Strategic Analysis Best Practice 2 – advocatus diaboli, The Devil’s Advocate

StrategyDriven Strategic Analysis ArticleShared experience, organizational pride, and/or conflict avoidance can diminish the criticality of data and conclusion assessment; leading to exaggerated optimism and resulting in an organizational pursuit of unrealistic goals. Inflated expectations may drive investment in projects well outside of the organization’s risk tolerance. In today’s aggressive marketplace and under intense shareholder scrutiny, missteps like these can be disastrous for a company and its executive team.


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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Recommended Resource – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Steven R. Covey

About the Reference

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey reveals the seven behaviors common among successful individuals. Each behavior is accompanied by a rich discussion of why it works and is illustrated with examples.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors believe that because an organization’s actions are defined by its people and not the buildings, machines, and tools they use, organizations themselves fundamentally behave like people. We find that organizations exhibiting the same behaviors Dr. Covey describes in his book likewise achieve greater levels of success. Many of the best practice recommendations found on the StrategyDriven website relate to the seven habits; making The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Strategic Planning Best Practice 4 – Ongoing Planning and Execution

Market changes wait for no one. In today’s rapidly changing business environment, competitors and suppliers aggressively seek to gain a competitive advantage while government agencies and special interest groups continuously seek to further their agendas. These forces, acting together, demand an organization to be responsive and flexible to maintain its footing within the marketplace.

Ongoing planning and execution enables an organization to appropriately adjust to its changing operational environment. Effective response to marketplace changes is achieved by using a combination of event, routine, and annualized planning and execution activities. Event driven activities, triggered by abrupt marketplace changes, enable the organization to react to significant developments in the business environment. Routine and annualized activities help the organization maintain flexibility in response to slowly evolving trends.


About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.