On the use of models in corporate planning

Much is made these days of planning models, which I take to mean models from which plans could be extracted. It seems odd to me to think there is, or can be, such a model, as odd as it would be to think there is, or can be, a set of medical instruments from which health can be extracted. Obviously, medical instruments can sometimes be used in providing health care, and models can sometimes be used in planning; but, to switch metaphors, when English is used in planning it does not thereby become planning English. The same is true for models: when they are used in planning they do not become planning models. Several years ago Thomas Naylor and Horst Schauland (1976) surveyed the planning practices of 2000 corporations in the United States, Canada, and Europe. They concluded: