December marks the time for Strategic Planning. Wolverine managers prepare budgets, vice presidents think about divisional goals, and all this gets rolled up by the Finance & Accounting group so we can understand the impact on our bottom line. You might think this is a once a year exercise, and the truth is a sort of yes, and no!

Budgeting fulfills an important corporate obligation. It helps us plan cash reserves, it gives our members an idea of rates for the upcoming year, and it helps us anticipate Wolverine’s future financial performance. So budgeting is the “once a year” part of my cryptic answer, although budgeting is not, by itself, strategic planning.

This week Wolverine’s senior team and the Board meet to discuss real strategic issues. We set a special day aside for this singular purpose. This year we will offer an overview of key foundations on Power Supply and Finance. Then I will review work from the Executive Team assessing Wolverine’s internal strengths and weaknesses, and external threats and opportunities. In other words, what does Wolverine do well, and what do we need to improve on? Similarly, we evaluate and assess what bad things could happen, and what good things we could chase after.

You can find bookstore shelves full of books on Strategic Planning — some might even be worth reading. Ultimately, good strategic planning comes down to understanding your mission, knowing your member-customers, realizing your strengths and weaknesses, and having the courage to really think about what could be. Wolverine’s honest attention to these hard questions laid the foundation of our past successes and provides the exciting basis for making Wolverine strong into the future. I look forward to sharing more with you next week following our meetings.