“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results” — Sir Winston Churchill
In his book Antifragile, author Nassim Nicholas Taleb weighs in on the idea of “strategic planning” for companies. He confesses to essentially skipping most of the “Strategic Planning” class during his business school days. However, he notes while corporations tend to be “in love” with the concept of strategic planning, there’s no evidence strategic planning works. Mr. Taleb cites the works of William Starbuck, Matthew Stewart (The Management Myth), Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman (A Perfect Mess).
According to Mr. Taleb, Strategic Planning stymies “optionality”; or the business drift that allows companies to change course and pursue other profitable endeavors. He illustrates his point with the following: Coca Cola began as a pharmaceutical company. Tiffany & Co. started life as a stationary store. Raytheon was a refrigerator maker, and Nokia began as a paper mill. Pause for thought for startups and entrepreneurs: Don’t sacrifice your “optionality” by locking yourself into a non-opportunistic course of action.