As follow-up to my recent post about the small business owner’s fear of strategic planning, I interviewed Gene Rosendale, a founding partner of the Alliance for Strategic Advantage.

Gene, a clear-thinking strategist and clear-speaking communicator, helps small and midsize companies (SMBs) implement strategic planning processes that get results. Gene’s background– which includes a degree from the Wharton Graduate School of Business, executive positions at Fortune 500 companies, and owning his own business–gives him the academic and practical experience necessary to assist SMBs.
____________________________________________________

Here’s what Gene had to say about my post and the challenges of strategic planning.

WS: Do you encounter the fears of strategic planning I talk about?

ROSENDALE: Oh, yes. Being caught up in the day-to-day is a big problem we see. For busy owners, strategic planning is like repairing a car while driving down the highway at 60 miles per hour. The urgent and immediate trumps strategy every time.

Fear and discomfort with the process is typical. Most often, SMB executives have almost no experience with strategic planning. They have little if any training, skill sets, or exposure in that area. You have to work for a very large corporation to get it.

WS: Is that why facilitating a strategic planning process is so difficult?

ROSENDALE: Some entrepreneurs are wired for strategic thinking. For them, facilitating the process is easy. However, only 1% of business owners think that way. Maybe that’s why 99% of small businesses fail. But the good news is, with the right process in place, anybody can become a strategic genius.

WS: Explain.

ROSENDALE: Business owners that fear the Ivory Tower are justified. People from the outside don’t have the answers. It’s the people that work inside the business that do. Insights come from within. The challenge is getting the information out there where you can use it. We help companies put a process in place that is very mechanical and systematic. Believe it or not, it’s this mechanical and systematic process that leads to business genius.

Most people think business genius means innovation. Not true! Real innovation is extremely rare. Most often, business genius comes from seeing opportunities and threats competitors can’t see. We offer a process that enables small companies to see those things. A process that helps them look at the marketplace and sort out which changes are relevant and which are not.

WS: Lots has been written on strategic planning. Can’t a business owner learn the process by reading books?

ROSENDALE: Unlikely. Books are usually written to make the topic appeal to the broadest possible audience. For that reason, the advice isn’t always relevant to a particular business. Plus, like we were saying about the car speeding down the highway at 60 miles per hour, business owners simply don’t have time to read ten books about strategy. We look at ourselves as distillers of information–we strip down the theory and give the client exactly what he or she needs to get the job done.

WS: You said a strategic plan allows a company to see things the competition doesn’t see. That’s great, but how do you turn vision into action?

ROSENDALE: Strategic planning leads to effective operational planning and execution. Most companies ignore strategy and jump right into their operational plan. That’s a big mistake. Without strategic vision, ops planning usually turns in a turf war, with people squabbling over limited resources–very unpleasant for all concerned. Without strategic vision, ops plans are financially-based. That means future plans are based on the past. That’s fine, except that we know the future is going to be different!

A strategic planning process gives a company the confidence it needs to deviate from the past and make reliable business decisions around a vision of the future. Once the planning structure is in place, the business gets used to thinking strategically and operating strategically. Strategy becomes a habit. The fears go away.

Thank you, Gene!

Technorati Tags
Gene Rosendale
Strategic Planning
small business