Business Planning Needs A Military Approach
Planning for most companies is an annual event (Annual Strategic Business Plan) or something that happens when things go wrong, therefore, is seen as a tool to react to problems not to anticipate
Planning for most companies is an annual event. It happens when things go wrong. Most owners see it as a tool to react to problems, not to anticipate them.
The military sees planning as a continuous process. For a business, this approach isn’t just more effective; it’s necessary.
A business without planning becomes a derelict, reactive company. It gets consumed by the day-to-day. An organization without priorities can’t work on what truly matters. The most important part of planning isn’t the plan itself, but the act of planning.
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The planning process is critical for decision-making. It lets you anticipate events — to react before they happen. It helps you establish an action plan, set goals, and prioritize for the company.
In short, it provides a guide from point A to point B. To set this guide, the company must know its starting point: available resources, customers, competitive advantages and disadvantages, competitors, industry trends, market opportunities and risks, and its major achievements and failures. Only then can it establish where it wants to go and how to get there. Setting clear goals also focuses people’s efforts.
“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
Why plans are useless?
The Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP)
The MDMP is a standardized decision-making model. It helps the commander (your CEO) and their staff develop estimates and a plan. It integrates independent estimates from functional areas (Sales, logistics, marketing) with a broader analysis of the problem from the commander. This leads to effective plans.
The MDMP also helps teams apply thoroughness, clarity, sound judgment, logic, and professional knowledge to reach a decision. It relies on doctrine, which minimizes confusion over terms and symbols used in the process.
The advantages:
- It quickly integrates new players into the process.
- It coordinates efforts and minimizes the risk of overlooking critical aspects of an operation.
- It thoroughly examines numerous friendly (company) and enemy (competitor) courses of action.
- It produces a detailed, clear operation plan.
- Estimates continue throughout, providing important inputs for the MDMP, even during execution. Using the complete MDMP takes time. However, in a time-constrained environment, you can adapt it. It must still account for products created during the full MDMP, unless the scenario's inputs have substantially changed.