Making Long-Range Company Planning

Making Long-Range Company Planning

MAKING LONG-RANGE COMPANY PLANNING

PAY OFF
GEORGE A. STEINER
Here are five steps which will help make your firm's long-range plans pay off. They are described by a writer with practical experience in the field who takes the mystery and statistical double talk out of the subject and presents LRP as the useful, moneysaving tool for business decision making that it is.
article is devoted to a thumbnail sketch of two major aspects of long-range planning. First is the methodology or procedure for long-range planning. The second concerns the pay-off to a company that does longrange planning. I have chosen to dwell on these two points for several reasons. First, while long-range planning has grown rapidly in recent years and has paid off handsomely for many companies, there still are questions raised about its value. Second, while important progress has been made in the techniques of longrange planning, there are comparatively few detailed case studies and principles which are available for those who wish to initiate the process or improve their planning. These two factors are related. I suspect, although solid proof is not available, that the major reason for the fact that more companies do not engage in long-range planning is that they do not know precisely how to go about it. Not
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wishing to admit this even to themselves, other reasons are given for the lack of long-range planning.^
What Is Longe-Range Planning?

Planning in general is the conscious determination of courses of action to achieve preconceived objectives. It is George A. Steiner, Director of the Division of Research and Professor of Business Administration at the University of California, Los Angeles, has written extensively on long-range planning and business forecasting. He is also consultant to the Office of Emergency Planning of the United States Government and the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. His latest research, published in December by the Southern California Associates of the...