You can see where the pandemic and other global disruptions have unraveled long-held assumptions. You pay attention: some of the things you thought were true have to be revised in line with what you are seeing in your industry, country and region. The same is true in strategic planning, an area in which you probably have some experience.
But what exactly has changed about the strategic planning process itself? A number of questions have arisen and you may want to get some of them answered such as:
- Should our company follow the same prior process of strategic planning? Will it yield similar results?
- What would a disruptive strategy look like? How are the steps to be followed different?
- Do we need a strategic planning retreat? Can’t the CEO write the plan herself?
- What incoming data do we need to increase the odds of success?
- What role does a facilitator/consultant play, if any?
- How far in the future should we look? With which techniques?
- Plus more…
For many organizations, the answers to these questions have shifted in the past two years. So has thinking about best practices.
The truth is that a poor strategy won’t drive your company out of business this month. But at some point in the future, it might do so with amazing speed as competitors shift, customers mature and suppliers extract more value fur to shortages.
I (Francis Wade) have been exploring this rapid change in expert thinking in my bi-weekly Gleaner column. Spend some time going back to read them, if you will.
But I am only scratching the surface