Best Practices in Strategic Planning: Insights from a Former Chief Strategy Officer

In an era of rapid technological disruption, geopolitical uncertainty, and shifting market demands, strategic planning must balance long-term vision with adaptability. We spoke with Tom Garrison, former VP and Chief Strategy Officer at Intel PC Client Group, on how leaders can refine their approach. His perspective underscores the importance of disciplined planning, customer-centric thinking, and organizational alignment as keys to turning strategy into sustainable execution. 

1. How do you determine when to adapt your strategy in response to market changes versus when to stay the course with your long-term plans? 

• Companies should always be open to changing a strategy to meet new or evolving market conditions. When developing a business or product strategy, embed guardrails around market expectations, customer requirements, competition, etc. that trigger an automatic reevaluation of the strategy if conditions fall outside those boundaries. If conditions fall within the boundaries, then strategies should be regularly reviewed annually as part of regular business strategy planning. 

2. How do you recommend companies identify which strategic initiatives to protect versus scale back when facing economic headwinds? 

• The challenge around scaling back or cutting various initiatives is that oftentimes leaders become emotionally attached and lose their objectivity. Worse yet, they continue spending on a particular strategy because of sunk cost already spent on a program. Shareholders and owners are looking for the best balance of near– and long-term return on their forward-looking investment. Therefore, prioritize all programs based on the net present value of each program’s expected margin and divide that by the future investment required to achieve that margin. Lastly, multiply that number by the probability of market success based on leadership’s judgment. Rank order each project from greatest to least and make cuts down the list where funding runs out. 

3. How can companies best factor in the accelerating influence of AI and geopolitical volatility such as trade wars into their strategic planning framework?  

• The world is much more uncertain now than at any other time over the past 20 years because of new technologies that have yet to mature, such as AI, as well as geopolitical tensions and conflicts. As a result, strategies cannot be “brittle” to market conditions. They must withstand a range of possibilities. When developing strategies, consider the “what-if” scenario planning technique where a range of possible scenarios is considered to gauge how to successfully a strategy would likely survive such a scenario. Since uncertainty and volatility are expected over the next five-plus years, choose strategies that fare favorably under the broadest set of market scenarios you have evaluated. 

4. What framework do you use to identify potential blind spots or disruptions when developing strategy? 

• Any firm is likely to have blind spots, especially when it is not looking for them. As part of an annual strategy planning process, performing a comprehensive market scan is vital. Identify how the market is evolving from a political or regulatory perspective. Meet with a range of key customers and non-customers to deeply understand the problems they consider to be the most pressing (and therefore the most valuable). Keep a keen eye out to see how new usages may be emerging. All of these areas are independent of your company’s product or strategy, but they must be factored into your strategy to avoid falling prey to a blind spot.  

5. How do you recommend organizations balance short-term performance pressures against long-term strategic objectives? 

• The best way to balance near-term versus longer-term programs is to measure them both using common financial metrics. For all future revenues or margins, calculate the net present value of each program and then risk–adjust those numbers based on the leadership team’s judgment of the probability of success. By comparing every program to “today’s dollars,” a firm can make trade–off decisions. Programs may need to be adjusted to smooth out financial “holes” in future years as older programs are winding down and before future programs have fully ramped up. These types of trade–offs and adjustments should be managed by the business units versus in a centralized fashion, since the business unit is closest to customers and the products.  

6. What practices have you found most effective for translating strategic plans into consistent execution? 

• The best path to consistent execution is a consistent strategy and set of product requirements. Strategy changes make execution much more difficult. Setting a strategy and a resulting set of product requirements gives the execution teams a solid foundation to execute. Conversely, trying to execute a product when the strategy keeps shifting is like making changes to an airplane while it is flying in the air — it is possible, but not efficient, and the risk of failure is very high. 

7. What are some of the best–known methods and common pitfalls of strategy development? 

• The North Star for all strategy development is to stay relentlessly focused on the customer and their needs. A good strategy should be solving the customer’s most important challenges. Also, keep the discipline of researching the market to identify “market whispers” of changes that may impact your strategy. The most common pitfall of strategy development is to develop a product first and then try to formulate a strategy to fit that product. Another common pitfall is for leaders to delegate strategy development down their organizations or establish centralized teams that are removed from customers and the products. The best strategy development is done by senior leaders who are closest to the business and to customers. 

8. How can strategy development be integrated more holistically within an organization? 

• Employees should understand strategy (not just executives). Take time to explain strategies to employees. A strategy is inherently the “what” a company is doing to achieve their goal, but employees should also be explained the “why” of a strategy to fully grasp the rationale, so they feel a part of it. 

9. Can you share an example of a corporate planning cycle with a timeline?  

• First phase: World Map (January–February) 
  • Establish a five- to seven–year horizon to understand what is happening in the market. How are users and usages changing? How is the environment shifting, and how may that change the needs of the users? This should be presented by business leaders to the CEO and executive staff. 

• Second phase: Strategic Long–Range Plan (April–May) 
  • This step is CEO–defined. What are four to five strategic questions for the company that should be answered based on the World Map presentations? Each strategic question is assigned to a senior leader to investigate with a small tiger team and report back to the CEO and executive staff. 

• Third phase: Product Line Business Plan (July–September)  
  • A three- to five-year horizon where each major business unit factors everything from the World Map and Strategic Long–Range plan and defines their business plan for three years based on available resourcing plans. Based on those programs, the business unit develops a full three-year P&L. The business plan and resulting P&L are presented to the CEO and leadership team.  

• At each phase, a report-out of key elements to employees helps enlist support and understanding of the risks and rewards throughout the organization. 

Conclusion:

Strategic planning is not a one-time exercise but an ongoing discipline that requires vigilance, adaptability, and clear communication across an organization. As Tom notes, the best strategies are rooted in deep market understanding, scenario planning, and a relentless focus on customer needs. By embedding structured review cycles, financial rigor, and cross-functional alignment, leaders can ensure their strategies remain resilient during uncertainty.