Corporate Planning in the Nineties

Abstract

Abstract Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. The subject of my talk this afternoon is Corporate Planning in the Nineties. I should explain that the particular case study I am going to describe took place in late 1989/early 1990 in the Exploration and Production arm of British Gas plc. I had been asked as an external consultant to help them consider their corporate needs for the next decade. During the late 1980s, in the post-privatisation era, British Gas E&P had expanded dramatically through organic growth and through acquisition. This had resulted in a Corporate Structure with two operational offices, in London and Houston, managing the E&P activities across the world and a separate London based Corporate Group supporting the Managing Director and providing a Corporate Planning function. They also intended to expand further within the ‘90s in the same way. As such, it was necessary for the company to identify a control base for this growth. There were two particular requirements; firstly a corporate planning process that could fulfil this function, and secondly it required a predictive tool to be used in the corporate planning process in the form of a numerical model. It was necessary for both of these factors to include consistent standards across the company, and meet the needs of management and employees.