A Fatal Flaw In Strategic Planning

A Fatal Flaw In Strategic Planning

Smart Business Thinking by Jim Whelan

"In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." 
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

In the Q&A session following a presentation on Strategy, I was asked how to determine if a Strategic Plan is effective. Excellent question that we at Smart Business Thinking are not asked nearly often enough.

In the presentation I urged the audience to focus on strategy before developing a plan. Here’s not what I have in mind. You may have witnessed this scenario –

The CEO reads in a business magazine that every business should have a vision statement, a mission statement, and a strategic plan. So what happens - everyone swings into action.

There’s a Vision Committee, a Mission Committee, and a Strategic Plan Committee. After due consideration of two one-hour crisis meetings, the committees report their findings. And VOILA - the company has vision and mission statements and a strategic plan.

Those statements and plan are put in a three ring binder and placed on a shelf in an unused office. No one knows the vision except the CEO and the vision committee. The mission is a closely guarded secret. The next annual report proclaims how forward thinking the company is because it has a strategic plan.

In that process there is a total lack of strategic thinking that looks at the company’s place in the market, its financial capacity, or how it plans to expand (assuming it wants to). The strategy in this organization is to placate the CEO and the future will take care of itself.

Any guess what company will be surprised when the next change in the business environment occurs? How effective is the plan?

While this may be an exaggeration (or it may be close to the truth) the fact remains that many organizations do not properly consider the fundamentals of its strategy or relook at their strategy often enough to keep it effective.

Bottom Line? To be effective, a strategy should be the overriding impetus guiding an organization. It should be derived from a carefully thought-out analysis reflecting the company’s philosophy and personality.

Jim is an expert business coach and a respected advisor management and financial executives. He draws on his long-term business leadership background to help CEOs grow revenue, increase profits, improve