Is long term strategic planner over

Twins, originally uploaded by J.T.R..

Since the on take of the digital world. We have all continued to discuss whether the long term strategic process is in fact the best way to address our brands future. With things changing on a daily basis and our ability to access real time data at any point how can we take the time to wait for the next planning cycle to do address it.

Technology and our consumers are changing and we must adapt to truly take advantage before it becomes the norm. Not sit back and wait for things to pan out in our favour. Because they wont

Then while we chatted about, something special happened... we were forced to... by a simple thing like the economy collapsing. Its funny how terrible situations are often the only thing that make people wake the f$%k up.

But the truth is being truly adaptable to the needs to consumers is in fact the only way forward. Because guess what... they will change brands to someone smaller more nimble who is.

Here is a nice blog post on the differences made when Office Depot in the US adapted faster to their customers needs. Waitrose in the UK also adapted quickly by launching a cheaper essentials range that aided in it not missing out too badly during the decline of consumer confidence and drop in overall spending.

The guys at W&K also looked to adapt the old account planner brief creative brief producer do some stuff... model for Nokia for their supernova campaign. Which included a faster more nimble team including planner, producer and client. So they could continue to build content and adapt to the needs of the audience over a 3 month period.

The industry has talked about fast strategy at an IPA event. With everyone giving their tricks they have used over the years that I created a widget for here a few years back.

We need a prepared mind constantly taking in data and being able to adapt to the situations at hand. But in focusing on this too much we might in fact loose the essence of the brand and our abilities to truly identify and take advantage of future opportunities as well as the one in front of us.

So we need split personalities and split calenders. Time that addresses whats in front of us. But also has an eye on the horizon and what we need to do to keep the business at its core essence but always keep it moving forward.