Corporate planning may be described as the careful and systematic taking of strategic decisions. In the contrast to short-term plan like a budget, a corporate plan is concerned with taking a long-term view of future developments and with designing a strategy so that the organisation can achieve its chosen objectives. Many large companies now recognise the importance of adopting a formal approach to developing a corporate plan. They prepared "scenarios" or forecasts of future developments in the environment in which they wish to operate, in order to examine whether decisions taken in the present will result in success in the future. In recent years, companies have been developing more sophisticated techniques with which to analyse the risks involved in such decisions.

企业规划可以被描述成对战略决定的谨慎和系统的决策。与短期计划如预算形成对比，企业规划关注于对长期的未来企业发展的看法，同时设计战略，使得公司能实现其选择的目标。许多大企业现在认识到了使用正确的方式制定公司计划的重要性。他们准备了“情境”或者他们希望运行中的环境对未来的发展进行预测，以检查当前做出的决定是否会在未来取得成功。在近些年，公司一直在开发更为复杂的技术，以用来分析做出此类决策所涉及的风险。

Consider , for example, an oil company deciding if it should invest in a new refinery. Faced with this decision, involving the outlay of millions of pounds on something which might have a life of 15 years or more, the company must have a sound basis for its decision. In this case, it needs to know whether it can be assure of a market for the extra volume of its refined products, and it needs to know whether they can be produced profitably. In addition, it is necessary to study the available of crude oil and other supplies needed in the process.

例如，考虑一家石油公司是否决定应该投资一家新的炼油厂。面对这些决定，涉及到上百万的英镑购买可能使用15年以上的产品或技术，可能需要15年或更长时间收回成本，公司必须为其决定提供坚实的基础。在这种情况下，它需要知道它是否能确保能保证其提炼产品额外数量的市场，并且需要知道是否能有利润。除此之外，有必要研究这一过程中需要原有和其他供应的可能性。

Corporate planning, therefore, involves three main areas: determining the long-term objectives of an organisation, deciding what market potential there may be and formulating a product policy to satisfy them.

企业规划，因此，涉及到三个方面：确定一个公司的长期目标，决定有什么样的潜力市场，并制定一个产品政策去满足市场。