chances; and (7) find a place to carry out the ideas.     

Institutional distance and the international market entry mode: A meta-analysis

With increasing interest in the internationalization of multinational enterprises, recent studies have focused on the differences between institutions in home and host countries and how they affect the strategic entry decisions of multinational enterprises, particularly the equity-based entry mode. However, the conclusions regarding institutional distance and the equity-based market entry mode are contradictory. This relationship is theoretically unclear and empirically inconsistent. To help resolve these contradictory findings, we conduct meta-analytic research on the relationship between institutional distance and equity-based entry mode. We investigate several moderators that may affect this relationship. These moderators can be divided into three types: measurement factors, such as indices, data sources, and calculation methods; contextual factors, such as industry, time of study, and country characteristics; and theoretical orientation. We offer theoretical insights and recommendations to improve the validity and reliability of research on institutional distance, equity-based entry mode, and ideas for future research.     

Using the End‐User Computing Satisfaction (EUCS) Instrument to Measure Satisfaction with a Web Site

The purpose of this study is to revise and revalidate the End‐User Computing Satisfaction (EUCS) instrument to measure satisfaction with a Web site from a usability perspective. This study is especially important given the increased significance of the Web and the uniqueness of the Web as a computing environment. A total of 176 students participated in a lab simulation that involved a usability evaluation of the Lands' End Web site ( http://www.landsend.com ). Students were asked to complete a set of tasks, record their answers, and then complete the EUCS instrument. Confirmatory factor analysis and invariance analyses were conducted to test the reliability, validity, and generalizability of the revised EUCS. The results show that the EUCS is a valid and robust instrument in the Web environment but that one of the subfactors, timeliness, will need further refinement in the future. Usability practitioners can use the EUCS to measure end‐user satisfaction with a Web site and use the feedback for improving Web‐site design. We describe a case study of an actual usability application that utilized the revised EUCS effectively to support the design of building supply Web sites involving two types of end users, homeowners and contractors. We also propose a typology that researchers can use as a starting point to judge when it is necessary to revalidate an instrument like the EUCS. Finally, we discuss the limitations of our study and present avenues for future research.     

What kind of corporate planner do you need?

The planning literature ignores distinctions among types of plans and types of planners. Consequently, a systematic pairing of planners and a company's level of planning need is not well understood or implemented in practice. This paper provides two missing links in order to bridge this shortfall between theory and practice. One is a planning matrix which establishes six possible planning modes for a company based on its stage of development and management style. The second is a distinction between three types of planners who would be appropriate to each planning mode. The matrix plus the three categories of planners provides a new tool for management in its responsibility for planning the job of the corporate planner. In doing so, it also surfaces some underlying causes of organizational strain and stress associated with the corporate planner's position.     

Setting Risk‐Informed Environmental Standards for Bacillus Anthracis Spores

In many cases, human health risk from biological agents is associated with aerosol exposures. Because air concentrations decline rapidly after a release, it may be necessary to use concentrations found in other environmental media to infer future or past aerosol exposures. This article presents an approach for linking environmental concentrations of Bacillus. anthracis (B. anthracis) spores on walls, floors, ventilation system filters, and in human nasal passages with human health risk from exposure to B. anthracis spores. This approach is then used to calculate example values of risk‐informed concentration standards for both retrospective risk mitigation (e.g., prophylactic antibiotics) and prospective risk mitigation (e.g., environmental clean up and reoccupancy). A large number of assumptions are required to calculate these values, and the resulting values have large uncertainties associated with them. The values calculated here suggest that documenting compliance with risks in the range of 10^?4 to 10^?6 would be challenging for small diameter (respirable) spore particles. For less stringent risk targets and for releases of larger diameter particles (which are less respirable and hence less hazardous), environmental sampling would be more promising.     

Educating spatial planners for the age of co-creation: the need to risk community,science and practice involvement in planning programmes and curricula

Abstract

Planners are often billed as leaders and change agents of the (un)built environment. It is, however, important to recognize that they are in reality only one of many players in a sea of actors involved in shaping future developments and projects. Plans and interventions today are co-created and in fact co-evolve relying as much on the input, cooperation and actions of inhabitants, users, developers, politicians as on expert planners and a wide variety of other professions. In this introductory section, we, as editors of this special issue, posit that planners therefore require skills for co-creation drawing on science and working with other disciplines. In turn, planning programmes and curricula need to incorporate learning and teaching approaches that prepare students in higher education for working in co-creation settings by purposefully exposing them to learning environments that involve community, science and practice. The collection of papers, which were presented initially at the 2014 Association of European Schools of Planning congress in Utrecht hereafter showcase curriculum developments and pedagogical research of planning educators from different world regions that in the round shed light on a variety of issues and challenges of embedding learning and teaching for co-creation and co-evolution. In particular, we elaborate on the tensions of employing transformational yet high-risk pedagogies in higher education settings that are becoming increasingly risk-averse and streamlined and we suggest an agenda for planning curriculum development.