The Difference Between Strategists and Strategic Planners

I’ve met both over my long career as an executive, a consultant, and a board member. Strategists and Strategic Planners may read the same periodicals and have similar destinations in mind, but there is a difference between the two. Strategic Planners, at the outset, are disadvantaged by the definition of their role. They are staffers, not line managers. Strategic Planning positions exist inside companies, and in external consulting businesses. Consultants earn a living by the clock. The ramification of this incentive is easy to deduce. They spend weeks, sometimes months assessing, discussing, assembling teams, leading SWOT analyses, and on, and on, and on. Internal Strategic Planning managers do the same thing . . . in some cases, less. Less? Yep, they bring in consultants to do their job.

Rather than break new ground, the finished plan is usually a convoluted extension of the current strategy. Crown Corporations and government agencies are the worst offenders. British Columbia Lottery Corporation, ICBC, and BC Hydro’s most recent strategic plans all exceed 30 pages. Take a peak; their well-crafted documents are posted as “Service Plans” on-line, and they differ little from prior versions. Strategic Planners are the architects of these documents. They are not brilliant strategists; they are brilliant bureaucrats.

An organization’s best strategists are in the C-Suite, and the CEO is usually the catalyst. C-Suite strategists can draft an effective Strategic Plan within a day because they have an intimate knowledge of the business and are constantly thinking strategically. The best ones bring clarity and purpose to a document that can be written on just one piece of paper.

Here are the key differences between the species:

Strategists are obsessed with bolstering their company’s competitive advantage. Strategic Planners are obsessed with preparing a document.

Strategists trash complexity so that plans are clear and transparent. Strategic Planners build plans to pre-defined formats. In the case of BC Crown Agencies, the government format demands verbosity.

Strategists motivate employees to invest time and energy in the stated strategic direction. Strategic Planners collaborate with management to uncover strategic direction.

Strategists take an enterprise to the next level. Strategic Planners never transform an enterprise.

In the final analysis, companies with a C-Suite that drives strategy are action-oriented, less bureaucratic, and better-performing. I’ll leave you with one question. Why don’t giant innovators like Apple, Google or Facebook have Strategic Planning Departments?