What Ike and Mike had right about planning.

Two quotes, from two very different men. One a famous US President and 5-star war time general, who was / is celebrated, honored, and revered as one of the greatest patriots in the history of his country. The other an infamous, controversial, and polarizing prize fighter lauded for his professional abilities; feared and hated for his personal misconduct. In the ring, he is still arguably one of the greatest Heavyweight Champions of all time. - Source

On paper these two men couldn't have had more different upbringings, walked more different paths, and upon cursory glance, had less in common with one another. And yet, from the fire forged rigors of competition and combat, these two men shared a common viewpoint and approach to victory and planning that rings truer today, than ever before.

The Prizefighter 

Infamous prizefighter Mike Tyson once said during an interview: 

“Everybody has a plan until they get hit.” – Source

This was later changed for impact (pun intended) in popular and social “memeing” culture to: 

“Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face.” 

What Tyson was trying to articulate was that, “It’s how you react to that adversity that defines you, not the adversity itself”. –Source

He went on to say: 

“If you’re good and your plan is working, somewhere during the duration of that, the outcome of that event you’re involved in, you’re going to get the wrath, the bad end of the stick. Let’s see how you deal with it. Normally people don’t deal with it that well.” – Source

In the context of business imagine the opponent a conventional enterprise faces today is the “Modern Market Place”. The Modern Market Place is a streamlined data connectivity hub. Assimilating and processing data points from billions of hyper connected devices, which are always on, and always transmitting, at lightning speeds. It is chaotic, unpredictable, and monstrous in stature. A worthy adversary, and one that is putting conventional businesses out of business. 

Why? 

Gut instinct, brute force, and manual effort alone cannot match the size, speed, and complexity at which the Modern Market Place operates. A Modern business needs instruments and tools that can enhance, validate, and expedite our decision optimization process as quickly as the market shifts and moves. 

Tyson’s anticipation of where his opponent would be, and where the next shot was coming from, allowed him to adapt and counter with great success. It is the same for business. If we cannot anticipate where the market shifts are coming from, we are behind the movement, and compromised in our ability to adapt. The lights are now out, and you have no idea what just happened.

The President 

President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower referenced a key lesson he learned in military strategy: 

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything,” he said he had heard in the Army. "In an emergency, the first thing to do is to take all the plans off the top shelf and throw them out the window."

He continued, "There is a very great distinction because when you are planning for an emergency you must start with this one thing: the very definition of “emergency” is that it is unexpected, therefore it is not going to happen the way you are planning."

 To summarize - The details of a plan which was designed years in advance are often incorrect, but the planning process demands the thorough exploration of options and contingencies. The knowledge gained during this probing is crucial to the selection of appropriate actions as future events unfold. - Source (cred:quoteinvestigator.com)

President Eisenhower’s statement rings true for any business today. When adversity strikes, we need to be able to respond with intelligence, accuracy, precision, and speed. Any business caught in lengthy, manual, month end / quarter end / year end data consolidation processes knows how greatly these qualities can suffer. When we are focused purely on hindsight (the plan), we cannot process or run scenarios (planning) to validate what actions we need to take. More importantly we need to answer: "Of the actions available to us, which scenarios have the highest yield of efficacy?

Eisenhower went on to say: 

“But if you haven’t been planning you can’t start to work, intelligently at least.” – Source

Planning also needs to be a continuous exercise in efficiency and effectiveness, a diligence that must happen in real time in today’s world. This is incredibly difficult and cumbersome if you haven’t adopted the right innovation, mindset, and methodology. For a modern enterprise to respond intelligently in today’s Modern Market Place, we need to look to innovation within analytics, data sciences, and machine learning. Through analytics, we can validate instincts and optimize our decision-making process with greater speed, intelligence, and accuracy. Answering: 

• Planning analytics: What is our plan?
• Descriptive analytics: What happened?
• Diagnostic analytics: Why did it happen?
• Predictive analytics: What will happen next?
• Prescriptive analytics: What should be done about it?

Source

In summary:

Both men argued that advantage and victory lay within the ability to dynamically shift a course of action (or Plan) under duress and unfavorable circumstance, into favorable circumstance. To be agile and adaptable in the face of adversity. To fail fast, learn why, adjust and counter intelligently, in order to gain opportunistic favor.  

On today’s modern battlefield, the enterprises that cannot operate with a high degree of speed, agility, and foresight in their strategic planning are outmatched and outgunned.  

Now Ask yourself: 

1. Do we consider and treat our data like an asset?
2. Are we stuck on a plan (hindsight)? Or are we continuously planning (foresight)? 
3. If we are planning, is there an opportunity to increase the speed, agility, and effectiveness of the process? 
4. What data, if converted to insight, could contribute to meeting business objectives and requirements?
5. Is there a better way to convert our data to insight, and insight into actionable plans? And can it be easier? 

The answers should lead you to consideration, adoption of, or realignment in planning programs and capabilities for your enterprise. We all have the same opportunity to excel and succeed in the Modern Market Place with innovation that is tried, tested, proven, and readily available to us.

Innovation through analytics is the knockout advantage that every President has been looking for. 

 About the Author

Rus Reuser is a business strategy consultant, entrepreneur, business owner, and sales & marketing executive. His passion and belief in innovation and continuous improvement, is the ethos of his consultative approach to business enablement. Native to Calgary Alberta, he embodies an active lifestyle, and can be found pursuing a multitude of adventure sports and activities in the Rocky Mountains. 

LinkedIN: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/rus-reuser-1226811b/