Summary:
Buying an established and profitable business without a strategic plan and seeing it go south is not bad luck, it’s the result of not being prepared. This is exactly what happened to a gentleman after he bought an established business. Right after the purchase, two key employees left and several long-time customers went elsewhere as their loyalty was to the previous owner, not the new owner. Profits plunged and now the owner is working hard just to keep the doors open.
The new owner never stopped and asked “What would happen to the business if a key employee left or if long-time customers left for lack of loyalty to new owners?” In fact, he didn’t have any plan and thought he could walk in and everything would run smoothly.
If you want luck, then make it part of your action plan. Commit your goals to writing. Work your action plan, plan your work. Then see all of the luck come your way – or if you want, believe that you have been lucky.
Article Quote:
“Simply speaking, the failure to plan is planned failure. Without an action plan to begin to guide a business or even an individual, the end result is usually walking down the wrong path along with a lot of spraying and praying going on.”
Link: http://strategicplanning.doodig.com/2010/02/15/strategic-planning-tip-bad-luck-is-the-result-of-not-planning/
An old quote states: “Good luck happens when preparedness meets opportunity.” Strategic planning consists of knowing your market, your organizational structure, purpose and vision, company strengths and weaknesses, and knowing where you want to the company to be in the future. Action is taking that distant future goal, breaking it down into actionable tasks that can be measured, and incorporating those tasks into daily operations.
For more on strategic planning, see http://www.performancesolutionstech.com/category/strategicplanning/
Summary:
Strategy planning is important but needs to be met with action in the real world if the strategy is to move from fantasy to reality. Dealing with reality requires the ability to cope with the facts instead of ignoring them from a twenty-thousand foot point of view. An example of this is what happened inside the Toyota company. Toyota executives had knowledge of fatal crashes involving their automobiles back in 2007, yet customers had to wait until February 2010 for Toyota to finally announced a full recall of over 8.5 million vehicles.
The problems of fatal crashes in other countries were not immediately important to the executives of Toyota. The planning process involved consensus in Japan rather than consensus worldwide. They were busy too looking at the big picture at a distance to see the detail that mattered.
Article Quote:
“Strategy isn’t always wrong. It can be extremely valuable. Planning doesn’t always fail. And it is certainly necessary. Yet overconfidence in the power of strategic planning has led to financial crisis, to botched and illegal wars, to missed opportunities in business, politics, sports, and life.”
Link: http://www.management-issues.com/2010/2/15/opinion/strategy-is-fantasy–action-is-real.asp
Strategic planning can be considered a fantasy because it looks to an unknown future and makes predictions about how it will unfold. Keeping the focus of the strategic plan on the core business values; in Toyota’s case that would be to design and manufacture dependable cars, will keep your company from trying to be everything to everyone.
Toyota became the largest car manufacturer in the world in 2009, in part because they wanted to make cars and trucks for each class of consumer. By changing the focus from dependability to ‘be everything to everyone’, Toyota’s quality controls were compromised.
Faulty parts were installed in their vehicles and when the fatal crashes were brought to Toyota’s attention, nothing was done to correct the problem. Nothing, until a widely publicized crash in California brought the problem right to Toyota’s front steps.
For more on strategic planning, see http://www.performancesolutionstech.com/category/strategicplanning/