When I hear the words “strategic planning”, I think of a conference room or corner office rife with the posturing of egos and the regurgitation of the latest Harvard Business Review article on the subject. Theory and practice are often mutually exclusive when it comes to strategic planning. I’ve rarely experienced strategic plans that survive the first contact with reality – and reality is defined by the client. Today’s sales dynamic is evolving. Information now resides at the fingertip of a prospect. The sales person no longer holds the secret of arcane mystery – otherwise known as knowledge. Today we are collaborators, co-conspirators and transparent purveyors of services that foster and enhance the client’s business design – or we are redundant. Redundancy is followed by obsolescence.
Today we are collaborators, co-conspirators and transparent purveyors of services that foster and enhance the client’s business design – or we are redundant.
Long-term thinking is a strategic map to the future. It is a map that includes bridges to the “next” – those landmark features, essential to the continuation of the journey. In some cases, it is a strategic call to action that comes alive through tactics played out today – tactics that support and sustain the corporate vision. Long-term thinking often has short-term implications. Business today changes tomorrow. We must be fluid, able to adapt – to assess and address threats on the horizon and find the opportunities that exists on the other side of risk.
We may think long-term, but we must act in the short-term. It is the strategies and tactics we implement today that make a difference tomorrow. As a point of caution, strategic thinking can be “leadership-speak” or a box checked by management that makes us feel and believe that we have direction, a plan and a way. Often, all we have is a piece of paper. If we don’t tie our long-term aspirations to short-term result, our plan isn’t worth the paper it’s scribbled on. To turn strategic plan from wishful fantasy to fluid map forward, “Think Next and Act Now!”
