Do you need a ‘Voice of Reason’ in Strategic Planning?

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I had a CEO ask me yesterday if I could help them with strategic planning, and the answer is absolutely yes! But let me give you some insight into that.

First of all, obviously, I do all the financial modeling and data analysis. I love that stuff. The what-if analysis as well as developing and tracking K P I s (Key Performance Indicators) to track our success.

But I also frequently act as the voice of reason in two different ways. First of all, I’m usually new to the organization, so I’m questioning the assumptions and asking all of those ‘stupid’ questions. But also, you know, we all can get really excited about our new initiatives. I talk to CEOs all the time that are going to launch this great line of business and it’s going to capture the market and be wonderful. And I’m always the one that says, cool, what’s it going to cost to do all that? So those are two ways that I can not be a wet blanket, but kind of bring things back to reality.

And finally, after working with so many companies over the years, I’ve seen so many ways to do it well and do it poorly and I can bring those best practices to the table as well as ideas from other industries. I absolutely love participating in strategic planning.

So, if this is something you need, I can do it, and love to do it and even if you just want to have a conversation, I love those too. They’re a lot of fun. This is Judi Otton with GrowthCast and I’ll be back next week with a new Fiscal Fitness Tip of the Week.