This week, I had the pleasure of joining the fascinating Professor Tony Watson "on stage" to help illustrate a point as part of his presentation on Strategic Thinking at the first of the latest season of events from the Ingenuity Programme.

Walking his own talk for the event, Tony developed his theme that the "everyday entrepreneurs" that he has researched "plan, but don't plan", that strategic thinking drives their businesses more than having and sticking to a strategic plan does.

It's an interesting idea and one that found a lot of support amongst an audience of local business owners. But how does someone (i.e. me) who spends a lot of time working with clients to develop strategic marketing plans, reconcile Tony's perspective with the client interest in "having a plan"?

My observation would be that clients come to me with a very much more tactical view of what marketing is than a strategic one.  By wanting a plan, they want guidance as to what to do to implement the tactical elements of promoting their business to make sure that their efforts are focused on what will work for them, that the different aspects of such a plan are effectively integrated and that they will see a good return on their investment (and that they will be able to emasure that).  This is what I'm doing with a new client who has a clear idea of what their business strategy is but no experience of implementing a promotional campaign - and is just what they need right now.

A strategic marketing plan would be something different.  Developing such a thing is an exercise in helping the business owner to understand their market, the strengths and weaknesses of their business, the characteristics of the market environment in which they operate, as well as the competitive environment.  It takes in the wider scope of what is going on around them and a deeply focused look at where they want to the business to go and what it will take to get them there.  This process can help the business owner to develop a more stratgic view of their business and how it should operate. 

Whilst the idea of developing a strategic marketing plan might seem at odds with the "plan, but don't plan" philosophy, one of Tony's observations is that strategic thinking in business is aided by owners seeking information and learning more widely about the issues that affect and can be affected by the business.  And I think the process of developing a stratgic marketing plan can help make this possible and certainly show the value of that wider knowledge.

It's a process that's useful for business owners who want to move from a transactional to a more relationship-based approach to their customers; to those who want to develop greater flexibility to cope with changing markets; for owners who've realised that something needs to change but they're not sure what... in fact for anyone who wants to ensure that their business does not get set in its ways and hampered by "old ways of doing things".

The resulting plan will be documented but I'd be the last person to suggest that once that job has been done the plan is the end of it.  Rather, I'd hope the client will use it as a touchstone against which any opportunities, challenges and changes in the market can be assessed and decisions as to whether to go with the plan or go with the flow determined accordingly.

I'll be attending Tony's one-day workshop, Strategic Thinking and Everyday Entrepreneurship, on the 7th September at the prestigious Sir Colin Campbell Building on the University of Nottingham Innovation Park to join other everyday entrepreneurs exploring the issue of how to plan, but don't plan.

Also at the taster event was Dr Lee Martin talking about how to generate new business ideas - more about his session here.