Nothing destroys strategy quite like strategic planning
Autumn is here—the season of strategy reviews and annual planning.
Some companies will use it well and reap the rewards next year.
Others will fail twice. In 2025, they’ll waste time on ineffective planning. In 2026, they’ll watch those plans fall apart.
How do you know which side you’re on?
In this and the next few posts, I’ll share what I’ve learned from auditing hundreds of strategies. I’ll show the mistakes I keep seeing—and how to avoid them.
Some posts, like this one, will be free; the rest will be only for paid subscribers to my newsletter. If this resonates, upgrade now—annual plans are discounted.
Shredder-Ready Strategy
The first question to ask yourself is “Why on Earth do I need a strategy?”
Because if you can’t say exactly how you’ll use every single line in this document, don’t even start.
A few years back, I audited a large distribution company’s strategy. It was a multi-level document, ranging from corporate strategy down to operational plans at the business unit level.
On paper, it looked tidy; in practice, the details didn’t add up. Here’s the simplified logic of that multi-level document. (I’ve anonymized the product as “bread.”)
- Corporate strategy: “We will become the global leader in the bread market!”
- Marketing & Sales functional strategy: “We will become the global leader in the white-bread market!”
- White Bread Division strategy: “We will become the category leader in white buns!”
- Annual sales plan for white buns: “Sell one billion buns at $3 each.”
- Regional quarterly sales plan: “Sell 100,000 white buns through the independent retailers.”
Everything listed above the annual sales plan can go straight to the shredder—nobody in the company can use it for day-to-day decisions.
Corporate strategy—even in a large company—shouldn’t boil down to vision and high-level goals. Some CEOs think execution details belong only in downstream documents — and they’re wrong.
Any document with “strategy” in the title should set out principles that guide:
1. Lower-level strategies and policies
2. Day-to-day decisions
Take a simple test: hand your strategy document to any middle manager and ask whether it helps them in any way with day-to-day decisions. If it doesn’t, you don’t need it.
You’ll fail twice, and your executives will start thinking that strategizing is nothing but a ritual.
Central principles and nesting dolls
Every strategy should set out central principles that will help executives and middle managers make daily decisions.
For instance:
Corporate Strategy
“We will deliver our growth targets by developing value-added, innovative bread across the … categories.
Our priority customer segments are …
Our priority go-to-market channels are …
Our pricing approach is …
To execute this strategy, we will exit … and …
We will not invest time or capital in … and … in order to free up resources for …, …, and …
Our top priority is creating maximum value for customers in the … and … categories.”
Marketing & Sales Functional Strategy
“Marketing & Sales priorities: launch at least … successful products per year; increase the share of … products from … to …; grow the share of … channels/customers.
To achieve this, our product priorities are …; priority regions are …; priority customers are …; priority channels are …; priority promotion formats are …”
White Bread Division Strategy
“Division priorities: develop the … product lines, the … channels, and the … territories; pursue a price-premium strategy in … while leading on price in …
Additional priorities: focus on customer segments …; deliver sales targets through the development of … products.”
Strategies across all levels — from corporate down to business unit — should work like nesting dolls, with each lower-level strategy spelling out in more detail the principles set in the higher-level one.
But none of them should be just a set of slogans or mottos.
If your executives and middle managers don’t reread it regularly, why write it in the first place?
I regularly do pro bono work, so I’m offering to audit one subscriber’s strategy for free. I’ll take on two more audits at a symbolic price (with a discount for paid subscribers).
Would you like me to review your documents and provide feedback? Drop me a message.
Assess your strategy:
- Does it set a clear direction for your business?
- Does it give decision-makers in your company practical guidance?
- Do you turn to it yourself when you face tough decisions?
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Read also: Synergy — Tried and Found Guilty
Want to know how poorly set strategic goals can destroy your company? Read about it in my book Red and Yellow Strategies: Flip Your Strategic Thinking and Overcome Short-termism.