Last weekend’s implosion of Texas Stadium (which took place just down the road from Beyond Budgeting Round Table [BBRT] North America headquarters) made me think of something highly respected Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry once said about planning:

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”

I wholeheartedly agree.

In practice, I find that many organizations commit two common planning errors when it comes to setting their target goals.

First, they confuse these targets (hoped-for performance) with forecasts. While the targets are their projections of actual performance based on different scenarios, there is nearly always a gap between those projections and actual performance. A company becomes future-ready through continuous planning efforts that close the shortfall gaps and exploit the overperformance gaps.

Second, companies frequently obsess over goals while ignoring market realities. And this ignorance prevents them from making the adjustment necessary to achieve their optimum outcome. If opportunities arise, take advantage of them to run faster. If the headwinds are much stronger than anticipated, reconsider the risks you will incur and what alternative means will reach the same objective.

I hope to see each of you in Dallas next week at the BBRT Annual Conference. ###