Complexity in corporate modelling: A review

This review summarises the history of corporate modelling: the development of the component business models, their amalgamation into corporate planning models in the 1960s and 1970s, and the eventual replacement of these integrated models by spreadsheets in the 1980s. Until the late 1970s, it appeared that integrated corporate models would ultimately eliminate any uncertainty in management decision making. However, it soon became apparent that their inherent complexity and inadequate performance was rendering them redundant. The spreadsheet revolution, offering accessibility and increased simplicity, promised corporate planners the solution. Unfortunately, poor modelling practice, constructional complexity and a consistent failure to address these issues, have led to the promise being broken. A new approach is now required.