A good deal of the corporate planning I have observed is like a ritual rain dance; it has no effect on the weather that follows, but those who engage in it think it does.
Moreover, it seems to me that much of the advice and instruction related to corporate planning is directed at improving the dancing, not the weather.
Russell L. Ackoff
Businesses would like to believe that their markets will remain stable – knowing that this is not accurate means that they look for areas around their edges hoping to get some strategic advantage; finding something unique in their marketplace, they can then use marketing to push a supposed edge while avoiding risk and searching for cost-reduction.
Most businesses do not know how to be innovative and entrepreneurial or adapt to the necessary changes, let alone changes that will invariably happen because of biotech, robotics, the Internet, artificial intelligence, or machine automation. Despite appeals to be more innovative or entrepreneurial, most will opt to stay incremental. True innovative or entrepreneurial behavior means that, at the very least, we must have an excellent understanding of our current business and an ability to examine and analyze options that might be open to us.
This Workbook is about methods for re-discovering Your Business – what it is, what it could be, and what it should be.