Greetings! John L. Beckley wrote the often quoted wisdom that "Most people don't plan to fail. They fail to plan." As much as CEOs know this - many lack sufficient plans - often with consequences that are both predictable and avoidable. Here are a few of the warning signs... 
If you've ever lain awake, staring at the ceiling worrying about the condition or future of your company.... it may be a good indication that you need a plan. Long time Vistage member and speaker Craig Kramers suggests that every company needs at very least a basic plan that makes clear your company's purpose and why customers buy (Peter Drucker wrote that the "purpose of business is to create and keep customers."), specific goals and strategies for fulfilling your purpose and attaining those goals. Apart from clearing your own head, a simple one-page business plan serves to get and keep employees focused and more productive. And if what you are wrestling with is change, either being forced upon you - or by virtue of opportunities that are emerging, developing a comprehensive strategic plan will, as Marc Emmer (a Vistage Member, and Speaker/Thought Leader) suggests, help you infiltrate and dominate those market opportunities. This will not only quiet the thoughts that race through your head at night - but also empower your employees to take productive action. I believe leadership is primarily about providing effective guidance to the people who rely on us for direction. The more effective we are at guiding people, the better we can lead. When marching around a room, playing "follow-the-leader" there is very little need to communicate a vision or much of anything at all. But when we expect that the people in our organization will work both together and independently to fulfill our mission, as the leader, you had better make certain there is a clear and shared sense of where the organization is headed. Every successful CEO I work with has a plan. One problem is that many of those plans exist solely in their heads. This poses several problems. First is that plans not committed to writing tend to become moving targets; constantly changing and evolving. Just as important, unwritten plans tend to be difficult to share - and typically are not effectively made clear or actionable to the organization. The biggest problem is the general lack of accountability surrounding plans that are not detailed and shared. Without a clear plan, it's easy to confuse activity with performance. High performing organizations don't have this problem. Action is purposeful, and progress is measurable. Goals and objectives that are clearly communicated and embraced throughout the organization become the foundation for a culture of accountability. When the level of accountability increases, so does the level of trust - and the ability to take the greater risks that are critical to problem solving and innovation. Proper and effective planning is the responsibility of the CEO and an organization's leadership. There are few things more confusing to an organization - or conceivably more dangerous than when a company's leadership mistakes issuing directives and calls for action with having a strategically sound plan. I have seen CEOs clearly articulate a compelling vision for their company - and then, instead of developing a clear plan for success, simply use directives set their employees in motion and wonder why they are not getting the intended results. I describe this as if sailing a fleet of boats in the middle of the ocean - and rather than charting a navigated course to a particular destination, suggesting that everyone should sail together towards the horizon. While this might seem to be a clear course - in fact it is not a plan at all - and will just as easily have you traveling in circles as it might have you traveling in the exact wrong direction. The objective is to avoid success being an accident.
Strategic planning is a bit more complicated. Developing a business plan mostly involves focusing on things you know about your company, while a strategic plan demands that your interrogate what you don't know - and focus on things outside of your company - such as your customers, competitors and trends in the marketplace. It is virtually impossible to generate an effective strategic plan without research and some hard data to drive your action and support you assumptions. I am very delighted and fortunate to be having Marc Emmer, author of Intended Consequences, leading a half-day CEO-focused workshop on strategic planning later this month. His approach to responding to and driving market shifts and "creating the future you desire" is both powerful and practical. I spoke with Marc for about an hour last week about his methodology and perspective on the ensuring that the planning process produced actionable results. I was impressed with his clarity and his insight - and am certain that the participants in his workshop will be as well. (See below for details on how you might attend as my guest.) As always, wishing you a great and successful week ahead. 
Philip R. Liebman Managing Director, Strat4 Group Chair, Vistage International
PS - Please Join Me: I still have room for a small number of guests to attend my June 22nd Vistage meeting and participate in Marc Emmer's half-day workshop on REACHING FOR THE NEXT LEVEL: BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGIES THAT IGNITE GROWTH IN PEOPLE AND PROFIT. The meeting, hosted by Vistage Member, Miya Company - will be held in Branchberg New Jersey. Besides the enormous value you will gain from this workshop, it is also an excellent opportunity to meet some members, and consider first-hand how you and your company could benefit from being a member in a high-level executive peer group. If you are a CEO of a successful, substantial company - and would like to explore the value of Vistage -please come as my guest to this meeting. Fiscal Leadership Workshop - June 29th in Englewood Cliffs, NJ - Sponsored by North Jersey Community Bank. 8 am - 10 am. Advance Reservations Is Required. The Fiscal Leadership workshop gives CEOs of growing companies a critical perspective on leading your company through a better, more fiscally sound decision-making process. Participants learn how to look beyond traditional accounting reports and use a set of tools to help them improve how they: - manage cash-flow,
- improve margins
- deal with banks and lenders
- assess and manage "risk j-curves", and
- drive safe sustainable growth.
This program is FREE to the first 30 guests who can commit to being there. The normal $295.00 fee is waived thanks to the sponsorship of North Jersey Community Bank and their CEO, Frank Sorrentino.
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