STRATEGY, Then Planning

????????????????????

We often ascribe innovation to technology.?True innovation is life-changing and a quantum leap forward, and we immediately sense it.?It was seen with smartphones, touch screens, same-day delivery, driverless cars, AI, and more.

Elegant strategic thinking that is simple with a clear competitive advantage and possible market and industry-changing outcomes is also innovative with the same game-changing realization.

????????????????????

Strategic planning is not a given for organizations and many struggle with a cycle between care-taking management followed by catch-up leadership, and back.?You recall the saying, “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”

At some point, every business voluntarily or involuntarily gets uncomfortable with some level of strategic risk.?It will either be elective, lower-risk, and on their terms; or it will be later, higher-risk, and on other’s terms.

Too often, care-taking managers are incrementally planning for stability, but then often fall behind more strategic competitors.?There are plenty of business examples of strategic failures while planning well into obsolescence.?Consider Blockbuster vs Netflix, Sears vs Walmart, and Borders vs Amazon Books.

What is needed is proactive leadership with consistent strategic thinking that preempts or instantly adjusts to market changes.?Even better, rather than respond to the market, create a strategic culture and be the strategic market maker in an industry.

????????????????

Strategy and planning are like finance and budgets.?Finance manages external engaged assets and liabilities for direct or indirect profits.?A Budget is an internal tool to manage resources within the framework of finances.

Similarly, strategic thinking projects the definition and direction of success into the external competitive space.?Planning, finance, policy, etc. are subsets that guide steps, resources, and behaviors to accomplish the strategic vision.

A strategic vision may be large or small, with known and often unknown elements.?The calculated risk of the unknowns creates the game-changing business innovation and competitive barrier to entry. ?The more known the strategy, the more it resembles a plan.

Planning may also be large or small, but has a known path, known to all.?A new location, another plant, and more employees, are known to all.?The result is more of the same.?A new store a town away is of little benefit to those of the first locations. There may be more revenue, but the competitive landscape largely remains.?Yet, a new product or service impacts all locations and the market.

????????????????????

My executive experience compels the imperative of leadership and living strategic vision first.?With leadership and a grand or modest strategic link to market forces, guidance and a deliberate vision exists from which all else flows for long-term success. CULTURE: Creating Lasting Competitive Advantage