Robust Strategic Planning  to Disciplined Strategy Implementation 

Sink Strategy Before It Sinks Us

Corporate world around the globe has spent trillions of dollars producing business failures. Most of the business failures could have been prevented or minimized if the top management tried to do a few things

1. Ensure a robust strategic planning process

2. Try to rubbish the strategy before they agreed to implement it

3. Looked at  learning from pilots before full scale rollout

4. Set up  early warnings during strategy execution  to course-correct or alter strategy

5. Kill a strategy ruthlessly in case it fails to deliver. 

However executives shudder at the word 'failure' and are shockingly over-confident about the robustness of their plans and the inevitability  of their vision. 

Strategy Gone Wrong

 Licence to Kill a Bad Strategy.

Half Truths About Customer Used in Strategy Development

What's wrong with Strategy ?

Hidden Flaws in Strategy : Business world remains littered with examples of bad strategies. Why? What makes chief executives back them when so much know-how is available? Flawed analysis, excessive ambition, greed, and other corporate vices are possible causes

Flaws in strategic decision making: McKinsey Global Survey Results :Irrational thinking doesn’t just affect individual economic decisions; it affects corporate strategic planning as well.

How much you know VS. Should be knowing:When Gut Feel is not Enough

Need for a new approach to strategy :Past 20 years have seen a wider range of business environments emerge than ever before. No single strategy prescription can be appropriate in each of them.

Distortions and deceptions in strategic decisions:Companies are vulnerable to misconceptions, biases, and plain old lies. But not hopelessly vulnerable.

Best practice does not equal best strategy; Benchmarking is an important way to improve operational efficiency, but it is not a tool for strategic decision making

Micheal Porter on Why Good Managers Make Bad Strategies in a Wharton Article

What's Wrong with Planning Process? 

What really drives strategy planning :For better or worse, why do so many companies veer off their strategic plan? Look for a disconnect between strategy and how resources are allocated

Strategic Planning Delusion: Being aware of the above dangers, which can emerge in strategic planning sessions, helps executives reach higher summits in real strategic thinking; and not get deluded into tactical distractions

Improving Strategic Planning - A McKinsey Survey of Business Executives on Improvement Areas on Strategic Planning objectives ,process and results

Why Traditional Strategic Planning Sucks and Best Practices Are for Idiots!

Rethinking Strategic Planning : Pitfalls & Fallacies by  Henry Mintzberg

How to improve strategic planning? : McKinsey article emphasizing that it can be a frustrating exercise but there can be ways to increase its value

Tired of Strategic Planning ? :Many companies get little value from their annual strategic-planning process.

Encouraging Dissent in Decision Making : One of the primary reasons why nobody questions a strategy  is that organizations do not actively encourage dissent

Flaws in Strategic Decision Making : A McKinsey Paper

Is your Strategy Executable ? 

Brilliant Strategy but can you execute it ? McKinsey article on way to assess the fit between corporate strategy and corporate strengths

Role of Strategy Execution Team - Be a Devil's Advocate, Bad News Messenger

Is it me or my business design ?Globalization and complexity have made it tough to untangle whether your greatest leverage lies in strategy or execution

Strategic Planning Redux :But this time linked to funding and everyday execution