A strategic plan is really a marketing brochure
Can you connect the dots between these three vignettes?
Something a little different for you this week.
#1 - a half-remembered story I once heard
A young analyst fresh out of college joined a consulting team working with a big corporation. A Vice President had them crunching numbers for a project to build a new, state-of-the-art mega-factory.
The consultants were tasked with calculating the long-term profits the company would make from investing in this new facility.
But the young analyst, familiar with statistics and risk, saw a problem. They couldn’t know that it would make a profit. There was a good chance the project would be a disaster.
He raised his hand and pointed this out, but everyone ignored him.
He tried again, but nobody seemed to understand what he was saying.
The third time he opened his mouth, the Vice President pulled him to one side.
“Son, do you think I’m a fool? Do you think I don’t know the project might fail? Do you think I hired you, just out of college, to tell me the obvious?”
“Er, I guess not … but why is nobody talking about it though?”
“I didn’t hire your company to tell me what I already know. I hired your company because you’re a respected consultancy, and when you predict profits for my project, it carries weight. I need this big flagship project to go forward and make my name here.”
“… but what about the risk to your name? What if it fails?”
“Construction will take at least 4 years, and then there’s a grace period while it gets going. So if this fails, nobody will be able to tell for 5 years, minimum. But I’m in the running for a major promotion in the next 2 years.”
“Oh … Oh I see.”
“Now he sees! My advice? Try not to make anyone say the quiet part out loud again.”
#2 - an anonymised amalgam of my coaching calls
“I’m having trouble understanding how to create a strategic ‘plan on paper’. I can see we’re going to need to learn as we go along, and adapt what we do, but the team say they want a normal strategic plan. You know, a detailed document that includes vision, goals, outcomes and priority areas.”
“Ah gotcha. Sounds like the challenge is to give them the strategic plan they want while also allowing for the adaptive strategy you know you’ll need. This ‘vision’ they want included – what does that look like?”
“Do you know, I don’t think there is a vision. I can’t seem to get one out of them anyway. When I ask my boss for goals, objectives, anything concrete, they just change the subject.”
“Mmm yes, well you don’t keep your job as an executive by putting your neck on the line for specific results. So just to check I understand – they’ve asked you to come up with a plan to achieve an objective, but they won’t tell you what that objective is?”
“That’s right, they want me to come up with it all. I mean they say they’ll help, but they don’t know where to start. Nor do I.”
“OK so they’re not actually asking you for a plan to get to an outcome. They’re asking you to sell them the dream. To tell them, ‘all these great outcomes can be yours, for just this low, low cost in resources and funding.’”
“But … I can’t guarantee the outcomes or know how much work it’s going to take.”
“No, but you don’t have to guarantee it, only tell them a believable, enticing story. Don’t worry, they know that it will end up being quite different – different work, different costs, different results.”
“Weeeell, OK but they’re going to have to choose an objective. I can’t give them every possibility. How can I get them to decide?”
“Have you ever wanted to go on holiday with others, but you didn’t have a destination already in mind? You probably looked at photos of many different destinations and compared travel logistics and prices. You knocked some choices out because they were out of your budget or too far away. Other locations just weren’t that attractive to people in your group. That’s a bit like where your execs are now. They’re trying to choose between so many different possible objectives their heads are spinning. They would like you to show them some options for what they could have at different price points. You’re their strategic travel agent. They’re hoping one of the options you’ll show them is a dream destination at an affordable price – that’s the kind of vision they can sell to the board of directors. Then they’ll need to know more of the nitty gritty details.”
“But … that’s not a strategic plan.”
“No, they called it a strategic plan. They’re asking for a marketing brochure.”
#3 deliberate vs emergent strategy
“The deliberate strategy is what we tell the shareholders. The emergent strategy is what we actually do.” – a Japanese CFO, as told to me by
.So tell me: what thoughts, connections or feelings did these vignettes stir in you?
Tom x
"My advice? Try not to make anyone say the quiet part out loud again.” Love it. Surely apocryphal that a mid-career exec would be quite so blunt but it's a beautifully told story and would explain a lot :)
I resonate completely with the strategy travel agent role!
The current gig has me helping senior leaders understand innovation and complex problem-solving. Of course, this requires some sort of strategy. An SVP told me to not bother looking very hard for such strategy, it’s pretty much locked up in the executive team’s heads.
I’ve learned we don’t have to start with the executive team when working on strategy. To paraphrase Deming, “ Start with the willing.” I’ve been helping any leader who raises their hand to create a more clear and compelling (often visual) strategy. When they realize strategy in complex systems is a collective function, they seem relieved, and often become “true believers.”😉