Management control systems for international operations;

              Management Control Systems
for International Operations
Dr. John C. H. Woo
Associate Professor of Accounting
California State College at Fullerton
During a sabbatical leave Dr. Woo visited
fifteen large U.S. companies and their overseas
units as well as ten European and Japanese
companies in order to conduct an empirical
study of management control systems for inter­national
operations. The Touche Ross Interna­tional
Executive Office aided Dr. Woo by sup­plying
introductions to our overseas offices and
to certain clients. His study is the result of his
on-the-spot inquiry and interviews with key
executives and managers and his analysis of
the primary sources of materials provided.
I. Strategic Planning
Defining a Company's International
Objectives and Organizational Structure
In this area, I found an encouraging trend in that an
increasing number of the companies covered in this
study have formalized, after carefully considering in­vestment
opportunities on a world-wide basis, a clearly
defined and well integrated set of international objec­tives.
Some companies have broad policies for the
acquisition and use of the resources to attain these ob­jectives.
However, I found that almost an equal number
of the companies visited have failed to systematically
establish their objectives on a global basis, and still
cling to vague, fragmentary, isolated, and even outdated
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