Time to do a reality check!

The first month of the year is over. It is time to check whether the killer assumptions of the strategy that you set for 2003 have become a reality.

Last year, many entrepreneurs exercised their strategic powers in planning for 2003. There were countless discussions on the shape of the environment, which became the basis of strategic plans premised on a set of anticipated futures.

However, many forget to re-examine whether, indeed, the anticipated future had become a reality.

Dynamic process

Remember that strategy formulation is a dynamic, creative, and protective process. As such, strategies are not only made in the last quarter of each year, nor are they just drummed up once a year at some weekend out-of-town meeting.

In fact, it requires the frequent and regular review of the actual versus the expected performance indicators. For example, how did the January 2003 actual sales performance compared to the planned/expected January 2003 sales performance? To what was the performance attributable? Was it due to the execution of the strategy and/or the assumptions that would become a reality?

Not unlike the practice of a good basketball coach, a game plan is made before the game. However, this can all change if the assumptions of the plan are proven to be untrue. For example, the game plan was made on the basis of a particular player in the opponent’s camp not being fielded. But then, when the game starts, this particular player is made part of the starting five.

Even as the game unfolds, strategies may have to be reviewed. This is why the game has a time-out option. The coach wants to give new major strategic moves that may depart from the original game plan.

Similarly, in the entrepreneurial game, now is the time to check if the 2003 strategies are showing its effects on the January 2003 results. Keep in mind that the end of the year, Dec. 31, 2003, is not moving. We are, on a second-to-second basis, getting closer to the end of the year. It is best to find out early, if your strategies are indeed working.

Remember that in a basketball game, it is too late to find out in the last two minutes of the last quarter that the game plan was not working. Therefore, it is important to take a break as soon as the performance indicators show that your game is being lost.

Creative process

Good strategy demands unusual results. More-of-the-same-thing results are not the product of good strategy. If the current strategy does not give leap-frog outputs, one may have to be creative and come up with different or never-before-tried strategies to achieve never-before-achieved results.

If a carpenter has been using the same hammer to drive a nail and the nail refuses to be driven into the wood, try another tool to drive it. At least two things can happen–it may not move or it may move. The latter option is better than being definite that it will not move. Using a new approach will at least present a chance that it may move.

In basketball, some coaches have used a three-guard instead of a usual two-guard set-up. This has resulted in changing the complexity of a losing game and often has ended up changing the tide. Sometimes, it has delivered the winning shot. In fact, when the team is losing, it may be the best time to experiment.

Clearly, strategy is a creative process that demands new and fresh approaches to performances that have never been achieved before. If you are getting the same old results, it is because you have been doing the same old stuff. This is not strategic. Neither is it entrepreneurial.

If the strategies for January 2003 did not deliver the desired outcomes, it may not be the proper strategy. Create a new one. Do not wait for the last quarter to correct something already proven wrong in the first month.

Protective process

As strategies are periodically reviewed, never forget that strategies are formulated and implemented to achieve and protect the vision, mission, and core values of the organization.

A new strategy that will destroy instead of protect the vision, mission and core values of the organization should not even be considered. The entrepreneur must be wary of this possibility. The vision, mission and core values of the organization may be put at risk in the process of creating and replacing strategies that did not deliver. When this happens, the strategy becomes a "stragedy".

As in basketball, be sure that the new strategy deployed is still consistent with the team’s vision, mission, and core values. A strategy that will deliver the victory while losing consistency with the team’s vision, mission, and core values is not acceptable as a correct strategic response to a situation.

And to further extend the basketball analogy, as an active coach in the Philippine Basketball Association once told me, the only difference between game strategies and enterprise strategies is how long it takes to know if the strategy worked. In basketball, we know it in 48 minutes. Fortunately, it takes longer in the enterprise world.

But then, the similarities are plentiful. The enterprise must act like a basketball coach. Scout the competition. Make game plans. Draft players who fit the system and culture. Call a time-out when things are not working as planned. Bring out the best in your players. Define the roles of each player. Inspire your players on and off the court.

I repeat, January 2003 is over. February is a short month. December 2003 is getting closer. Do not wait for the half of the year to find out that your plans are not working. Why not call a time-out?

(Alejandrino Ferreria is the dean of the Asian Center for Entrepreneurship of the Asian Institute of Management. For further comments and inquiries, you may contact him at: [email protected]. Published "Entrepreneur’s Helpline" columns can be viewed on the AIM website at http//: www.aim.edu.ph).