The Big Lie of Strategic Planning

This HBR webinar, presented by Roger Martin - Martin Prosperity Institute, brings a refreshing look at strategic planning and reveals how the typical strategic plan is just not very useful. Companies often fall into "comfort traps" that rely on heavy analysis of historical information to produce future projections. Thinking the future will be the same as the past is delusional.

Martin emphasizes that strategy should be simple, and provides three rules for strategy development:

• Rule #1 - Strategy is about a few key choices (5 choices written on one page)

• Rule #2 - Strategy is not about perfection (Its a combination of Rigor surrounding things as they are, and Creativity surrounding things that can be other than they are.)

• Rule #3 - Make your strategic logic explicit (What needs to be true for the strategy to work?)

The five key choices in strategy include:

1. What is our winning aspiration?

2. Where will we play?

3. How will we win?

4. What capabilities must we have?

5. What management systems are required?

Each strategic initiative should be tested against the value proposition surrounding "where you will play" and "how you will win". Obsessing over cost versus the value you are creating is a huge error.

Finally, the goal in strategy is simplicity and clarity. If the situation looks complex, your not done with strategy. Make it "Sesame Street simple".

You can download the slides for this webinar on our Download page. You can also get Martins HBR article on the subject here.

Enjoy!