We say that preparation is 90% of success. Strategy planning is the most important element of preparation in business. Decisions made here create the domino effect for everything that follows and are the central influence our ability to secure the future.
The following questions are designed to prompt reflection on the influence strategy has on the way your business operates:
- Who creates your strategy?
- Where is it?
- What does it look like?
- How would you get your hands on it?
- What can you do with it once it is in your hands?
- Who uses it and how often?
- How do you differentiate your strategy from your business plan?
- When is it communicated?
- What are the channels and media used?
- Which levels of the organization have a strategic view?
- Which measurements directly reflect strategy in action?
- How does leadership use strategy to influence management?
- How many of your day-to-day decisions are informed by the strategy?
A 2010 survey at McKinsey highlighted senior executive concern over unclear strategy and conflicting objectives in their organizations. Findings revealed challenges around confidently making decisions, effectively allocating resources and communicating clear direction.
Consulting our strategy is like checking the bearings on our business compass. It should be part of our corporate discipline and treated as the basis for securing the future.
2012 is an Olympics year. Every competitor will have trained hard, worked on their mental fortitude and made sacrifices. The gold medalists will separate themselves by a millisecond, a centimeter, a point. Such are the fine margins of victory. Where will those victories be won? In the preparation.