Then Jack Walsh walked in, fearing analysis paralysis. Planners were fired or reassigned, and much of the planning work that still existed was shifted to line managers who, Welch believed, were more prone to rely on market instincts than data to make judgments. Welch attacked the first of these activities. By the early 1980s, it was time to take the capability out of corporate and push it deeper into the organization. This will happen with alliances.
Companies are likely to build up a collaborative core.
They will gain understanding, discipline, and process. And then someone like Jack Welch will come along, cut it down, and squeeze the capabilities out to the business units. The central coordinating role, however, will remain. Knowing that trajectory should help with present decisions. When advocating a collaborative core to top management, two lessons from the history of strategic planning are worth bearing in mind.