Planning Review: Volume 16 Issue 4

Niche shock: And how to survive it

Richard J. Olsen

Unless we recognize what is unique about today's business environment, our best laid plans are almost sure to end in frustration, and perhaps failure. We're living in an unusual…

The strategic review

Jeffrey A. Schmidt

A strategic review is an ad hoc examination of a company's strategies and related capital investments, and it is usually performed during a period of transition or hard times. For…

Critical success factors

York P. Freund

Critical success factors (CSFs) are the hottest management buzz words. But most managers are vague about exactly what they are, how they work, and the problems inherent in using…

Environmental scanning at Monsanto

Margaret A. Stroup

Environmental scanning is “the study and interpretation of what is happening in society at large today in order to forecast developments in the business operating environment of…

Transforming Monsanto into a biotechnology‐based innovator

Kimball Nill

In 1979, the company's Annual Report stated that Monsanto operations included “more than 180 manufacturing plants, laboratories, and technical centers in 20 nations. The company's…

Managing through storms of change: Highlights of the 1988 Planning Forum Conference

Bernard C. Reimann

Whether they're growing, downsizing, restructuring, or just trying to survive, today's organizations are struggling to sail through the “storms of change.” What's more, the…