Design of Corporate Planning Systems:Volume 1: Exploring the interrelationship between situational factors and characteristics of corporate planning systems in fourteen, large U.K.-based companies.Volume 2:Development of a 'design framework' and its application to a specific setting.

Abstract

Existing corporate planning systems in order to identify specific situational Factors likely to have influenced their development. In this context, corporate planning systems of Fourteen large, U.K.-based companies have been studied on the basis of: their initial development, existing range of functions, structure and organization of the planning departments, types of plans developed and the planning process. Situational settings and corporate planning systems of the investigated companies are described on a case-study basis; this is Followed by an exploratory investigation of the nature of association between situational Factors and characteristics of such systems, based on a number of interviews held with senior managers in charge of their corporate planning departments. Four companies (BL, Fisons, Cadbury/Schweppes and L.C.P. Holdings) which have been studied in greater detail, are presented as separate case-studies. A ‘design Framework' is subsequently proposed in Volume II, incorporating the main Findings of the study. Fourteen propositions are put Forward in order to explain the possible interrelationship between situational factors and corporate planning systems. These explain the manner in which specific situational Factors such as environmental complexity and volatility, market maturity, product and geographic diversity, organizational structure and attitudes of senior management, are likely to influence the Functional orientation of a corporate planning system (in terms of the degree of emphasis placed on the ‘adaptation’, 'integration' and 'control' roles of planning). The use of the Framework for designing 'tailormade’ corporate planning systems is illustrated in a U.K.-based engineering company whose Planning Manager was in the process of developing such a system during the course of this research. This framework was Found to be useful for providing a systematic analysis of the Firm's situational setting, identifying its planning needs and specifying the appropriate Capabilities likely to cater for these needs. It was however inadequate for examining social and political Forces within the Firm and their impact upon the introduction of a corporate planning system.