From Planning to Strategy: A Winning Approach

Take 15 minutes to list your current planning activities and the resources involved. Consider what aspects of planning make you feel comfortable and in control.

“Planning is quite comforting.”

Dedicate 15 minutes to envision the competitive outcome you wish to achieve. How will you be better than the rest? What specific customer behavior will indicate success?

“A strategy, on the other hand, specifies an outcome, a competitive outcome that you wish to achieve.”

Spend 15 minutes to define the specific market or industry segment where you want to compete. Be specific and realistic; consider what makes this field attractive and manageable.

“A strategy is an integrative set of choices that positions you on a playing field of your choice in a way that you win.”

Take 15 minutes to describe how you will be better than anyone else at serving customers in your chosen playing field. Articulate your unique competitive advantage and the value you offer.

“Here's how, on that playing field, we're going to be better than anybody else at serving the customers on that playing field.”

Spend 15 minutes to list the key strategic choices that differentiated Southwest from its competitors (e.g., point-to-point flying, single aircraft type). Try to think of the second-order effects of these choices.

“Southwest said, everybody else is flying hub and spoke... We're going to fly point to point.”

Dedicate 15 minutes to explain how Southwest's strategic choices led to a lower cost structure and the ability to offer lower prices. Focus on the cause and effect.

“Their strategy ended up having a substantially lower cost than any of the major carriers so that they could offer substantially lower prices.”

Spend 15 minutes to identify what must be true about yourself, the industry, the competition, and your customers for your strategy to work. Be honest and critical.

“Lay out the logic of your strategy clearly. What would have to be true about ourselves, about the industry, about competition, about customers for this strategy to work?”

Dedicate 15 minutes to condense your strategy into a single page that outlines your chosen playing field, winning formula, required capabilities, and management systems. Clarity is key.

“It's great if you can write your strategy on a single page. Here's where we're choosing to play. Here's how we're choosing to win. Here are the capabilities we need to have in place. Here are the management systems.”

Take 15 minutes to continuously monitor the environment and refine your strategy based on real-world results. Focus on adaptability.

“Strategy is a journey, what you want to have as a mechanism for tweaking it, honing it, and refining it so it gets better and better as you go along.”