Plan for the future - not from the past -- Forbes column

In "Uptick Catches Entrepreneurs by Surprise" the Wall Street Journal points out that defensively-minded entrepreneurs are unprepared to undertake hiring or business expansion.  Simultaneously, the Washington Post reports "Obama Preparing New Push to Add Jobs".  What's clear is that there are incentives to undertake hiring, and with productivity at record highs it appears hiring needs are increasing.  Yet, because they were looking in the rear view mirror many small business leaders are not prepared to participate and grow.

In "A Key To A Successful Business Plan" Forbes has just published my latest column, detailing why scenario planning is the first step for any business to overcome inertia and grow successfully.  Instead of planning by looking to the past, we need to spend a lot more time looking at the future.  Building scenarios that help us figure out where we want to be, successfully, in 2 to 5 years - rather than trying to replay the last inning over and over.  Look at how well it worked at Apple the last decade!

"Now is absolutely the best time for your business to succeed. As the collapse of Dubai World just demonstrated, enormous market changes keep happening. Laggards and the unwise are failing, and businesses that position themselves smartly to take advantage of market shifts are winning big gains. Look at Google. There's never been a better time to move ahead by developing plans for leading your business to dramatic growth in revenue and profits." (read more of the article here)

My previous Forbes columns focused on the many current maladies of management.  Insufficient innovation caused by Lock-in and obsession with outdated best practices has far too many companies performing far too poorly today.  But followers of The Phoenix Principle know that it is possible to break out of this "doom loop" and be successful at growth through innovation implementation.  Scenario planning is the first step, and a powerful replacement for traditional planning which wastes far too many cycles trying to review the past.

Comments

[Mike Meikle]

Sir,

I enjoyed your column over at Forbes on the topic of scenario planning. I am always interested in ways of cutting past metric tonnes of power point presentations and actually getting results :)

I would like to know more on the scenario method of strategic planning. Does your book "Create Marketplace Disruption" discuss this topic?

[Adam Hartung]

Thanks Mike for your comment. Yes, "Create Marketplace Disruption" has a chapter on Scenario Planning. However, for a real "how to" book on Scenario Planning their are entire books devoted to the topic that give much deeper treatment. If you are interested to apply Scenario Planning effectively for growth then my book is great. For an application primer check out what's available on amazon.com