How to improve strategic planning

Almost all large companies undertake a time-consuming strategic-planning process that leaves many executives frustrated with the results.
Executives in the satisfied minority work for companies that go beyond budgets and financial targets to give the annual process a more important role in developing strategy.
One approach is to start the exercise not by examining the numbers but by identifying the long-term issues facing the company; another is to ensure that strategic-review meetings involve frank conversations among the ultimate decision makers.
Some companies use tailored strategic metrics to track the implementation of the annual plan, and others link its implementation to human-resources systems that influence the behavior of the managers who execute the strategy.