Early indicators are very popular in the business world. People normally like them because they see a lot of advantages, such as

Early indicators are perceived to provide some objectivity to otherwise fuzzy planning and forecasting processes.
They are most often based on external data, ideally from an institution with a very high reputation. That adds even […]

Traditionally strategic planning has been recognized as very important activity to the effective management of the firm. However, according to some recent surveys (from 2006 and 2007), which are related to the organizational practice of strategic planning, “some” survey participants were not satisfied fully with the process or outcome.
Hence I would like to select some […]

A couple of days ago I received a question concerning an external growth strategy. The core of that question had three different parts. When might this strategy route be appropriate?  What are the conditions for an organization to consider this route and what forms of strategies are applicable once the organization settles to take this […]

Last week I had written about some of my experiences with strategic planning meetings – the pro’s and con’s, what can go wrong and how to avoid some of the problems. However, the process is not over the moment the meeting ends and everybody leaves the room. Even if the meeting was considered a great […]

For all who are interested in issues of strategic planning I would like to recommend a new article from TheMcKinseyQuarterly. It is now available online without being a premium member of their web services.
Core statements are

Only 45 percent of survey respondents said that they were satisfied with their existing process for strategic planning
Only 23 percent […]

Strategic planning meetings are a very controversial thing. They have a bit of a reputation to be just another fancy management trend. I have to admit that I, too, have my doubts if all of these meetings are worth the efforts. My experience tells me that there is much truth in Brian Quinn’s famous quote:
“A […]

When you observe strategic planning processes in different organizations it is possible to find “closed shop” planning processes. In some cases only top manager “develop” the strategy, in other situations they are supported by specialised departments. Various sources in the academic literature have discussed and criticized the disadvantages of this approach.
But why is it so […]

In a former post I discussed whether companies have a strategy or not. So, we found out that there are some options that strategies might not exist in your organization and that for a very specific reason the absence of strategy could help the organization during a certain intermediate step. I have to stress “very […]

Sometimes during discussions I receive the question, whether there is a link between learning organizations, knowledge and strategic planning. My answer is “yes” and I would like to illustrate this matter a little bit more.
Before I start I have to define the term “learning organization”: In general the learning organization can be described as an organization […]