Strategic Planning That Produces Real Strategy

• May 04, 2016 

 

The email arrives and your jaw clenches: It’s planning time again and there’s nothing you can do about it. No matter what else is on your plate, you know that the next month or so will be dominated by filling out templates and sitting through endless planning sessions. The irony is that you have some strategic ideas you’re really excited about but you figure you’ll have to work the back channels to get them in front of the right people. Previous experience has taught you that your company’s formal planning process is where the best ideas go to die.

If this sounds familiar it’s because the typical strategic planning process is not delivering what it should at most companies. When we asked nearly 300 global executives to rate their company’s planning process, only one in three said that the strategy it produced met three vital criteria: bold ambition, adaptability in the face of changing market conditions and concrete guidance for management and the front line (see Figure 1).