ABSTRACT
An economist may make a number of contributions to business planning, particularly in relating the external economic environment to company decision making. This chapter briefly describes the business planning process and then discusses how economics and economists can contribute to that process. Most business plans, particularly those of a long-range nature, begin with or are prepared on the basis of an evaluation of the external environment in which the company will be operating. A critical aspect of business planning is the evaluation of the adequacy of the individual divisional and departmental plans as well as that of the company total. The economist and other staff specialists mainly provide the materials for making the evaluation, such as the quantifications of the performance of the larger group of which the enterprise is a part: the industry or the economy as a whole.
