Delivering the right info to supercharge strategic planning and improve decision-making.

What is it about?

Good strategy hinges on having timely, balanced, and high-quality data, and a talented team of decision-makers prepared to interpret and respond to these data. What information is needed to inform strategic planning? For many firms, the strategic planning process is compromised from the outset, because the management team lacks a multidimensional strategic data bank -- one that can crystallize the issues and opportunities the firm faces. While data abound, many managers lack critical and balanced information. As a result, subjective opinion and selective historical performance reviews overly influence strategic decisions. Key managers make impulsive or gut-based decisions about how to best allocate resources, respond to competitive threats, or seize (apparent) opportunities in the marketplace. In contrast, decision-makers in high performing firms systematically cultivate critical information. They capture, and share, a range of inputs on the firm, its markets, the industry, and the environment, then translate these data into useful form. This article highlights the key info required and spells out process recommendations.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Strategic planning suffers without the right inputs and perspective. Too many management team labor with unclear, unwieldy, or unbalanced information. Learn about the key categories of internal and external inputs required to effectively arm your senior leadership team with the critical information required to make good decisions about the enterprise's future.

Perspectives