Corporate modelling in the UK: a survey

During the 1960s and 70s integrated corporate models promised to eradicate many of the problems associated with long-term business planning and so eliminate uncertainty in management decision making. However, lumbering inflexibility, inherent complexity and inadequate performance rendered corporate models all but redundant. By contrast the last decade has seen impressive advances in computer technology and the successful application of spreadsheets as a modelling medium. Companies are taking advantage of this improved technology and are applying it to build corporate models more quickly and easily than ever before. This article presents the results of a survey of corporate modelling in the 1990s.