ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes to consider what the corporate planner does do, the qualifications author needs to do it, how long it takes and, of course, what part the other executives must play if the corporate planning approach is to succeed. A corporate planner need do only two things: firstly get the corporate planning system going and secondly see that it keeps going. Corporate planning is wedded to the use of modern techniques of analysis: mathematical methods of forecasting, analysis of risk, the measurement of error, discounted cash flow, critical path analysis, costing systems, decision theory, computer languages, and simulation models and so on. Clearly knowledge of these is essential but the level of education and intelligence required for their proper understanding and use is high. One word of warning to those who wish to set up a corporate planning department is necessary.
