Comments on ʻMultinational Strategic Planning: Matching Central Expectations to Local Realitiesʼ, Theodore T. Herbert. Long Range Planning, Volume 32, Issue 1, 19 March 1999, Pages 81–87

Theodore Herbert's (1999) article on ‘Multinational Strategic Planning’ is remarkable in prefiguring current issues in both scholarly research and contemporary business. Herbert's critique of American assumptions about multinational strategic planning has become even more relevant in today's pluralistic world economy, where American business is far less dominant than before. His emphasis on the role of national cultures in interpreting and sometimes resisting central planning diktats anticipates insights from Strategy-as-Practice research, with its attention to local improvisations on standard practices. This commentary will elaborate on the relevance of Herbert's (1999) arguments both for the contemporary multinational environment and for current strategy research. But first I shall draw out from the original article key points that are particularly relevant today.