HBR Guide to Setting Your Strategy

CHAPTER 3

Your Strategic Plans Probably Aren’t Strategic, or Even Plans

by Graham Kenny

It happens all the time: A group of managers get together at a resort for two days to hammer out a “strategic plan.” Done and dusted, they all head home. But have they produced a plan with a strategy?

At the start of my public seminars on strategic planning I ask attendees, who rank from board members and CEOs to middle management, to write down an example of a strategy on a sheet of paper. They look at me quizzically at first as they realize that this is a tough assignment. I reassure them that this is indeed a hard question, and they plow ahead.

The results are always astonishing to me and them. Here are some of the responses from the list I received at ...