More Articles

Fall 2002

Good to Great

Author Jim Collins, in a recent interview, recapped the common threads among great companies. However, it wasn't the book's recap that grabbed attention, but Collins' answer to the opening question, "Do you attribute that (the book's success) to the strength and nature of the message or is this just a time when people are incredibly hungry for help?" Collins' answer was "One … we started with a really great question. Two, is the integrity of our approach, and three is just sheer luck of timing."

A really great question
How profound and how simple it seems to start with a really great question. How often to businesses and business leaders begin with a really great question, an open and honest inquiry without pre-ordained answers?

Integrity of approach
Collins clarifies this point by adding, "We never set out to prove an existing point of view. …we don't know what the answers are and if they end up being something we didn't expect, so much the better. And if the answers turn out to be something we don't like, so it goes."

Collins' approach, ask a great question and don't assume you know the answer, should be the key to strategic planning in organizations. All too often though, strategic planning, which should be an open search, is merely tactical planning masquerading as a strategic process. These tactical plans codify operational shifts rather than truly opening the business to an unknown future.

True strategic planning must ask great questions and open the business to data and information that can be unexpected and sometimes even unwanted. Only with unfiltered data can courageous organizations knowledgeably and resolutely prepare to reinvent themselves. Would your company prepared if customers shopped the internet and bought from your less expensive European competitor? If the government raised mandatory retirement to 75? If there were a global recession? If the Middle Eastern oil supply were stopped? If a virus crashed the internet?

Quick Hits

• Too many boring meetings? To remedy the situation:
  • Meet only when there is something important to discuss and always have an agenda.
  • Put approximate discussion times by each item on the agenda and only exceed the time if the group agrees that the discussion is important enough to continue
  • Flip chart main discussion points for visual learners