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Strategic Planning is a complex, multi-dimensional process used to approach higher level, unstructured, non-programmable, non-routine problems for which no predetermined, ordered responses exist in the firm.

Strategic Planning is concerned with “Ends” and “Means.”

• Determine the mission and business scope of the organization (Ends).
• Determine higher level goals which significantly affect overall firm direction (Means).
• Identify and create strategic resources providing advantage (Means).
• Develop patterns of action that marshal and allocate resources to increase the probability of attaining those goals (Means).

Antaean Solutions attempts to combine the best of several techniques for creating strategy and applies the Star Trek Theory of Strategy . . . “Boldly Going Where No Firms Have Gone Before.”

• Before a firm can boldly go, it must understand where everyone else has gone before (boldly or otherwise) -- Strategy as SWOT & Positioning.
• Based on that understanding, a pioneering map can be developed to guide the expedition -- Strategy as Planning, Leverage & Stretch.
• As the adventure progresses, mis-specifications in the route are likely, requiring on-going re-calibration and adjustment -- Planning as Learning.
• To reduce the probability of failure, the firm’s equipment must be likely to provide some advantage in the quadrant of the universe it is entering -- Planning as Leverage & Stretch.

We also believe in some “universal truths” that guide our process.

• The people who know the most about the prospective customers should have the most say in strategy formulation.
• Strategy is the same in large companies as in small; at the top of the corporation or in its smallest work group.
• The highest goal any company can have is to provide value-added, hard to copy services.
• The essence of good strategy is simplicity and integration.

But, perhaps most importantly, we believe that creating strategy, without implementation, is a useless activity. We will very seldom commit to helping with strategy unless we can also help with its implementation.