Strategic Discipline Blog

If you’ve already completed your Annual Planning & Strategy Meeting for 2019, congratulations!

Read More

Topics: Annual Plan, Strategic Learning, Strategic Planning, Strategic Learning Cycle, Strategy vs. Planning

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

Read More

Topics: Strategic Planning, 3-5 year plan, OUTTHINK THE COMPETITION, Outthinker Process, Event or Process, Simon Sinek

Sports figures often make a lot of money speaking to businesses about their achievements, the work, preparation and dedication to get there.

Read More

Topics: planning, Strategic Planning, preparation, Art of War, Super Bowl LII

Trends continue to impact every business.

Read More

Topics: strategy, Strategic Planning, strategy decisions, OUTTHINK THE COMPETITION

The following blog was published on March 9^th of 2015.  I’m on vacation this week. With the first quarter of 2017 ending, I thought it a good time to remind you of the importance of quarterly planning and the value Annual planning provides for this. 

Read More

Topics: quarterly meetings, Annual Plan, Strategic Planning, quarterly plan, eNPS

What’s your Strategy?

Read More

Topics: strategy, Strategic Planning, Strategy Statement, strategy decisions

If you’ve been to the gas station recently you’ve noticed the plunge in gas prices.  It’s a trend in recent months and it illustrates and important strategy and planning benchmark that your business should be doing on an annual basis, and possibly more frequently depending how fasting you are growing compared to your industry.

Read More

Topics: Business Growth, Annual Plan, leadership, strategy, Strategic Planning, Leadership Team, SWOT, Prediction, SWT, Forecast

Nature generates variations through a massive and ceaseless set of experiments.  Mutations test a wide range of survival strategies.

Read More

Topics: strategy, Strategic Learning, Strategic Planning

Twelve tired, sweat covered young men shuffle through the hall toward a classroom.  Each chooses a desk to sit in, plops themselves down for an unexpected respite from a grueling first week of basketball practice.  The group looks around, engages in small talk, with one team member shouting out, “Wick, do you know what this is about?”  I shrug my shoulders.  It’s a first time experience for me as well as the rest of the team.  Shortly thereafter, the new head coach enters his biology classroom where the boys have taken up temporary residence.  Coach Belke strikes a commanding appearance.  He’s about 6’2” with a barrel chest, large thick forearms, and looks every bit like the man who supposedly had a try-out with the Chicago Bears.  Immediately the room falls silent, such is the presence he dictates.  While Coach Belke has coached football and basketball before at Princeton High School, it’s been nearly a decade since he’s done either. He volunteered to take on the task of coaching basketball this year when our coach of the past three years unexpectedly left for a better teaching position. After years of dismal sports performances, this team is expected to do well.  Our sophomore year our team won the first game a Princeton basketball team had won after 37 consecutive losses.   The following year (our junior season) our team finished 13-6, 3^rd place in the conference.  Expectations are high.

Read More

Topics: planning, Annual Plan, strategy, Strategic Planning, Vision

In 2012: Planning or Strategy we discussed the distinction between planning and strategy.  While many companies struggle to execute their plans, the reality is most companies fail not due to execution, rather due to poor decisions. 

Read More

Topics: One Thing, Annual Plan, Four Decisions, strategy, Strategic Planning