I was JUST getting ready to do an article related to this over at slyousten.com!

The May issue of the “Journal of Marketing” had a great article, “Marketing Under Uncertainty: The Logic of an Effectual Approach”, that I wanted to talk a bit about. The authors presented a case study to a group of experienced, successful entrepreneurs and to another group of managers with little to no background in entrepreneurship and then recorded each group’s thoughts.

Generally speaking, the non-entrepreneurs looked at the case in the classic manner of a school-trained marketer–segment the market, analyze the competition, write a business plan, get capital, execute the business plan; while the entrepreneurs looked at the situation much more dynamically–”How much can I afford to lose? What resources do I already have? What can I leverage and how does that change the plan?”

Rather than putting all their eggs in one basket and slogging forward with the plan regardless of the results, the experienced entrepreneurs were more prepared to take short-term losses and make course corrections as required. It’s a good read. I’ll stick up a link to it if I can find the article online.

The other thing that comes to mine is a favorite quote from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Speaking about being the Supreme Commander for the Allies in World War II and particularly about the D-Day landing at Normandy, Ike said “Plans are useless. But the planning PROCESS is invaluable.”

What he meant was that there are a whole bunch of things that won’t go the way you planned. Weather, bad luck, what your competitors are doing, and just plain oversights, can all throw a plan off-track. But because you’ve worked to create a plan, you have your relationships in place so you know who to talk to when something goes wrong. You’ve thought things through and given yourself a point to diverge from. It’s a great observation.

-Steve.
Steve Yousten´s last blog ..Apple–making things better?

But contingency plans also have to address, “What will I do if things go horribly right?” That is where it is important to have not only a plan, but a strong understanding of your priorities and what is most important to you. When you are presented with two great opportunities and you can’t take both, which one fits with your vision of yourself, your vision and your future?

Although you can not foresee all of the good and bad things that can happen, having a clear view of your goals, your mission and your values can help you make the right decisions when you need to.