Is your strategy really a strategy?

What grade would you give your plan?

So, do you have a strategic plan, or an operating plan?  And if it is a strategic plan, is it based on real, current data?  Breakthrough Mmaster surveys of small businesses suggest that a fair number of smaller businesses aren’t really doing a strategic plan, but rather a one year operating plan. Just answer this question:  assuming you have completed a strategic growth plan in the last three years, what grade would you give it?  If you are like the 65% of companies who answered this question in our survey, you gave it a “B”.  A “B” is a popular grade as it implies a good job, but humbly suggests there is always room to improve.  Most of us like to believe we do a pretty good job at most things we do.  We like B’s.

Are you grading intent or outcome?

My next question would be if 65% of plans are “B”s, why do so many plans (70-90% depending on which study you believe) fail to be executed?  Is it possible we grade on intent or activities or hard work and not outcome?

Is your strategy a good strategy?

In fact, it was recently reported by McKinsey that of the top ten classic questions that reveal whether a company has a good strategy, 65% of the companies can answer yes to only three of them.  Only 10% of companies can check seven or more.  This suggests a disconnect between what we think is a good plan and having a breakthrough growth plan that generates results. These are the ten questions from McKinsey:

  1. Will your strategy beat the market?
  2. Is your strategy granular about where to compete?
  3. Does your strategy tap a true source of advantage?
  4. Does your strategy put you ahead of trends?
  5. Does your strategy rest on privileged insights?
  6. Does your strategy embrace uncertainty?
  7. Does your strategy balance commitment and flexibility?
  8. Is your strategy contaminated by bias?
  9. Is there conviction to act on your strategy?
  10. Have you translated your strategy into an action plan?

It’s results that matter

The point is this: the plan doesn’t matter, the results do.  Yet to get great results, we need an integrated, creative and actionable plan that keeps us and the entire leadership team focused on the outcome of breakthrough profitable growth.

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