Strategic decisions should be the ultimate output of a strategic-planning program. That is, the strategic plan should clearly set forth the critical issues currently facing a company or division in terms of alternative courses of current action. If there are more than five or six issues, they are probably the wrong ones. If the decisions do not involve major risks or investments and/or changes in competitive posture, or if the decisions do not have to be made now, they are the wrong decisions. This is the creative leap that too many managements fail to make in strategic planning. They fail to ask, “What do we do now as a result of this plan?” They fail to recognize that the end product of strategic analysis should not be plans but current decisions.
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