Excel Spreadsheet Use and the Strategic Corporate Plan :: essays papers

Excel Spreadsheet Use and the Strategic Corporate curriculumIntroductionIn years past, every well-run corporation undoubtedly had a writtenbusiness plan. Oftentimes, these plans were considered by many to be anexercise in frustration, as they were laboriously considered, written,then stored on the companys library shelf until the next business cooking cycle. The last few decades have seen a melodic theme change in theway companies do their planning. More often than not, the agingbusiness plan - though still produced and of value in its own right -is given less attention than the newer Strategic excogitate. Unlike the parentage Plan, which tends to be a very short document, the StrategicPlan is credibly to be much more substantial and detailed. The BusinessPlan provides the creative activity and frame manoeuvre for the Strategic Plan.1Senior business managers are often so occupied with immediate issuesthat they can easily lose site of the long-run objectives of thebusines s - objectives upon which the business can thrive if attained or run down completely if not. Beca utilize of this, a Strategic Plan today is a practical(prenominal) necessity. Most managers tend to see the Strategic Plan as aliving document one that, with blow-by-blow foresight, consideration anddevelopment is written at the start of a business planning period, thenreworked as mickle within the company and business climatechange throughout the planning period.2 The writing and preparation ofa Strategic Plan is an of import effort, demonstrating that carefulconsideration has been given to the businesss development however,the ultimate goal of the Strategic Plan is its own realization. Withthe advent of the personal computer and outspreadsheet development, theStrategic Planning butt against today is made easier with the many currentspreadsheet programs available to aid in the Plan A Short History ofthe Spreadsheet.The term spread sheet (nowadays spreadsheet) has along history, beginning with the non-computerizedversion, a reference to which was made in business relationshipbooks from the early 1950s to describe a worksheetproviding a two-way analysis of report data (i.e.an accounting matrix in which the columns and rowsconstitute either calculate and credit sides)3 In thinkingabout the history of the spreadsheet, two important menstand out. In the early 1960s, Richard Mattessich ofthe University of California at Berkeley pioneeredcomputerized spread sheets for business accounting. Asthe forerunners of todays spreadsheet programs forPCs such as Lotus 1-2-3, Excel, etc., these spreadsheets contained use of matrices, (budget) simulation,and, most important, the calculation to support eachmatrix cell.4 Although Mattessichs work wasmentioned in economic and computer literature as well