Most companies invest considerable time and effort in a formal, annual strategic planning process - but many managers do not see much benefit from the investment. The study authors, one manager over the course of his company with the "primitive tribal ritual," and another compared it to Soviet system. "We pretend to make a strategy and they pretend to follow him," We have found that, Although some really strategic decisions are made in the formal process, formal planning can be a real source of competitive advantage, when he came to the right purpose: as a learning tool to help companies build their management teams, "prepared mind" (to borrow from Louis Pasteur). The key is the right owner seemingly mundane, but really important details relating to the annual meetings, which are the basis of all formal processes - including those who have to attend the meetings, where they should be held, and what preparation is necessary to make them effective. After the analysis of these items, the authors offer several examples showing prepared minds in an action in which formal planning helps managers make solidly grounded, real-time policy decisions in a world of turbulence and uncertainty. "Hide
by Steven Kaplan, Sarah Kaplan, Eric D. Beinhocker Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 8 pages. Publication Date: December 1, 2003. Prod. #: SMR096-PDF-ENG
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