So, just putting them together and calling it strategic planning doesn’t help. Unfortunately, those things are not the same, strategy and planning. People have put those two things together to call something strategic planning. More recently, has been a discipline called strategy. People would plan out the activities they’re going to engage in.

ROGER MARTIN: This thing called planning has been around for a long, long time. His episode, called “A Plan is Not A Strategy,” originally aired as part of the HBR Quick Study video series in June 2022. Martin says starting with a plan is comforting to many of us, but it’s a terrible way to make strategy.

In this episode, you’ll learn the difference between strategy and planning AND how to escape the common traps of strategic planning. Today, we bring you a conversation with one of the world’s leading thinkers on strategy – Roger Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy, case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock new ways of doing business. Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.Find more episodes of the HBR Quick Study series on YouTube.Watch the original HBR Quick Study episode: A Plan Is Not a Strategy (June 2022).HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. Key topics include: strategic planning, competitive strategy, risk management, innovation, and travel and tourism industry. The tricky thing about that is that you don’t control them.”

“A strategy, on the other hand, specifies a competitive outcome that you wish to achieve, which involves customers wanting your product or service. Those are more comfortable because you control them,” Martin explains. “Plans typically have to do with the resources you’re going to spend. In contrast, setting strategy should push your organization outside its comfort zone – if you’re doing it right. Planning is comforting but it’s a terrible way to make strategy, says Roger Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

Between by Mary Ting