February 17th, 2008

Possibility vs. Desirability: Picking The Right Swiss Army Knife

by Dr. Brian J. Mistler

The Ultimate Swiss Army Knife

Do you own a swiss army knife or know someone who does?  They’re a great tool, because they can do lots and lots of things.  Check out this swiss army kife. How neat is this?!#@  It’s fun just thinking about all the things this can do.  I love the newest electronic inventions and cool contraptions.   My wife would tell you the name Brian Mistler may actually be Latin “lover-of-gadgets”.  Maybe you share my affection for new toys and power tools.   And maybe, if you had a chance to pick up one of these, you would jump at it, and throw your little 9 feature knife away in a heartbeat…?  But, that could be a big a mistake.

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February 4th, 2008

Strategic Execution Plans: The Next Phase In Strategic Planning

by John Spence

I was recently invited to return to the Wharton School of Business for the fourth year in a row to teach a special class on strategic planning for the Securities Industry Institute. I called them last week to ask if it were possible to shift the class more from “planning” to strategic “thinking” this year, but was surprised to find out that 98 executives had already signed up for the class based on the catalog description of it as a solid look at how to write and effective strategic plan. So I decided to go back and take a hard look at the class and see if I could update it a bit and was surprised to have an epiphany of sorts.

I have long decried that one of the factors that inhibits the ability to write a good strategic plan is the lack of “strategic thinking” that typically goes into the planning process. If a practitioner is not spending serious time and effort on the thinking part of the equation, there is the possibility they can do the planning part of the process (the methodology, the framework) superbly, only to create a flawed plan because it was based on poor information and ideas. Then I realized that was another major issue that I simply had not been stressing enough; the execution of the plan.

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