Successful strategies are visions, not plans! Mintzberg once made this powerful statement by saying that we don’t need planning in the strategy formulation process. A planning approach would result in static, highly inflexible plans, not taking into account the dynamism of the environment, in which businesses occur nowadays. Strategic planning can blind us and is incompatible with serious strategy making. 
Do we agree?
Indeed, we are talking about strategy formulation, the “making off”. We need room for flexibility and vision. Strategy making is not only a matter of top management, executed through a top-down approach, but a learning process throughout the whole company.
It should be an inspiring process and encourage informal learning that produces new perspectives within a firm. Although a planning is a powerful tool to translate strategy into practice, it can paralyze us while trying to think strategically. A planning should make a contribution around the strategy making process, not inside. It gives us guidance in the executing process.
However, strategy formulation should focus more on the process of strategy making and how organizations can develop its knowledge and capabilities in a changing environment, instead of focussing on the content and making strict and detailed plans.
Rather to seal it off, we need to loosen the process of strategy making and give room for flexibility and vision. Strategic planning will follow in the executing process. Only through that path, we can cope with the changing environment. (Malou van der Pal)
