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Forward planning in the service sector
Book Reviews Edited
by Harry
Jones
European Directory of Economic and Corporate Planning, 2nd Edition. edited bv P. FOUND, Gower Press, Eupinn .. _ (1976), 317 pp. E12.50 ihardback). Overall the directory has shrunk from 442 pages to 317, while the price has risen by 54. However the reduction has largely been in some of the peripheral information. The main body of the directory now includes some 600 firms, an increase of 20 per cent over the first edition. The directory is still heavy on consultants, market research companies, educationalists and local authorities, and correspondingly light on industrial companies. Despite improvements, it is biased strongly to the U.K.: less than one-third of the entries are for organizations in the rest of Europe. A spot check reveals the omission of many significant companies. The directory has a long way to go before it can fairly be classed as comprehensive. It also has its fair share of errors, mainly because of changes in personnel, but it includes one glorious mis-entry for a company whose function is motor spare wholesaling, and whose planning is the layout of garage servicing equipment for its customers. The main criteria for buying any directory is personal need’ Certainly this is likely to be of value to those researching among or selling to planners. Comprehensiveness requires co-operation from the organizations entered : possibly the Society for Long Range Planning could do more to help the publishers obtain a greater level of co-operation in future issues. D. E. HUXLEY Harbridge House Europe London
(235)
Forward Planning in the Service Sector, edited by M. GOLDSMITH,Macmillan, London (1975), 165 pp. El2.OO(hardback). In the new industrial society, especially in relatively affluent countries, the contribution of the service industries becomes vital for both personal and corporate development. Clearly, the service sector, forming an intrinsic part of the mixed economy which characterizes most advanced countries, deserves expert investigation and professional management. The vast sums disbursed by the public services and the significant growth in the proportion of the working population employed in these services have caused consternation and informed criticism. The public and private sectors are now closely meshed and inter-dependent, but political doctrines increasingly affect the strategic and tactical decisions taken by management. In this complex environment, planning experts have an immensely difficult task; new parameters have emerged, often emanating from the scarcity, induced or otherwise, of natural resources. The future is too important to be left to chance, yet to predict what it might hold appears well-nigh impossible. But this is what a symposium organized by the Science Policy Foundation in November 1973, attempted to do; its proceedings have now been published under the editorship of the Director of the Foundation.
94
An array of planning expertise is articulated which covers a wide range of activities in the U.K. In addition, the book contains three papers derived from another Foundation event, considered to be relevant to the general theme. There is much that is intellectually invigorating and creative in this slim volume. Perhaps the projections on the next decade of mass communication present some of the most interesting concepts. The exponential growth of electronic equipment and its applications for industrial, commercial, and personal use are discussed with fascinating insight. The impact of the world energy crisis and the allocation of scarce resources are also debated. A contribution dealing with long range planning in Japan reflects on the invisible sideeffects which affluent societies are now experiencing. The affluent society may well be termed the effluent society. The changing values of society should be noted by corporate planners; new needs may not necessarily be related solely to economic motivations. An article on long range planning studies in Sweden appears to offer a rather bleak prospect for individual freedom which many may find unacceptable. Inevitably it seems, a trade-off has to be made between the amount of freedom which individuals and trading organizations may expect in a totally planned economy and the benefits which such planning may be able to offer them. The fragility of extrapolation is valuably demonstrated in an interesting paper dealing with future transport needs. Another penetrating contribution covers the development of the information industry in which the computer and telecommunications have played a dynamic role. New technology awaits to be applied to meet the future needs of society; at the present time the constraints are decidedly more economic and political and technical. But are the existing systems used efficiently? The incompatibility and resultant wastefulness of some computer systems is stressed in a paper on financial services which reveals that when the Nat-West Bank merger took place, 23 incompatible computer systems were discovered among the various member banks! These are only a few of the subjects discussed with verve and professionalism. It is a pity that the price of the book will prohibit sales at a popular level; management librarians would be recommended to place this book on their shelves because it makes a sensitive, creative and useful contribution to planning literature dealing specifically with the service sector of the economy. P. M. CHISNALL Manchester Business School
(241)
The Delphi Method-Techniques & Applications, edited by H. A. L~NSTONE and M. TUR~FF, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass. (1975). 620 DD. $29.50 (hardback) and $16.50 (softback), also d$ West End House; 11 H&Place, London. Readers of Long Range Phnning will already be familiar with the Delphi technique of forecasting, especially in relation to the forecasting of technology, from descriptions of several applications published in earlier issues (Craver in June 1973, Lachman in June 1972 and Smill in December
LONG
RANGE
PLANNING
by Harry
Jones
European Directory of Economic and Corporate Planning, 2nd Edition. edited bv P. FOUND, Gower Press, Eupinn .. _ (1976), 317 pp. E12.50 ihardback). Overall the directory has shrunk from 442 pages to 317, while the price has risen by 54. However the reduction has largely been in some of the peripheral information. The main body of the directory now includes some 600 firms, an increase of 20 per cent over the first edition. The directory is still heavy on consultants, market research companies, educationalists and local authorities, and correspondingly light on industrial companies. Despite improvements, it is biased strongly to the U.K.: less than one-third of the entries are for organizations in the rest of Europe. A spot check reveals the omission of many significant companies. The directory has a long way to go before it can fairly be classed as comprehensive. It also has its fair share of errors, mainly because of changes in personnel, but it includes one glorious mis-entry for a company whose function is motor spare wholesaling, and whose planning is the layout of garage servicing equipment for its customers. The main criteria for buying any directory is personal need’ Certainly this is likely to be of value to those researching among or selling to planners. Comprehensiveness requires co-operation from the organizations entered : possibly the Society for Long Range Planning could do more to help the publishers obtain a greater level of co-operation in future issues. D. E. HUXLEY Harbridge House Europe London
(235)
Forward Planning in the Service Sector, edited by M. GOLDSMITH,Macmillan, London (1975), 165 pp. El2.OO(hardback). In the new industrial society, especially in relatively affluent countries, the contribution of the service industries becomes vital for both personal and corporate development. Clearly, the service sector, forming an intrinsic part of the mixed economy which characterizes most advanced countries, deserves expert investigation and professional management. The vast sums disbursed by the public services and the significant growth in the proportion of the working population employed in these services have caused consternation and informed criticism. The public and private sectors are now closely meshed and inter-dependent, but political doctrines increasingly affect the strategic and tactical decisions taken by management. In this complex environment, planning experts have an immensely difficult task; new parameters have emerged, often emanating from the scarcity, induced or otherwise, of natural resources. The future is too important to be left to chance, yet to predict what it might hold appears well-nigh impossible. But this is what a symposium organized by the Science Policy Foundation in November 1973, attempted to do; its proceedings have now been published under the editorship of the Director of the Foundation.
94
An array of planning expertise is articulated which covers a wide range of activities in the U.K. In addition, the book contains three papers derived from another Foundation event, considered to be relevant to the general theme. There is much that is intellectually invigorating and creative in this slim volume. Perhaps the projections on the next decade of mass communication present some of the most interesting concepts. The exponential growth of electronic equipment and its applications for industrial, commercial, and personal use are discussed with fascinating insight. The impact of the world energy crisis and the allocation of scarce resources are also debated. A contribution dealing with long range planning in Japan reflects on the invisible sideeffects which affluent societies are now experiencing. The affluent society may well be termed the effluent society. The changing values of society should be noted by corporate planners; new needs may not necessarily be related solely to economic motivations. An article on long range planning studies in Sweden appears to offer a rather bleak prospect for individual freedom which many may find unacceptable. Inevitably it seems, a trade-off has to be made between the amount of freedom which individuals and trading organizations may expect in a totally planned economy and the benefits which such planning may be able to offer them. The fragility of extrapolation is valuably demonstrated in an interesting paper dealing with future transport needs. Another penetrating contribution covers the development of the information industry in which the computer and telecommunications have played a dynamic role. New technology awaits to be applied to meet the future needs of society; at the present time the constraints are decidedly more economic and political and technical. But are the existing systems used efficiently? The incompatibility and resultant wastefulness of some computer systems is stressed in a paper on financial services which reveals that when the Nat-West Bank merger took place, 23 incompatible computer systems were discovered among the various member banks! These are only a few of the subjects discussed with verve and professionalism. It is a pity that the price of the book will prohibit sales at a popular level; management librarians would be recommended to place this book on their shelves because it makes a sensitive, creative and useful contribution to planning literature dealing specifically with the service sector of the economy. P. M. CHISNALL Manchester Business School
(241)
The Delphi Method-Techniques & Applications, edited by H. A. L~NSTONE and M. TUR~FF, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass. (1975). 620 DD. $29.50 (hardback) and $16.50 (softback), also d$ West End House; 11 H&Place, London. Readers of Long Range Phnning will already be familiar with the Delphi technique of forecasting, especially in relation to the forecasting of technology, from descriptions of several applications published in earlier issues (Craver in June 1973, Lachman in June 1972 and Smill in December
LONG
RANGE
PLANNING