It was D.D. Eisenhower who said: "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
For business leaders, planning that goes into strategy is essential. You must know what is happening in the environment. You have a duty to understand the business sector. Understanding market share and profitability helps determine strategy. These are tools, when given to God, become quite useful for humans. Mintzberg & Quinn in their text The Strategy Process observed: "Strategy deals with the unknowable, not the uncertain."
Business leaders work hard at looking at patterns, factors, trends, research, known and unknown needs - elements, among others that go into planning; but they do not know the future. God does.
Proverbs 16:9 (NLT) We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.
The process is ongoing. The market changes. Internal factors change. People come and go. New dynamics emerge. The Christian business leader should use good planning and management techniques to control the business: but s/he does this with the absolute certainty that the LORD determines the outcome. This fact in no way excuses people from planning, thinking, strategizing.
Are you planning with God in mind?
Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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Great word for today. We can't forget God in our business, but we must not forget ourselves either.
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