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The Chemistry of Strategy
The Chemistry of Strategy
Strategic Planning for the Not-Yet-Fortune 500
JOHN W. MYRNA
© John W. Myrna 2014
Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publisher, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be addressed to the publisher. The address is below:
Global Professional Publishing Ltd
Random Acres
Slip Mill Lane
Hawkhurst
Cranbrook
Kent TN18 5AD
Email: [email protected]
Global Professional Publishing Ltd believes that the sources of information upon which the book is based are reliable, and has made every effort to ensure the complete accuracy of the text. However, neither Global Professional Publishing Ltd, the authors nor any contributors can accept any legal responsibility whatsoever for consequences that may arise from errors or omissions or any opinion or advice given.
ISBN 978-1-909170-19-3
The Expansion Matrix™, The Platinum Paradigm™, The Progress Accelerator™, and The Progress Pyramid™ are trademarks of Myrna Associates, Inc.
Contents
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Mary, my partner in business and life. I would truly be a lost soul without her insight and gentle coaching over the years.
Foreword
“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
William Jennings Bryan
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
Albert Einstein
Defining moments. We all have them. Those times in our careers where one decision among many changes the course and landscape of our future. In reflecting on the success my partner and I achieved with our business, it was clear to us that meeting, and then engaging, John Myrna was one of those defining moments.
Over a ten-year period, we learned and applied the strategic planning tools John developed. These tools enabled us to become a professionally managed, fiscally sound organization; they contributed to a five-fold increase in earnings and helped us create one of the most highly regarded firms in our market space.
We had always understood the importance of strategic planning, but found the traditional approaches lacking in the two most essential criteria of all – year in and year out engagement and results. Many of you may have the same mental picture of strategic planning as we did – a one- or two-week off-site meeting with lots of conversation and feeling distracted by thoughts of the “real” work back at the office. And of course, the three-ring summary binder that ultimately never found its way off the shelf after that meeting.
We knew there had to be a better way, and in that defining moment, we found it. John’s two-day approach resonated with what we felt we needed – a simpler approach, one that did not require an extended time frame and one that we could use in real time to bring our vision of the future to life.
We reframed strategy as a direction, not a goal. We felt that strategy had to be believable and executable, so we created guardrails, the four to six activities that we needed to be preoccupied with every day. These helped to keep us on track and to remind us what actions were or were not permitted to ensure we stayed focused on the tasks aimed at producing results.
And perhaps most importantly, we learned how to work as a team, which, at the end of the day, is what success is all about.
You may be asking, why another book on strategic planning? After all, a search of Amazon produces over 60,000 results. I think the answer is straightforward. Over the last few years, I had suggested to John that it would be a good idea if he would consider taking his lifetime of ideas, principles, tools and successes, and organize them into a book. Such a book would create a short course on how to bring visions of success to life and help companies replace the dusty binder on the shelf with bottom-line results.
Good ideas are ideas that work. John’s book is a good idea. It works. Anyone interested in improving the odds of achieving their goals, of bringing their vision of the future to life, owes it to themselves to read John’s
