| Case
Studies /
Strategic Planning –
A Cautionary Tale
>>
Return to case
study listings.
This story is
about one of the reasons why I am better at what I do today –
I was burned, and I learned.
I was responsible
for business planning that year. I made several attempts at scheduling
workshops for the executive team, occasionally they had actually
been convened, but the CEO had immediately hijacked the meeting
to discuss operational issues. That was the culture, the CEO was
from an operational background, he liked to manage by crisis, he
was good at it, and he was not really interested in strategy.
So eventually
the Board of Directors wanted to know what the strategic plan was.
By this point
I had developed some ideas of my own because but no one else was
interested, because the CEO was not. I had a product/market matrix
I had developed, it was the basis for deciding what the company
should, and should not, be in, and there were some glaringly obvious
changes needing to be agreed. I had developed a corporate strategy.
I thought I had the answers.
So over several
weeks, leading up to a workshop at which a couple of board members
were to attend, I gradually extended a PowerPoint presentation into
a strategic plan of about 15 pages, and I distributed it to the
workshop attendees a few days in advance for them to look through.
When we reached
the strategic plan on the agenda I made a few comments about what
I had done and referred everyone to the presentation to take them
through it. Immediately one of the Board members condemned the document
as too long, ‘a business strategy should be no more than two
pages’
Of course he
had a point, but I was so dumbfounded by the attack that I failed
to point out that the strategy was on two pages, pages 6 and 7 to
be exact, and the rest was background and high levels plans, after
all the document was called ‘Strategic Plan’, not just
‘Business Strategy’. But he had not gone past page 1.
Everyone else
gawped, I retreated in embarrassment.
Afterwards the
other board member said ‘Sorry, Mate’ and the CEO said
something similar, but I heard over the next few days my reputation
had been tarnished.
That was the
day I probably really learned what it really was to be a consultant.
I had not consulted and I had made the presentation too complicated
for busy people. I have seen other highly regarded consultants make
the same mistake (one at a strategy meeting, just like me) –
‘the client is not listening so I will be clever and provide
all the answers, in detail’. You only do that if you are explicitly
asked. You may have all the answers, but that means nothing if you
do not have buy-in. Draw a line, tell the client if he wants a result
he must be involved, if not you cannot deliver.
I have never
made that mistake again.
And by the way,
if you’re a business leader, do not hold someone else accountable
for what you do not like doing, and then let them fail because you
do not support them.
>>
For any questions or further information on this case study please
contact us.
>>
Return to case study listings.
top
|
home
contact
us
