The Importance of Having a Strategic Plan

The author of the Peter Principle mentioned elsewhere that if you do not know where you are going you will probably end up somewhere else. Famous words indeed. Somebody else twisted this to if you do not know where you are going you will probably end up there. This time scary words too. Yet how many businesses end up in situations far worse than they ever contemplated, because they lacked a destination and a strategic plan.

Christopher Columbus knew where he was going even though just about everybody else thought that America did not exist. He had a game plan and surprisingly accurate navigational instruments to get him to his goal. By contrast, I understand the ancestors of the people living in the Polynesian Islands simply drifted onto them – and  have remained there, going nowhere slowly ever since.

Adolf Hitler lacked a strategic vision too. His invasions were little more than un-linked action plans, and he had no strategy for dealing with defeat. By contrast, Roosevelt and Churchill had strategies for victory, and part of these plans were simply waiting for Germany to run out of steam

Commerce is a battlefield too. Competitors joust for market share and are more than happy to strike down their opposition. Winners who succeed know exactly where they are going and how to get there too. Losers do not have the faintest idea. Having that idea is what strategic planning is all about.

A good strategic plan is like a road map. It defines the objective, and the route to get there. When these are known the map fleshes out into a systematic guide that details everybody’s role, and how these come together. Put differently, it is the recipe for a company’s success. It is also a systematic management tool for identifying problems, and steering past these too without losing momentum. The importance of planning strategically is paramount.

Some say that planning is irrelevant because reality is a flux that keeps on changing constantly. This may well be so. The greater truth is that unless you aim an arrow you will never strike the center of the target. Moreover, unless you fix your eyes beyond the here and now and envisage striking out beyond the competition, you will never become the industry’s champion.  Planning also means reviewing and re-planning at regular intervals to keep your arrows aimed accurately.

True greatness is finding new ways of climbing mountains, diving to ocean depths and striking out for stars. These visions may not need strategic planning to conceive. However, they do need definition, before other people can understand them, and turn them into reality. As a Business Coach, I could help you to achieve this.