Approaches to Strategic Planning for Information Resource Management (IRM) in Multinational Corporations

Multinational corporations (MNCs) face increasingly higher rewards and risks when choosing amongst alterative investments for their computer and communications based information systems. The multi-layered management and technical issues and decisions confronting multinational corporations are seemingly endless and require new insights. A rapidly growing number of MNCs are utilizing computer based information systems, office automation and administrative support systems, telecommunications systems, factory information systems, and home information systems as critical tools in managing and monitoring their global businesses. As the resources, scope, and criticality of the “information commodity” grow, more senior managers are being forced to concentrate on better ways of planning for rapid changes to capitalize on new opportunities and reduce their risks. The conclusions and recommendations presented in this article are based on an examination of the actual information resource management (IRM) planning and coordination practices of 25 large multinational corporations as well as an indepth review of two case studies.