Strategic Plans Ain't What They Used to Be.

Greg Hessel • March 9, 2021

Strategic Planning in the Era of COVID

“The future ain’t what it used to be”, Yogi Berra once said. In the era of COVID, this has never been truer. The world is radically different than it was only a year ago. This change, coupled with the fact that successful organizations sometimes fail because the world changes and they don’t change with it, creates strategic challenges for organizations. 

Over the last month, several current and potential clients have asked me what I thought about them using their current strategic plans as a template for a new plan. They were exploring “updating” their current plan rather than starting from scratch.

While there are good arguments to be made for scaling back strategic planning efforts in 2021—limited bandwidth being tops among them—ignoring ways the world has changed can be a strategic mistake. “The future ain’t what it used to be” and your strategic plan shouldn’t be either. 


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