John C. Camillus

Multi-Objective Assessment of Effectiveness of Strategic Planning: A Discriminant Analysis Approach

Drawing on the relevant literature, this study develops seven key dimensions of planning systems, five reflecting their design aspects and two tapping the organizational context of planning. Discri...

Managing strategic issues in a turbulent environment

Abstract A major shortcoming of conventional Strategic Planning Systems (SPS) is their lack of sensitivity in coping with changing environments. On the other hand, Strategic Issues Management Systems (SIMS), which has been recently developed to respond to ‘weak’ signals and turbulent environments, lack some of the visionary, enduring, motivational qualities of the SPS. This article describes how the SPS and the SIMS can be integrated so as to complement thier individual strengths and mitigate their respective weaknesses. A process that can promote this integration is proposed.

Evaluating the benefits of formal planning systems

Abstract While empirical studies indicate that formal planning influences corporate effectiveness, no systemic understanding exists regarding how and why formalization of the planning activity affects corporate performance. This article proposes a framework for analyzing the impact of formalization on the quality of the planning exercise. It is suggested that by formalizing the planning activity, certain benefits accrue which cannot result from informal planning. Also, the intrinsic purposes of planning are furthered in several ways by formalization. However, there are also disadvantages resulting from formalization, some inherent and some arising from faulty design. The consequences of formalization with respect to the generally accepted purposes of planning are examined and a checklist intended to help designers develop more effective formal planning systems is proposed.

Continual Corporate Entrepreneurial Search for Long-Term Growth

This paper examines how established firms conduct continual entrepreneurial search for possibilities for long-term growth. Drawing on comprehensive internal documents of the DuPont Company over a 20-year period, we develop a search process that is a departure from frequent depictions of search as local or random. Longitudinal field data show that corporate entrepreneurs follow a moving, anchored search for growth possibilities. Employing this framework as lens, we develop propositions. We find that corporate entrepreneurs are more likely to conduct search in new domains following events that cause them to expect future performance to change significantly and lastingly. This is in contrast to the literature that has typically modeled the initiation of search as a response to poor past performance. Because new domains are unexplored territories for corporate entrepreneurs, they utilize transitional levers that they perceive will facilitate the move from existing domains to new ones. These perceived transitional levers, however, typically prove inaccurate or incomplete. Content within domains is searched using anchors whose locations and numbers change. The combination of search process and content searched influences the particular growth possibilities discovered and created. Search and pursuit of growth possibilities is accompanied by the creation of new knowledge and new capabilities.

Objectives-based evaluation of strategic planning systems

A comparative study of more effective vs less effective planning systems is reported here, where effectiveness is treated in terms of the fulfillment of six key planning objectives. Based on data on the strategic planning systems and processes of over 200 North American companies, key systems design and contextual factors associated with effective planning are identified. It was found that dissatisfaction with formal strategic planning is not as widespread among practicing managers as is widely alleged. The degree of fulfillment of key planning objectives varies widely not only from company to company but also from objective to objective. Overall, the creativity and control orientation of the system and its level of functional integration were found to be the principal design factors contributing to the effectiveness of a strategic planning system.

Do your planning processes meet the reality test

Abstract Sophisticated planning systems and touted techniques have never been a guarantee of success to a business. We believe this is because there has been too much focus on the content of strategy rather than the underlying process, and because the process is often poorly matched to the nature of the problem. For strategic situations the issues are usually complex and unpredictable with many unknowns and a large human factor, typical of the problem category defined as ‘wicked’. This article identifies a set of seven fundamental process principles for dealing with such problems. The principles are a starting point in the effort to codify the ‘art’ of successful strategic planning. Several examples of the use of the principles in business contexts are provided.

From crisis to community: the Pittsburgh oil spill

The interdependence of metropolitan communities generates a stubborn paradox in crisis. The infrastructure created to link local systems in productive action operates, with equal facility, to transmit failure, distortion and neglect. This function serves to escalate failure in a single system to failure in multiple systems in the metropolitan community. This article examines the effects of interdependence in escalating the 1988 tank collapse at the Ashland Oil Com panys storage site on the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to a full-scale crisis spanning two weeks and three states, and affecting ad versely the lives of approximately 830,000 people. An interactive information system is proposed as an alternative method of reducing risk and facilitating response to minimize crisis in metropolitan communities.

Designing a capital budgeting system that works.

Conventional capital budgeting systems do not fully reflect or adequately respond to the way in which capital expenditure decisions are actually made. Evidence also exists that the nature of this decision process is dependent on the type of the organization. This paper describes an empirically developed understanding of how capital expenditure decisions are being made, identifies ways to support and improve these decisions, and proposes an approach to linking the design of capital budgeting systems with the type of organization in which they are to operate.