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Strategic Planning Quotes

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strategic planning quotes

The Top Business Strategy & Strategic Planning Quotes

Quotes about business best practices, the top quotes on business strategy & strategic planning, business strategy and strategic planning is important for business professionals, teams, and organizations. included in the quotes below are deep insights about how to apply strategy and planning in business..

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Inspiring Quotes about Strategic Planning

by Funding For Good | Feb 27, 2023 | Strategic Planning | 0 comments

An open book with a pair of reading glasses on it, illustrating how we often turn to quotes for inspiration - including quotes about strategic planning.

When your organization is getting started with a strategic planning process, “inspiring” might not be the first word that comes to mind. But in Funding for Good’s work with dozens of organizations, we’ve found that inspiration is exactly what the strategic planning process provides. So to help inspire you, we’ve gathered some of our favorite quotes about strategic planning.

First though, if you’re struggling to get your planning process started, our guides on to How to Write a Strategic Planning RFP and How to Select and Work with a Strategic Planning Consultant can save you time and energy.

Quotes about the Value of Visioning in Strategic Planning

At the core of strategic planning is carving out time to create a vision for the future. Instead of just looking one year out, organizations often look 3, 5, or sometimes even 10 years ahead. Organizations map where they want to be, what they want to accomplish, and how they’re going to achieve those goals.

As these quotes suggest, that long-range goal-setting process often unlocks insights and inspiration and can help re-energize your team.

“Strategic planning is worthless – unless there is first a strategic vision.” John Naisbitt
“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Yogi Berra
“A goal should scare you a little and excite you A LOT.” Joe Vitale
“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Ken Blanchard

Quotes about the Strategic Planning Process

Here at Funding for Good, we think a lot about the strategic planning process. And we’re always working to ensure our approach meets each client’s unique needs. In our client work, our own favorite saying is:

“Strategic planning is a process, not a product.” Funding for Good

Leaders often find this approach helpful. It upends the idea that the goal of a strategic planning process is a single written document. Yes, a written plan is a key outcome. But just as important is aligning your stakeholders around a shared vision. The Harvard Business School and President Dwight D. Eisenhower both agree:

“Most people think of strategy as an event, but that’s not the way the world works.” Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Quotes that Reveal Unexpected Benefits of Strategic Planning

If you’re a leader who is perpetually running from one crisis to the next, these quotes illustrate how strategic planning can save you time in the long run.

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” Michael Porter
“An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing.” Dale Carnegie

The prioritization that strategic planning entails also comes in handy when you’re working to accomplish ambitious goals. Especially since none of us have enough time to do everything.

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.” Leonard Bernstein

Quotes about the Power of Fresh Perspectives

Another valuable part of the strategic planning process is how it creates a structured opportunity to bring in a range of perspectives. As a leader, you might hear voices and ideas you haven’t previously had the time or opportunity to consider. In our experience, this leads to a stronger plan and a greater chance of successful implementation. The experts agree.

“If you’re crafting a strategic plan for your organization and know which strategy you prefer, enlist others with differing views and opinions to help look for information that either proves or disproves the idea.” Harvard Business School
“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” George S. Patton

Finally, it can be helpful to remember that you don’t have to accomplish all your strategic goals tomorrow. Indeed, as Vincent van Gogh reminds us:

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” Vincent van Gogh

We hope you’re as inspired as we are to get working on strategic planning!

Read more: Surprising Statistics about Strategic Planning

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35 Inspirational Quotes On Strategy

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Strategy, a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim. It is important to have a strategy for success. May these quotes inspire you to get clear on your strategy for your life.

1.  “A vision without a strategy remains an illusion.” Lee Bolman

2.  “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” Michael Porter

3.  “You cannot be everything to everyone. If you decide to go north, you cannot go south at the same time.” Jeroen De Flander

4.  “Strategy without process is little more than a wish list.” Robert Filek

5. “Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.” Michael Porter

6.  “Hope is not a strategy.” Vince Lombardi

7.  “In reality strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.” Jack Welch

8.  “Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It’s not a matter of being better at what you do – it’s a matter of being different at what you do.” Michael Porter

9.  “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Sun Tzu

10. “Failure is nothing more than a chance to revise your strategy.” Anonymous

11.  “Strategy is a fancy word for coming up with a long-term plan and putting it into action.” Ellie Pidot

12.  “Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to succeed, but more importantly, what’s your plan to succeed?” Jim Rohn

13.  “There’s only one growth strategy: work hard.” William Hague

14.  “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Sir Winston Churchill

15. “Without strategy, execution is aimless. Without execution, strategy is useless.” Morris Chang

16.  “Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art.” Peter Drucker

17.  “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” Michael LeBoeuf

18.  “Strategy is style of thinking, a conscious and deliberate process, an intensive implementation system, the science of insuring future success.” Pete Johnson

19.  “Always start at the end before you begin.” Robert Kiyosaki

20. “Execution is the ability to mesh strategy with reality, align people with goals, and achieve the promised results.” Larry Bossidy

21.  “A strategy is necessary because the future is unpredictable.” Robert Waterman

22.  “Be real and adjust your strategy according to honest results.” Charles Caleb Colton

23.  “When your headlights aren’t on, the best rearview mirror available isn’t likely to improve your driving.” Marth Rogers

24.  “The best content in the world won’t drive revenue if nobody sees it.” Anonymous

25. “Make generosity part of your growth strategy.” Anonymous

26.  “You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.” Charles de Gaulle

27.  “I believe that people make their own luck by great preparation and good strategy.” Jack Canfield

28.  “The biggest risk is not taking any risk. in a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” Mark Zuckerberg

29.  “Perfect moves hold you back from moves at all.” Anonymous

30. “There is only one winning strategy. It is to carefully define the target market and direct a superior offering to that target market.” Philip Kotler

31.  “Fitting in is a short-term strategy, standing out pays off in the long run.” Seth Godin

32.  “The best marketing strategy ever: Care.” Gary Vaynerchuck

33.  “Sound strategy starts with having the right goal.” Michael Porter

34.  “Creating value for humanity should not be an afterthought but a core business strategy.” Anonymous

35. “A vision and strategy aren’t enough. The long-term key to success is execution. each day. Every day.” Richard M. Kovacevich

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Strategy Quotes I 54 Great Strategy Quotes & Strategy Execution Quotes!

Strategy quotes: my all time favorite list.

Strategy quotes and strategy execution quotes are great to spice up a PowerPoint presentation. (At the end of this page, you will find some strategy quotes in an easy-to-use banner format.)

I’ve written several posts like: ‘Useful Strategy Execution Quotes’, ‘Useful Quotes about Strategy’, ‘Amazing Process Quotes’ and ‘my favorite quotes on strategy and strategy execution’.

This list brings them all together.

Strategy Quotes: my top 5

Strategy Quote #1.  “Strategy is a pattern in a stream of decisions”  — Henry Mintzberg

Strategy Quote #2 . “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”   — Michael Porter

Strategy Quote #3. “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out”  — Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles 1962

Strategy Quote #4. “Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things”  — Miyamoto Musashi, legendary Japanese swordsman

Strategy Quote #5. “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory, tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”  — Sun Tsu, Ancient Chinese Military strategist

Strategy Execution quotes: my top 5

Strategy Execution Quote #6. “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results”  – Sir Winston Churchill

Strategy Execution Quote #7. “Execution is a specific set of behaviors and techniques that companies need to master in order to have competitive advantage. It’s a discipline of its own”   — Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy , Execution

Strategy Execution Quote #8 “Persistence is what makes the impossible possible, the possible likely, and the likely definite”  — Robert Half

Strategy Execution Quote #9. “Strategy Execution is the responsibility  that makes or breaks executives”  — Alan Branche and Sam Bodley-Scott, Implementation 

Strategy Execution Quote #1 0. “You can have anything you want – you just can’t have everything you want” — Anonymous

Strategy quotes / strategy execution quotes: the best of the rest

Here’s a longer list with strategy and strategy execution quotes (including my humble contribution). You will also find some results quotes, process quotes and quotes about plans. [I created a separate list with success quotes ]

Strategy Quote #11. “Strategy is thinking about a choice and choosing to stick with your thinking”

Strategy Quote #12.  “You cannot be everything to everyone. If you decide to go north, you cannot go south at the same time.”

Strategy Quote #13 . “Corporate Social Responsibility should be more than coloring your annual report green and giving a bag of money to your favorite charity in return for some nice pictures”

Strategy Quote #14.  “Like strategy, innovation is a cool word. Put strategy and innovation in a single phrase and a strategy tourist starts drooling.”

Strategy Quote #15. “Don’t fool yourself: having a strategy map is not the same as having a strategy”

16.  “Don’t go for small commitments on big things, but aim for big commitments on small things”

17.  “Dear Executives, execution commitment is not for sale. You have to earn it” 

18.  In a crisis: “A previously approved strategy could very well be less realistic today, due to reduced execution capacity in your organization.”

19.  “Dear CEO, when you get tired of telling the strategy storyline, you have reached three percent of your target population”

20.  “Most of us know the marketing concept of good communication. To make a message stick in the head of a future consumer, you need to deliver the message seven times using seven different channels. Why do executives think that to make a strategy stick, a boring speech delivered once  will be enough?”

21. “In a 4×100-metre relay race, one runner starts before the other, but in the end it’s the sum of the four runners that determines performance”

22.“ There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all”  — Peter Drucker

23. “What’s the use of measuring speed if you don’t go in the right direction”

24.  “A Balanced Scorecard helps turn parrots – people who just repeat what they have heard – into ambassadors – people who understand the what and why and can reason decisions with others”

25. “If you have too many rear view mirrors , it will be very difficult to see the road ahead” 

Strategy Execution Quote #26.  “From Good to Great is nice, but knowing when great is good enough is even better.”

Strategy Execution Quote #27. “Strategy Execution isn’t something other people should worry about while you are doing something far more important” 

28. “Budgets are like oil tankers – they need time to change course. You don’t want to be left standing on the deck of your oil tanker, watching all the opportunities pass you by unable to stop and turn to chase after them.”

29. “Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment”  — Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, Built to Last

30. “After a business implements a strategy, competitors will react, and the firm’s strategy will need to adapt to meet the new challenges. There is no stopping point and no final battle. The competitive cycle continues on perpetually. Produce and compete or perish”   — Thomas Timings Holme

31. “Body language can’t save you when someone is reading your strategy document”

32. “When building a new strategy, don’t ever let people seduce you with the line, ‘But that’s always been budgeted for’.”

33. “The best time to make up your mind about people is never” — Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story

34. “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction” — Albert Einstein

35. “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak” — Hans Hoffmann,  Introduction to the Bootstrap

36. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” — Leonardo Da Vinci

37. “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work” — Peter Drucker

38. “Initiative prioritisation doesn’t mean distributing all available resources to all known projects” — Volker Voigt

39. “Strategy Execution is all about realizing the full potential of your strategy – and not limiting yourself to only 50, 60 or 70 percent” 

40. “I have never seen a successful project run by a bad project manager”

41. “An organisation’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage” — Jack Welch

42. “Developing people in a classroom is a cost. It becomes an investment when they start applying what they learnt on-the-job. It only becomes a success the moment it has a positive impact on (performance) what the job actually needs to achieve”

43. “In life, as in football, you won’t go far unless you know where the goalposts are”  — Arnold H. Glasgow

44. “The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them”  — Denis Watley

45. “No goal commitment equals no performance, whatever else you try”

46. “We tend to think that, in a traditional organisation, people are producing results because management wants results, but the essence of a high-quality organisation is people producing results because they want the results. It’s puzzling we find that hard to understand, that if people are really enjoying, they’ll innovate, they’ll take risks, they’ll have trust with one another because they are really committed to what they’re doing and it’s fun”  — Peter Senge

47. “Real commitment means doing everything in your power to get things done.”

48. “Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a ‘nervous system’, to coordinate its actions”   — Bill Gates, co-founder Microsoft

49. “The result of bad communication is a disconnection between strategy and execution”  — Chuck Martin, former Vice President IBM

50. “Look beyond the send button  and shift your focus to the receiving end”  

Strategy Execution Quote #51. “If companies would invest as much time in their strategy cascade as they do in their budgeting process, most would perform a lot better”

Strategy Execution Quote #52. “In many organisations, budget is king. It’s like the Amazon, the source of life. The strategy process is more like a small stream that meanders slowly through the organisation (and if you’re unlucky, the water doesn’t flow at all and starts to smell).” 

Strategy Execution Quote #53 . “A strategy, even a great one,   doesn’t implement itself”

Strategy Execution Quote #54.  “Just because someone said yes to you doesn’t mean something is going to happen. Most of the yeses we get are noes in disguise”

Strategy Execution Quote #55 . “Don’t measure your performance by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished within your capabilities”

Strategy Quotes – images

Here are a few of the strategy quotes in an easy-to-use banner format

Like these strategy quotes and strategy execution quotes?

Strategy quotes and more

Here’s a PPT document with my 100 favorite quotes in an easy-to-use banner format.

Feel  free to share on social media, website, … [a link back to this page would be highly appreciated :-)]

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Strategy Quotes

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strategic planning quotes

The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.

You've got to think about big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.

Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art.

Sound strategy starts with having the right goal

In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.

Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point.

Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It's not a matter of being better at what you do - it's a matter of being different at what you do.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.

Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.

Each generation has to stand up for democracy. It can't take anything for granted and may have to fight fundamental battles anew.

strategic planning quotes

Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there.

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

The future influences the present just as much as the past.

Strategy is a pattern in a stream of decisions

I believe that when people say something is impossible, it's only impossible because a strategy has not been found yet.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

You can talk all you want about having a clear purpose and strategy for your life, but ultimately this means nothing if you are not investing the resources you have in a way that is consistent with your strategy. In the end, a strategy is nothing but good intentions unless it's effectively implemented.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Fitting in is a short-term strategy that gets you nowhere. Standing out is a long-term strategy that takes guts and produces results.

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.

Finally, strategy must have continuity. It can't be constantly reinvented.

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IMAGES

  1. William H. Hastie Quote: “Strategic planning for the future is the most hopeful indication of

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  2. John Naisbitt Quote: “Strategic planning is worthless

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  3. John Naisbitt Quote: “Strategic planning is worthless

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  4. John Naisbitt Quote: “Strategic planning is worthless

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  5. Jack Welch Quote: “Strategy is not a lengthy action plan. It is the evolution of a central idea

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  6. John Naisbitt Quote: “Strategic planning is worthless

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COMMENTS

  1. Strategic Planning Quotes (92 quotes)

    Strategic Planning Quotes. “People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete - the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.”. “If you want to succeed and leave your competitors behind, you need great plans and even greater strategies.”.

  2. TOP 25 STRATEGIC PLANNING QUOTES

    Strategic planning is worthless - unless there is first a strategic vision. John Naisbitt Business, Vision, Firsts 83 Copy quote If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere Henry A. Kissinger Inspiring, Success, Baseball 129 Copy quote If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. …

  3. The Top Business Strategy & Strategic Planning Quotes

    Included in the quotes below are deep insights about how to apply strategy and planning in business. A vision without a strategy remains an illusion. –Lee Bolman The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. –Michael Porter You cannot be everything to everyone. If you decide to go north, you ...

  4. Inspiring Quotes about Strategic Planning

    “Strategic planning is worthless – unless there is first a strategic vision.” John Naisbitt “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Yogi Berra “A goal should scare you a little and excite you A LOT.” Joe Vitale “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Ken Blanchard Quotes about the Strategic Planning Process

  5. Quotes for Strategic Planning

    Strategic Planning “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight Eisenhower “In the face of uncertainties, planning defines the particular place you want to be and how you intend...

  6. Quotes about Strategic Planning (39 quotes)

    The sole purpose of strategic planning is to enable the company to gain, as effectively as possible, a sustainable edge over its competitors. Votes: 4. Kenichi Ohmae. In every company which I have done strategic planning, the number-one value people choose is always integrity.

  7. Quotes about Strategic Planning (39 quotes)

    The sole purpose of strategic planning is to enable the company to gain, as effectively as possible, a sustainable edge over its competitors. Votes: 4. Kenichi Ohmae. In every company which I have done strategic planning, the number-one value people choose is always integrity.

  8. 35 Inspirational Quotes On Strategy

    5. “Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.” Michael Porter. 6. “Hope is not a strategy.” Vince Lombardi. 7. “In reality strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general …

  9. 54 Great Strategy Quotes & Strategy Execution Quotes!

    Strategy Quotes: my top 5 Strategy Quote #1. “Strategy is a pattern in a stream of decisions” — Henry Mintzberg Strategy Quote #2. “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” — Michael Porter Strategy Quote #3. “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out” — Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles 1962

  10. TOP 25 STRATEGY QUOTES (of 1000)

    Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point. Henry Mintzberg Opposites, Planning, Starting 130 Copy quote Show source Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It's not a matter of being better at what you do - it's a matter of being different at what you do. Michael Porter