It is difficult to put resources into strategic planning when faced with a difficult business environment. When everyone is running faster just to meet their end of year goals, it is hard to justify pulling senior decision-makers out of the game to spend time on long-term planning.
The strategic checkup with implementation follow through is a great option. This is the two minute drill of strategic planning. Find a single day (perhaps on a weekend) and gather your key decision makers together for a disciplined look at the next 1, 3, or 5 years. The trick is to keep it short but commit to the follow through. Too many off-site planning sessions become wasted time after the fact when nothing ever comes of the ideas. At DSI, we offer a process to keep the off-site meeting on task and interesting but we also have the expertise to help you design the implementation once the decision makers go back to their jobs putting out fires.
In the following video, John Austin describes how a strategic check-up can be an ideal approach to corporate planning during economic downturns.
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December 10th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
This post is a very rigourous and academically challenging piece. With a highly uncertain future, every business needs to brace itself with the power of flexibility to withstand whats about to hit it (be it a threat or an opportunity)