“We could leave our strategic plan on an airplane and it wouldn’t matter. It’s all about execution.” CEO of a large U.S. Bank Since many strategic plans are nothing more than budget-driven, out-of-touch, unused slide decks with the relevance of a Sear’s catalogue, leaving them on a plane isn’t a bad idea. But, any … Continue reading Think
Towards the end of the calendar year, armies of managers march in and out of conference rooms brandishing laptops and wielding PowerPoint templates containing the makings of next year’s strategic plans. The plans generally contain industry data, market patterns, sales trends, competitive intelligence, customer analysis, goals, objectives, and tactics. And all of that means absolutely … Continue reading Strategic Trade-Offs: Does No Mean No?
Are you getting beat? It’s a simple question whose answer consists of either a confident “No,” or the defiant, “Yes, but…” that’s littered with excuses. To be clear, the response is a one-word answer. If your answer isn’t the one word you’d prefer, there may be a number of reasons why. One of the primary … Continue reading Strategic Thinking and Profitable Growth
As you interact with your managers on a daily basis, their behaviors will often tell you a great deal more than their words. We’ve all been in meetings where a person uses the word “strategic” to preface the majority of their comments: “strategic priorities, strategic objectives, strategic metrics, strategic napkins”–you get the picture. But, how … Continue reading Behaving Strategically
A condition is a situation with respect to circumstances. The term condition can be applied to a number of different arenas, from medicine (What is the patient’s condition?) to sports (What are the conditions of the golf course?). Before a physician prescribes a course of treatment for the patient, she will first want to understand … Continue reading Defender, Challenger or Spectator?
Abbott: Well Costello, this year’s strategic plan has to be the best ever. Costello: Yes, Abbott and we’ve got to get it just right. The first thing we need to do is make sure everybody understands the key planning terms. What is a goal? Abbott: That’s exactly right: what you’re trying to achieve is the … Continue reading If Abbott & Costello Did Strategic Planning
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to most managers. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between art and science, between the qualitative and quantitative and it lies between the pit of a manager’s fears and the summit of their … Continue reading The Strategylight Zone