The Strategic plan

Traditional planning does not work. While strategic planning is crucial for value creation, in a highly dynamic and competitive commercial environment a traditional three or five year plan rapidly falls out of date within months. Particularly one that is in the form of a tome prepared by a small number of people who are ‘in the know’.

Traditional planning also hampers good decision-making. Managers are routinely forced by unanticipated dynamics to drop such plans and develop their own knee-jerk tactics on the fly and without considered analysis. And as a company grows, the harder it is to get everybody on the same page.

A strategic process is required so that strategic decision-making is not confined to annual strategic planning events. A process that is flexible and dynamic with tools such as the One-Page Strategic Plan to dispense with the sluggish traditional tome called the strategic plan.

The One-Page Strategic Plan has been proven to enable the pursuit of aggressive yet highly pragmatic strategies with a higher chance of achievement. The supporting key performance indicators and critical numbers included enable better informed decision-making. It also enables managers to act as ‘walking articulators’ of a living plan to ensure the whole company is on the same page all the time.