Strategic Planning Kit For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Not Having a Plan Is Too Risky

If organizations fail to anticipate or prepare for fundamental changes, they may lose valuable lead time and momentum to combat them when they do occur. These fundamental elements of business are customer expectations, employee morale, regulatory requirements, competitive pressures, and economic changes, and they're always in flux. Many times businesses achieve a level of success and then stall. Strategic planning helps you avoid the stall and get off the plateau you find yourself on.

Accidental success is dangerous. Succeeding without a plan is possible, and plenty of examples exist of businesses that have achieved financial success without a plan. If you're one of them, consider yourself lucky, but ask this question: “Could we have grown and become even more successful if we'd organized a little better?” I'm willing to bet your answer is yes.

Another danger is that the lack of a strategic plan negatively impacts the attitude of an organization's team. Employees who see aimlessness within an organization have no sense of a greater purpose. People need a reason to come to work everyday (besides the paycheck). Lack of direction results in morale problems because, as far as your employees are concerned, the future is uncertain, unpredictable, and out of control. These depressing conclusions can only be seen as a threat to employment, which negatively impacts productivity.

To avoid these dangers, you need to get rid of the naysayers (including possibly ...