Reunite management and planning

In many companies the planning function has been removed from the mainstream of corporate life. Planning (and planners) have been isolated from the locus of decision- making power and insulated from information vital to the planning process. The outcome has been the generation of irrelevant plans and a proliferation of impotent planners. The author argues for a reintegration of technical expertise and managerial power, a reunion of planning and decision-making processes.     

Tioxide: Computerization—The key to the future in financial planning

As the capability of new computer systems becomes increasingly sophisticated, so does the application of computer techniques to financial and strategic planning become more relevant to management. Planning and practically all forms of decision-making are concerned with the future, which necessarily is uncertain and therefore difficult to plan for. Forecasting methods, however, can suggest trends and it is possible to reduce the number of possible futures to a manageable number, in effect, creating scenarios. But the viewing of multiple scenarios in a manual accounting system is impractical, given the sheer volume of work, and this is where the facilities offered by computerization can assist decision-making greatly. The case study illustrated here concerns a multinational company with production facilities in seven different countries, using a sophisticated financial software packege for strategic and financial planning applications. The article traces the development of Tioxide's association with a financial modelling package, Planmaster, from initial use on a time-sharing basis to the changes in hardware manufacture which made it possible to run what is essentially a mainframe program on the desk-top microcomputer of the planning department.     

Development, application, and evaluation of an "action-reaction" planning method.

It is difficult to design and implement new public policies and programs, at least partially owing to the fact that few useful methods are available to help shape the planning, decision-making, and implementation processes required for change. Planning often tends to focus on wishful thinking rather than on a realistic assessment of the probable outcomes. In this article we describe an action-reaction approach to planning that explicitly recognizes the restrictions on program impact arising from the system in which change is being attempted. A hypothetical example shows the application of this method to the design of a health-care delivery program. The article concludes with a discussion of the long-term uses of the data base that may be compiled with this method.     

Public planning and political strategy

Planning theory and practice derived from corporate experience, management science and rational decision theory have had little influence on decision-making in the public sector. The political environment and organizational complexity of public decision making render conventional approaches to objective, rational, comprehensive planning of limited value in government agencies and in private corporations involved in public policy making. A more effective approach to strategic planning and management must be based on an understanding of the political dynamics through which policies are made. It must adopt a variety of styles directly related to major functions in the policy making process and use a variety of political intervention and influence techniques that facilitate the implementation of plans and policies.     

Planning and social change

During his ten years experience of corporate planning in industry the author became increasingly concerned about the relationship between planning and social change. This article, based on a talk given to the Social and Ecological Study Group of the Society for Long Range Planning, explores an approach to environmental appraisal which might make businesses and government agencies more responsive to the needs of a changing society and their products and services correspondingly more socially desirable. The author is currently leading a multidisciplinary team on a study of urban deprivation in Birmingham.     

Flexible reasoning using sensible agent-based systems: A case study in job flow scheduling

Planning and control systems for highly dynamic and uncertain manufacturing environments require adaptive flexibility and decision-making capabilities. Modern distributed manufacturing systems assess the utility of planning and executing solutions for both system goals (e.g. minimize manufacturing production time for all parts or minimize WIP) and local goals (e.g. expedite part A production schedule or maximize machine X utilization). Sensible Agents have the ability to alter their autonomy levels to choose among a set of decision models in order to handle the differences between local and system goals. In this paper, Sensible Agents are applied to a production planning and control problem in the context of job shop scheduling and decision model theory. Sensible Agents provide for trade-off reasoning mechanisms among system and local utilities that are flexible and responsive to an agent's abilities, situational context and position in the organizational structure of the system.     

Planning for innovation

This article is based on a presentation given by the authors to the Society for Long Range Planning and reprinted from the NRDC Bulletin. It is concerned with corporate planning in the NRDC and illustrates the philosophy and approach adopted in planning for innovation in an organization whose work is of a longerterm nature than most companies.     

Development planning—An adaptive approach

The author argues that Adaptive Planning is necessary for managing development projects. Given the many interdependencies between the project and its environment, and between activities and stages of the Project Cycle, learning-by-doing is essential. The key tasks of planning and coordination cannot be managed in advance through the blueprint planning approach favoured thus far. The rationale and implications of following the Adaptive Planning approach are explored, and examples are given to illustrate the argument.     

The weakness of strong ties: Sampling bias,social ties,and nepotism in family business succession

Decision-making is a complex cognitive activity filled with bias. Leader decision-making is unique because it occurs in a social context. We examine how biases resulting from social network dynamics complicate leaders' decision-making. In particular, we focus on a specific case of leader cognition: nepotism in the succession decisions in the context of family businesses. Succession often leads to a decline in performance because leaders frequently choose family members as their successor, a form of nepotism. We show that even when a leader can overcome individual decision biases, a bias in sampling resulting from families' strong ties can still allow a leader to wrongly conclude that family members are better qualified than external candidates when the opposite is true. We demonstrate this phenomenon using simulation modeling and explore solutions to family business succession planning.     

Corporate Planning and Control in German industry

This article records some important results of an extensive empirical investigation in GFR. In so doing the structure and the stage of development of Corporate Planning and Control Systems in 355 industrial companies were analyzed—in addition other systems were investigated. Within the context of the planning and Control Systems, the multi-echelon organization of the system, the time scale and the differentiation of the plans as regards content, co-ordinated planning between various management levels (multi-echelon co-ordination) as well as the harmonization, adaptation and formalization of the plans and the planning, were investigated. Furthermore the content of the planning— for example, objectives, programmes, resources, and budgets—, the various sectional plans of the company, the organizational units, information as well as the interrelationship between the different management levels as regards information and the instruments for planning and control, were surveyed. In relation to the other systems, the organization, information, and management development systems as well as the general management system were analyzed.Within the context of the empirical investigation the structure and developmental stage of Planning and Control Systems in 355 industrial companies in the GFR were analyzed. As the basis for the empirical study a technological concept for Planning and Control Systems was worked out, which is based on a comprehensive planning and control theory.     

Planning in a free market economy

This paper is based on a research study project on Premises and Process of Introducing Strategic Planning in a Company. It presents and discusses some major findings of the study concerning the content of strategic decisions, the elements of a planning system, the process of introducing strategic planning and the impact of environmental conditions upon the strategic planning system.     

Developing strategies for management information systems

This is the first of two articles on a practical approach to Business Information Systems Planning. The articles will outline a formal but practical approach for the development of an information systems strategy. The approach is based on experience gained by the author in the conduct of planning projects in a variety of industries, including wholesale and retail banking, consumer credit, chemicals, multinational manufacturing and distribution and the oil industry. The articles are based on the author's book ‘Planning for Business Information Systems’ (Pergamon Books, 1986).     

Planning in Nigerian business

This article focuses on two specific areas of Corporate Planning in Nigeria, i.e. what are the special problems of planning in a less developed economic environment and how have these problems affected the practice of corporate planning in such an economy? The author reviews the planning environment in Nigeria and finds that formal corporate planning is fairly widespread, a reflection of their association with multinational companies in many cases.     

Focusing innovative effort through a convergent dialogue

This is the first of three articles on Planning for Technological Innovation by Peter Ward (the second and third articles will be published in future issues of the Journal). Appropriate innovation, in products, processes and management, is a means by which industry adapts to a changing environment. Adaptive or dynamic planning at the corporate level serves to foster and direct the necessary effort, as does organic planning in a wider context. The methods described are based on practical experience in industry and consulting work.     

Planning for banking—The Indian experience

Long Range Planning (LRP) as an integrated total planning system had been accepted by two major public sector banks in India. The system through its maiden cycle was confronted by many difficulties, particularly regarding the application of the model. The paucity of adequate environmental data, lack of appreciation of the purpose of internal appraisal, avoidance of sophisticated quantitative techniques were some of the major problems faced by the Corporate Planning Team. The author explains his experiences as the co-ordinator of Corporate Planning Team for implementation in one of these banks. Despite the hurdles, the system has taken roots in his bank.     

OR/MS modeling in long range bank planning

For over 10 years, The Bank of New York has conducted formal Long Range Planning, to insure profitable long term growth. The planning system developed by the Bank relies heavily on Financial Planning and OR/MS Modeling has been an important part of this system. This paper describes the approach taken by the Bank to develop their system and the experience gained through managing the system.