Alan Webber: In Times Like That It's Hard To Imagine What Kinds Of Planning You Can Do

Alan M. Webber is an author, columnist and founding editor of Fast Company magazine. His articles and columns have appeared in The New York Times Sunday magazine, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the co-author of ‘Changing Alliances’ and ‘Going Global’ and his latest book ‘Rules Of Thumb’ has had great reviews from Paolo Coelho, Tom Peters and Seth Godin. As a big fan of ‘Fast Company’, Alan was on my target list to talk to about #unplan. Here’s what he says:


“I recently heard a speech where Bob Johansen suggested that the new acronym for these times is ‘VUCA’ (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous). I guess it's a term the military uses, but it's fitting for business, life, you name it.


In times like that it's hard to imagine what kinds of planning you can do. I guess you can lay out directions; you can define first principles; you can identify values and causes, customers and markets; you can describe a way of doing business and a culture; you can talk about intentions and trajectories. But the old-style planning--do you remember when companies would have shelves loaded with 3-ring binders with their plans? How would that work today? And what is a reasonable time horizon for doing planning? Even planning has to be reinvented to be relevant these days!”

Michael Schrage: Entrepreneurs Need Traditional Business Planning As Much As Fish Need Bicycles

I must confess I wasn’t familiar with Michael Schrage until Tom Peters told me about him. So I looked him up. A co-director of the MIT Media Lab's eMarkets Initiative, Michael Schrage writes, consults and collaborates in the design and development of digital innovation. He’s a research fellow with the Sloan School of Management's Center for Digital Business and a visiting fellow at Imperial College's 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship' programme. He's done consulting and advisory work for Microsoft, Procter&Gamble, British Telecom, BP, Siemens, Embraer, Google, iRise, Mars, the Office of Net Assessment and other organizations. Editorially, Schrage has been a contributor to the Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Wired, Red Herring, Forbes, Esquire, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.

When Tom Peters called Michael the ‘guru’ of prototyping, it was clear I needed to track him down. And this is what he has to contribute to the #Unplan debate:

“ To repurpose a ‘60s cliché, entrepreneurs need traditional business planning as much as fish need bicycles.... Even with generously flexible definitions of 'traditional,' I’d argue that investments in 'planning' are less valuable and/or useful and/or useable than investments in adaptiveness, responsiveness and agility....

When entrepreneurs come to me for 'free' advice, I generally ask them to discuss with me their three or five most cherished, most important and most essential 'assumptions' they have around their proposed business - this makes clear to me what level of rigor and comprehensiveness they've brought to their thinking. Then I ask them what prototypes, models and experiments they've explored to test and challenge those assumptions...because actions always speak louder than words...deeds are always more persuasive than thoughts.

To me, 'planning' is not about how we project into the future, it's how we stress test and retest the assumptions we build upon to innovate and advance”.

picture credit: HSM Global

Tony Hsieh: The Most Adaptable To Change Survives

Whilst not that well known (yet) outside of North America, Zappos is an online retailer that’s earned an enviable reputation for its passion for the pursuit of awesome customer service.


In 2008 Zappos’ turnover topped $1 billion and then last year the company was acquired by Amazon in a deal worth around $880 million. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has built a company around its service commitment: ‘service’ is not a department, it’s the whole company. Whilst the business started out selling shoes, they believe that as long as they are known for service, then expanding into almost any category is possible.

I asked Tony for his take on business planning:

“Charles Darwin said ‘It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.’ At Zappos, we believe the same is true for business.”

Tony Hsieh, CEO - Zappos.com, Inc. and author of ‘Delivering Happiness’

Tom Peters: He Who Tries The Most Stuff The Fastest Wins

Tom Peters has been a great inspiration to me throughout my career. I asked Tom for his take on ‘unplanning’ and was told to expect a response in March on his return from New Zealand. But in typical Tom style, I actually got a response 48 hours later. I was going to edit his email but decided it more apt to post it here in its entirety:


“MIT's Michael Schrage is the ‘guru’ and my guru on the topic of prototyping, about which he's written a ton. To begin with he labels it the #1 core competence of an innovative organization. But the even more profound point he makes is that innovation is per se the reaction to a prototype. That is, first and foremost, you've gotta have something/s of substance to shoot at if you want to move forward. Which brings me to my other guru on this topic, Texan and EDS founder Ross Perot. His motto: ‘Ready. Fire. Aim.’ Some time after Ross sold EDS to GM, he contrasted the two firms. He said that the EDS ‘strategy’ was ‘Ready. Fire. Aim.’ By contrast, GM's way was ‘Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim. ...’ Well, we all know the rest of the (sad) story.


In 1982, Bob Waterman and I wrote a book called In Search of Excellence, which was organized around the ‘Eight Basics’ of ‘Excellent companies.’ Something had to be first! And it was, we said, ‘A Bias for Action.’ In 2010 in my speeches I claim (and mean it) that I've ‘only learned one thing in 40 years’ of business: ‘He who tries the most stuff the fastest wins.’


I started to add here, ‘While I'm no enemy of planning ...’ But I am an enemy of overly elaborate planning processes. I am a firm (almost ‘religious’) believer in the power of ‘gettin' goin'.’ I'll leave the last few words to my late father, Frank Peters: ‘Don't just stand there, do something’ "

photo credit: Allison Shirreffs

Kevin Roberts: It’s About Surfing Not Managing

I asked Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO, how important he thought traditional business planning was in 2010:


“In today’s world the success of a company can be measured on an inverse ratio to the amount of time it spends on traditional strategic planning. In our VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex & ambiguous) world it’s about ‘surfing’ not managing. Catching the customer wave first and riding it hard. In the Participation Economy it’s anticipating how your customers will feel that counts… and then helping them get to their future first”.

John Kay: Oblique Approaches Are Most Effective In Difficult Terrain

Financial Times columnist and economist John Kay’s new book ‘Obliquity’ argues that most goals are best achieved through an indirect, rather than direct route i.e. the best route from A to B is almost never a straight line. This resonates with my experience in business, where randomness and serendipity are often more significant contributors than detailed plans in reaching goals. John says:


“Strange as it may seem, overcoming geographic obstacles, winning decisive battles or meeting global business targets are the type of goals often best achieved when pursued indirectly. This is the idea of Obliquity. Whether overcoming geographical obstacles, winning decisive battles or meeting sales targets, history shows us that oblique approaches are the most successful, especially in difficult terrain”.