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The Pledge

Put your hand over your heart and repeat after me:

“I will never do something stupid.”

Go ahead, trust me.

“I will never do something stupid because of something written on a sheet of paper.”

This book, and the strategic plans you develop based on its concepts, are tools to enhance focus and communications. They are not a license to do stupid things.

This is a pledge that I have every member of every planning team take when we are working to define their strategy. Strategy is the collective set of answers to the questions about what we want the future to look like, why, and how to make it happen. Effective strategy requires specifics, such as these examples:

Grow revenue to $25 million within five years.

Identify and grow a new market to account for at least 10 percent of revenue.

Reduce dependence on our largest customer to under 25 percent.

Executives are typically unwilling to volunteer specific numbers, based on concerns that doing so will contribute to their team making stupid decisions in the future, such as:

Allowing managers to use planning numbers as clubs to beat them with,

Not adjusting to new information and changes in the environment, or

Missing serendipitous opportunities.

This pledge, and utilizing the processes of strategic planning that incorporate ongoing adjustment, frees you to develop, implement, and manage the right strategies for your company’s success.