Book Review: 60 Minute Strategic Plan

Paperback, 168 pages, published December 31, 2006
Book by John E. Johnson and Anne Marie Smith

Review by Vistage member Barbara Bry

I promised my Chair, Jim Wyner, that I’d write a strategic plan for the new venture that my husband and I have started. We have a weekly radio show and podcast, “I’m There for You Baby: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to the Galaxy,” and our goal is to be nationally syndicated and write a book. But sitting down to write a strategic plan can be worse than a root canal. I keep putting it off but then Jim says, “Barbara, I want to review a draft with you at our next one-to-one, and then you need to present it to the group.” Now I have a deadline and I’m accountable to the group. This is getting serious. I have to walk the walk if I’m going to talk the talk.

And like manna from heaven, help comes unexpectedly. Shelly Bowen, the executive web editor for Vistage, asks me to review the book, 60 Minute Strategic Plan, written by John E. Johnson and Anne Marie Smith. Johnson, a Vistage speaker and strategic management consultant, was a long-time Chair in the Sacramento area. He developed the concept for the book out of his experience dealing with many members like me who are naturally impatient and have the attention span of a gnat. His co-author, Anne Marie Smith, was the co-founder of a technical and communication solutions and staffing company.

I'm wary when I read the title. A good strategic plan, I think, takes more than 60 minutes. This definitely won’t work. Then I sit down to read the book, which turns out to be an easy and entertaining read that provides a practical outline on how to write a strategic plan with your team. The book includes examples that help you get started, thought-provoking exercises, and a full-size planning worksheet with 12 steps. The goal is to end up with about a 300-word document.

In addition to the book, you can purchase interactive software ($149) online that explains the entire process with examples, and it allows you to fill out and save your plan on your computer. Even though I’m not the most technically savvy person, I load the software in less than five minutes.

On Friday at 1 p.m., I sit down with the three key members of the team of this new radio venture. I give each person a copy of the worksheet, and we move through the 12 steps, each of which takes about five minutes. With each step, I read a summary of the explanation from the book, we all take a moment to jot down our thoughts independently, and then we have a brief (2-3 minute) discussion. By 2:05 p.m. (OK, it took us 65 minutes!), we have completed the 12-step program, and we’re definitely on our way to strategic plan recovery. The steps move in a logical order starting with stating the issue and your assumptions and moving through items such as vision, values, strengths and weaknesses and concluding with a concise title. We had a lot of fun creating the title.

After the meeting, I enter everything on the template on the computer and print it out. Wow! We actually have a good draft of a strategic plan, and no one had to suffer. We will review the document at our next team meeting and most likely make some minor changes. But the hard work is done. And I have something to share with Jim and my Vistage group.

I highly recommend 60 Minute Strategic Plan to business owners and entrepreneurs for not only a specific project but in thinking about the whole company. In particular, I liked the visual format and easy-to-understand explanations, and my team had a good time filling out the worksheet.Know of any other strategic planning resources? Share them in the reader review section below.

Barbara Bry is COO of Blackbird Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, and is also the producer and co-host of a weekly radio show and podcast on entrepreneurship, I'm There for You Baby: The Entrepreneur's Guide to the Galaxy.

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