Why Strategic Plans Do Fail

Over the years, I’ve met many wonderful executives in my speaking and the simplified strategic planning seminar.  I’m sad and perplexed when the CEO leaves the seminar inspired to do great strategic planning – and then falters.  While some companies find difficulty in completing the first cycle, their process often falters after successfully completing the […]

Why Strategic Planning?

Strategy Planning Is Messy

“Strategy planning is messy” declared one CEO as a team member expressed a desire for a more linear approach.  The team member was frustrated, because he couldn’t see the end game. The CEO went on to say, “It’s okay that it is messy.  We have to consider many alternatives and new information before we funnel […]

Make Strategic Planning Happen

What will make strategic planning happen and keep people from getting mired in non-strategic activities?  Even at the top of organizations, strategic planning seems to take a back seat.  Like any other critical management activity, companies must do strategic planning routinely and not postpone it.  Today, I’d like to look at how to make strategic […]

Finding Strategic Issues that Lead to an Actionable Strategy

Finding Strategic Issues that the team must resolve to produce an actionable Strategy is key in Simplified Strategic Planning We find Strategic Issues with multiple diagnostic exercises.  One is an exercise we call “Winner’s Profile”. We do it for a couple of reasons. One is to help visualize what the future leader in your industry […]

Teamwork: Smart People and Buy-in

Is your company full of smart, passionate people, who have strong ideas about your business? Do they have trouble agreeing on a strategy and sticking to it? The problem is pretty simple:  many smart people are used to being the smartest person in the room.  Consequently, they are often rewarded for ignoring the ideas of […]