Cybersecurity for Executives: A Practical Guide

5.0PLAN FOR SUCCESS

Successful generals make plans to fit circumstances, but do not try to create circumstances to fit plans¹

General George S. Patton Jr.

5.1 TURNING VISION INTO REALITY

Herb Kelleher, the visionary Chairman Emeritus of Southwest Airlines, is oft-quoted saying, “We have a strategic plan. It’s called doing things.”²

Do you have a plan to “do things”?

You ought to. One of the principal responsibilities of an executive is to plan and execute activities that drive your organization to success. If you don’t have a plan or are not vigorously executing your plan, you aren’t “doing.”

Having a plan is critical. How many times have you worked with or for people who don’t have a plan and fly by the seat of their pants? Were they successful? If they were, could they sustain that success? We submit that those who don’t have a plan are destined to “crash and burn” and often take others down with them. To paraphrase the Boy Scouts and Herb Kelleher, “Be prepared”; have a plan and do things!

What’s the worst that could happen if you don’t have a plan or have one that is failing?

Perhaps we can ask the executives at America Online.

In 2000, America Online purchased Time Warner for US $164 billion in what was the biggest corporate purchase of all time. The strategy behind the merger of the two media giants was sound: America Online would leverage Time Warner’s extensive high-speed cable system to bring its product to as many as 130 million new subscribers, and Time Warner ...