Be Flexible, and Forward Thinking – Office Depot, Apple

"Strategic Plans Lose Favor" is a recent Wall Street Journal headline.  Seems like some big companies, and big consulting firms like Accenture, McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group are rapidly learning what this blog has been pushing for a few years.  That flexibility trumps traditional approaches to strategic planning.

• When Office Depot's strategic plan was leading to revenue struggles, the company set up a situation room to track key indicators and adjust to market shifts much quicker.
• "Strategy as we know it is dead" according to Walt Shill, head of strategic planning at Accenture. "increased flexibility and accelerated decision making are much more
  important than simply predicting the future."  (Do you think he's been reading this blog and my book?)
• "business leaders will start to rely less on static five-year strategic
  plans and more on rough "adaptive" strategies that consider multiple
  scenarios"  according to Martin Reeves, Senior Partner at BCG.  (Where'd he read that – on this site?)
• ""The rate of change and width of volatility is much wider and faster
  than what we would have assumed coming into this," Jeff Fettig, CEO at Whirlpool
• McKkinsey has opened a "Center for Managing Uncertainty."  Really.

As this recession has come on, and lingered, businesses are clearly starting to realize that market shifts happen fast, and businesses cannot be slow to change.  Adaptability is one of the most important capabilities to compete in the post-2000 business world.

And the real market leaders are incorporating this kind of thinking into their organizations.  While the earlier quotes show how, caught on the defensive, organizations are finding new ways to react, the best performing organizations are taking market leadership by being Disruptive.  Like Apple.  In a Harvard Business Review blog Roberto Verganti, professor at Politecnico di Milano tells us "Apple's Secret:  It tells us what we should love."

The good professor of design and management points out that Apple does not ask customers what they want.  Instead the company designs products which take customers to new levels of performance beyond what they imagined.  Instead of being reactive, Apple uses scenario planning to understand future market needs and create shifts with its products.  This approach leads to breakthrough performance, such as the success of Nintendo and its Wii product line.

To be successful businesses can no longer try to Defend & Extend their old strategies.  They have to be market focused, and flexible to manage through market shifts.  And to earn superior rates of return they have to be market leaders that use scenario planning and White Space to launch new solutions meeting emerging needs which attract customers and grow sales.

‍