Another victim of the recession: The Grand Plan
January 25 Wall Street Journal includes a fascinating article titled, “Strategic Plans Lose Favor.” The article describes how Office Depot, Spartan Motors, Utilimaster and J.C. Penney adapted their strategic plans to the realities of a harsh, recessionary marketplace. According to the article, leaders of these firms began monitoring performance against plan more frequently, and made “just-in-time” decisions to respond to new threats and opportunities in the market. Walter Shill of Accenture is quoted in the article as stating, “Strategy, as we knew it, is dead. Corporate clients decided that increased flexibility and accelerated decision making are much more important than simply predicting the future.” This could be, as the saying goes, a good thing. Perhaps some good will come from this recession after all.
Health Care Reform – A Failure to Adapt
The Obama-Reid-Pelosi health care plan has passed, but in November the Democratic party may view this as a Pyrrhic victory. This is not a total disaster – it can always serve as an example of how not to approach a major change initiative. Here are some lessons that can be applied to business:
- If you feel an urge to boil the ocean, take some aspirin and lie down until the feeling goes away
- If the feeling does not go away, consider boiling only a gallon or so at a time
- If you have an advisor who tells you that only you have the charm and intelligence to boil the ocean, fire that advisor
- If most of your customers do not want you to boil their ocean, find out what THEY would like for you to do for them
- Avoid the temptation to tell your customers that boiling their ocean is really in their best interest (if only they were smart enough to understand)
To quote Rahm Immanuel, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” If the Obama administration fails to learn from this disaster, at least we can.
Values – Aspiration vs. Reality
The Values section of business plans commonly mention customer focus and respect for others. Unfortunately, it is a bit less common to see these values at work in the organizations. Why is there such a difference between the plan and reality? All too often, the values statements in the business plan are not consulted when making day-to-day staffing decisions. Who is promoted, who is hired, and who is terminated? The result of these decisions is commonly a management team that falls considerably short of the aspirations stated in the business plan.
Reflect on the attitudes and aptitudes of the key members of your management team, and consider the following:
- Are they noted for their technical expertise rather than their understanding of the business or customers?
- Do they employ distrustful or contemptuous language when describing their interactions with customers or colleagues?
- Do they complain when customers change plans or priorities?
- Do they excessively control the flow of information between their team members and the customer?
- Would you characterize their personality as fault-finding rather than problem- solving?
- Are they verbally abusive to those who report to them?
Decisions made in promoting people to leadership positions should be consistent with the strategic plans. Otherwise, the entire organization will conclude that the plans are “merely words” and not to be taken seriously.
