by Robert Bradford | Jun 27, 2026 | Strategic Planning
By Robert W. Bradford, CEO of the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, Inc. Many of our clients have found themselves considering acquisitions in this time of uncertainty. In this coming series of articles, we will discuss the process of acquisition screening and...
by Robert Bradford | Sep 16, 2024 | Uncategorized
This article is the third in a series about simplifying strategic planning to make the process faster. The key idea is to focus only on the parts of the process that provide real value. While strategy itself is critical, not every part of the process is equally...
by Robert Bradford | Sep 13, 2024 | Uncategorized
This is the second in a series of three articles about ways you can do your strategic planning faster. The first article discussed limiting the number of market segments you analyze to reduce the time needed for planning. Today, we will examine limiting the size of...
by Robert Bradford | Sep 3, 2024 | Uncategorized
Why should you want to do strategic planning faster? Simply put, the time spent planning is time taken away from other activities. In addition, if you use a facilitator or consultant, a shorter engagement will cost you less. Some companies skip planning entirely to...
by Robert Bradford | May 28, 2024 | Strategic Planning, Strategic Thinking
It’s not unusual, in strategic planning, to hear a team member say an issue is “just an operational issue”. In many cases, this may be correct – lots of operational issues don’t belong in your strategy discussions. In other cases, how your operation works can be...
by Robert Bradford | Mar 28, 2024 | Uncategorized
Sometimes executives I work with overlook culture as an important strategic building block of success. It may be that they see it as nonsense, and it may be they don’t see any return on the long and sometimes patient investment required to see results. But culture...
by Robert Bradford | Feb 28, 2024 | Making predictions, Strategic Planning
In my last two posts, I discussed two of the three things that people get wrong in strategic planning: information and buy-in. Today, I’ll be discussing the third thing: sources and estimates. Data Sources As I mentioned in a previous post, people tend to want to...
by Robert Bradford | Feb 12, 2024 | Uncategorized
In my last post, I discussed the issues around information that people encounter in their strategic planning. This week, I’ll be discussing how people can run into strategic planning trouble with buy-in. Buy-in Buy-in is a way of describing the emotional attachment...
by Robert Bradford | Feb 6, 2024 | Uncategorized
Most people I encounter in business tell me they do strategic planning. When they describe their process, however, I can quickly identify key issues they will have with their planning and how to address it with a few key questions (or thought processes). Let me share...
by Robert Bradford | Oct 10, 2023 | Strategic Planning
Sometimes it seems there are just two views of strategic planning: it’s either a one or two-day retreat, or it’s an all-consuming, constant exercise. The “strategy light” version – a one or two-day retreat, seems super practical, while the “heavy strategy” version –...
by Robert Bradford | Dec 30, 2022 | Making predictions, Strategic Planning
New technologies follow a fairly well-understood “curve”. We can think of these curves in terms of profitability, but this is oversimplifying things. Much of the thinking about technology curves in the business world comes from the work of Nikolai Kondratiev in the...
by Robert Bradford | Nov 9, 2022 | Strategy Implementation
This is one of the toughest questions to answer for most people who do strategic planning. The average company that does strategic planning typically achieves only 30% of their objectives. Since your strategic objectives represent the highest priority initiatives in...
