The False Sense of Security of Plans

 

Beware being so busy making plans, that you are too busy to plan for one of life's nasty little surprises!

Plans

Plans are excellent, until you try to execute them!

Plans

The best plans are made under the influence of alcohol.

The trouble is that the execution of these plans is undertaken when sober and, as such, they are doomed to failure!

Plans

The enemy always has a say in your plans!

Plans and Deadlines

Plans without deadlines are nothing more than dreams.

Plan B's

Never prepare a Plan B, its makes you less motivated to succeed with Plan A.

Action Plans

Action plans without deadlines are not worth the paper that they are printed on.

Schedules

Never allow yourself to become a victim of someone else's schedule adjustments and changes of plan.

Plans

The best laid plans of mice and men are often screwed up by the intervention of lawyers.

Hope

Whenever I hear the word "hope" used by management, when discussing their prospects and business plans, I immediately reach for my sick bag.

The British Weather

Under no circumstances plan a barbecue more than 24 hours ahead, long term planning of more than 24 hours will always guarantee rain.

Doomsayers

Those who foretell the end of the world (plague, war, famine, global warming etc) may, in the long run be proven to be correct. However, as John Maynard Keynes once said:

"In the long run we are all dead."

Mankind is best served by working on the assumption that we will still be here tomorrow. Those who plan for Armageddon are merely encouraging it, and wishing their lives away.

Advice To Diplomats

When putting together a breakthrough diplomatic deal, that involves the transfer of money, make sure that you communicate your plan to the banks involved first.

Hope

Hope should not form any part of a business plan or company strategy.

People

The best laid plans, and well thought through strategies, will often "come a cropper" as a result of the one unpredictable element essential to all of them...people.

Were it to become possible to remove people from a plan, then you would be assured of success.

The Market

Let the market decide where to allocate resources, not the five year plan.

The Vision Thing

Politicians are very fond of regaling us with their vision of the future.

Gandiose plans for social and environmental engineering are placed before us, in the expectation that we will "buy into the dream".

There is one significant shortcoming to these plans, and the politicians' vison of "utopia".

The plans have 5-10 year time horizons, yet the average shelf life of a politician is 2 years or less.

In other words the plans will never come to fruition, because the person who originated them will have gone elsewhere and will be thinking up new plans.

World Domination

My plans for world domination have been put on hold today, as I have a hangover.

The Moon

I have a plan for the moon:

• Construct a giant solar panel, covering the entire surface of the bright side of the moon.



• Transmit the energy generated, via microwaves, to satellites placed in geo-stationary orbit around the earth.



• These in turn would transmit the energy to ground receiving stations.



• These would distribute the energy, via conventional means, around the world.

A simple solution to the problem of dwindling energy reserves.

Nature Abhors a Vacuum

Advice to world leaders, seeking regime change in countries other than their own.

When invading countries, on the pretext of helping the local population rid themselves of the incumbent regime, ensure that the following two rules are adhered to:

• Make sure that you have a plan for the reconstruction, and repair, of any damage caused.



• Don't "cut and run", until the local replacement political and security infrastructure is strong enough to stand on its own two feet.

Nature abhors a vacuum; if you leave before the above points have been addressed others will fill the vacuum, and chaos will ensue.