When you think you are green, you keep growing. When you think you are ripe, you begin to get rotten. Planning is the process that makes a vision happen. Planning may not be as glamorous and intriguing as some parts of retailing, but understanding it completely will give you an edge over almost all of your competition. Because your competition is probably just going through the motions and not really planning.
Authentic planning is virtually a lost art.
I talk to many young lions in the furniture industry. Many of the newer generation of CEO's in the furniture business understand the need to plan wisely, to sell their plan to their staff with passion, and to relentlessly strive to keep their plan alive. An important number of young entrepreneurs admit they need help in mastering these critical skills. In contrast, too many of the veteran furniture CEO's are confident that flooding the media with lots of weak ads and tired commercials will continue to hold their market share. Too often they imagine they are planning when they are really doing the same thing in about the same way year after year.