International Corporate Planning: How Is It Different?

Within the last decade, a large number of American firms have formalized their objectives, and have begun to plan the long-range programs necessary to meet corporate goals. As international operations have assumed more importance within the overall scope of these firms' activities, many companies have begun to apply their experience in domestic planning to operations outside the United States. However, just as pediatricians have convinced us that there is more to healing children than treating them as little adults, the blanket application of domestic planning approaches and techniques is not only inadvisable, but unfeasible. I would like to spend my time with you this afternoon considering how international long-range planning is different, and attempt to determine within the context of my own company's experience, how domestic planning concepts must be modified in an international environment. "Management Technology", ISSN 0542-4917, was published as a separate journal from 1960 to 1964. In 1965 it was merged into Management Science.