December 11, 2009

Be Good at Anticipating but Brilliant at Reacting

Business Strategy 101 gives us many tools and techniques to build the perfect plan. It offers structure in the SWOT process. It provides analysis in demand and forecasting models. It provides decision-making frameworks to assess the merits of various alternatives. BS101 is a mature discipline that has definitely helped organizations chart a course for their future.

Having said that, I have two issues with it. First, my 33 years experience in leading numerous businesses as a senior executive is that BS101 is far too complicated; too expensive; too time consuming in relation to the benefits realized and it raises the false expectaion that the strategy will actually work as planned in a world full of rapid change and unpleasant surprises. I covered this in an earlier blog The BE DiFFERENT Planning Process. If the essence of the strategy can’t be counted on to succeed why don’t we simplify the planning process so that it is not overly onerous and complicated? So that it is expedient and not costly?

I am a very practical person who has seen the folly of relying exclusively on BS101. I advocate an alternative that has been road tested in the real world. Dumb down the strategy building process, get your plan ‘just about right’ and execute it better than your competitors.

The second issue I have with BS101 is that it says virtually nothing about what I call the Principle of Reaction. This Principle reflects that successful Companies are brilliant at reacting to surprise events they did not anticipate and those that are unable to adapt struggle and die. Something Darwinian about it! How many strategies have you seen unfold the way you originally planned it? I have seen none; it is the Impossible Dream! The Principle of Reaction is the essence of the BE DiFFERENT Practice of Planning on the Run: Plan - Execute - Learn - REACT (Adjust) -Go Back to Execute.

The essentials of being a Great Reactor:
- Keep the strategy buiding process simple
- Get to the GUT issues you are facing
- Plot a course of action
- Execute flawlessly
- Learn what works and what doesn’t
- React to your results and adjust your directin
- Execute again

Cheers, Roy Osing
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Related Blogs
Beware of Benchmarking
BE DiFFERENT Planning Procss
Change Leadership
Roy’s Rule of Three
Strategy Hawk
Plan on the Run
Cut the Crap
The Only Statement
Role of Your Strategy Document 
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Avoid Aspirational Intent

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Posted 12.11.09 at 02:23 pm by Roy Osing | Read Comments (0) | Leave a Comment