Who Stole The Strategy From Strategic Planning?
In The Mind Of The Strategist: Business Planning For Competitive Advantage, Ohmae describes ‘strategy’ as “…the way in which a corporation endeavors to differentiate itself positively from its competitors, using its relative corporate strengths to better satisfy customer needs”. In short, strategy is a means to achieve a vision. Given these definitions of strategy, how then would one define Strategic Planning? In his book Strategic Planning, Abraham defines Strategic Planning as “…a process followed by a company collectively trying to agree on where it is going (vision) and the way it will get there (strategy)”.
If the referenced definitions of strategy and Strategic Planning can be agreed to, why then do so many organizations begin and end both processes with an Excel workbook that articulates a financial gap analysis? Have both processes been usurped by financial planning which, though well intentioned, has inadvertently put the cart before the horse? With so few diseases having been cured, opportunity space for competitors in the Drug Development industry is unfathomable, except of course, if strategies are really not differentiable and the vision is uniquely shared by all. So, where have all the strategists gone?