Planning Review: Volume 12 Issue 5

Some better ideas from Ford Motor's CEO

As CEO of Ford Motor Company, which has sales of $44 billion and a planning horizon of 30 years, Phillip Caldwell has learned to distill the crucial characteristics of a good…

3M's strategy system—planning in an innovative corporation

Michael A. Tita, Robert J. Allio

3M is one of america's best‐run, most innovative, and diverse companies. And this diversity has been increasing exponentially for the past sixty years. Two decades after its…

Scenarios for turnaround in smokestack, U.S.A.

Otto Eckstein, Christopher Caton, Roger Brinner, Peter Duprey

It has been obvious for some time that the U.S. manufacturing industry has been on a downward slide. However, the recent recession has accelerated the speed of the decline to the…

Field analysis: A 3‐D look at opportunities

Dean Silverman

The development of strategic analysis began with the experience curve. Then consultants came up with the four‐cell version of the portfolio matrix. This was followed by the…

The new strategic business resource: Information

William R. King

A producer of a long line of related products developed a product‐cost information system that helped the company understand its cost structure and use it as a basis for its…

Planning capital investments: Easy as 1–2–3

Charles P. Holt

Every day businesses face investment decisions—and managers can now buy software packages that let the computer do the work. Or they can squeeze the extra work out of a standard…

Mass marketing to fragmented markets

Jeffrey F. Durgee

Trend watchers who proclaim a tide of increasing diversity in consumer life styles usually conclude that “the marketplace is becoming more fragmented,” “the era of mass marketing…

Strategy seen through the lens of history

A.M. Alpert

What do we learn from history? Not simply that the past provides cautionary examples for the present and future. History also reveals something about how society changes, the…