Strategy vs. Planning: Know the Difference

Only 60% of middle-market CEOs have a formal growth strategy. And of those strategies, only a few are actual strategy.

Here are a few things strategy isn’t.

Strategic planning isn’t strategy

Strategic planning borrows the word strategy, but the output is usually a wishlist or to-do list: increase our footprint, run a big marketing campaign, attract top talent, and grow revenues. Planning makes sure things get done, but your competitor’s list probably sounds the same, so checking off items likely won’t set you apart. If it isn’t creating advantage, it isn’t strategy.

Growth forecasting isn’t strategy

You could expect a certain amount of growth based on last year’s numbers and activities if nothing about your business and market ever changed. But you know your business doesn’t exist in a vacuum and that markets change all the time. That’s why, if you’re chasing growth by doing more of the same, you could stall and fall or, best-case scenario, you eventually plateau. Last year’s numbers won’t tell you what’s coming down the pike, find opportunities, or point out pitfalls. They’re a backward view, and strategy requires you to face forward.

Your vision/mission statement isn’t your strategy

Some CEOs conflate vision/mission with strategy and attach metrics to it so it can feel real and achievable for employees. Yet 53% of the world’s workers still don’t know what they should be doing. That’s because vision/mission is an imagined ideal future state of your business or the world—in other words, a result. Like a metric. While you can make vision/mission and metrics more meaningful, that doesn’t make them strategy. They can be part of the conversation.

So then, what is strategy?

Roger L. Martin, ranked amongst the world's top management thinker, puts it simply: Strategy is an integrated set of choices that positions you to win. Planning is laying out projects, timelines, and budgets. One creates advantage. The other executes it.

Watch: Roger Martin, a world leader in strategy distinguishes between planning vs. strategy

More than 40% of mid-market CEOs are running companies without real strategy. Make sure yours isn’t one of them.

Strategy at Stratwell

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References:

National Center for the Middle Market. “Strategic Planning for Growth: How Middle Market Companies Map Their Futures,” PRNewire.com. Accessed October 27, 2025.

Jim Carter. “Anemic Employee Engagement Points to Leadership Challenges,” Gallup. Blogpost, August 5, 2025. Gallup.com. Accessed October 27, 2025