Managed Services
Strategy Time: Choosing Next Year’s Game Changing Plan

For companies that are on a calendar fiscal year, fall is typically the time to do strategic planning. That’s because strategy impacts a company’s budget, which needs to get finalized by December.But before you plan that expensive, week-long retreat for your leadership team, consider the startling reality that strategy-making rarely creates the changes company CEOs hope for.The failure can happen in the strategy sessions themselves. Whatever bold initiatives are initially proposed immediately prompt vertigo in leaders who water down the goals to something like “let’s try to do a little better than last year but if we don’t succeed, oh well, we know it’s not our fault because the market is tough right now.”Or, the mediocrity creeps in back in the office as the status quo finds a way to prevail. Those well-worn grooves in everyone’s daily record play the same darn tune. Nothing different happens.If your people love security and certainty more than they like a sense of adventure, you’re going to have a hard time catalyzing anything that is game changing. So, how do you make strategic planning worthwhile? Don’t let your strategy become just a list of aspirational statements. You’re not looking for a marketing campaign, but a bold set of goals for organizing the next year’s work. Make sure you can measure success. What does “Become the thought leader in our industry” actually look like? Budget for all of the new systems and people you will need to make the change happen. An under-funded strategy is a failed strategy. Get input from a wide range of stakeholders before the strategy meetings. Customers, salespeople, even the Tier 1 help-desk folks, may all provide insights about the market that you aren’t seeing. Let opportunities in the market be the point of the spear. Strategy should be built around how your company is going to win—not on your limitations.
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