Strategic Planning Kit For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Strategic Planning Is Most Used Tool by Executives

During the past dozen years or so, you may have witnessed an explosion in the use of management tools and techniques — everything from Six Sigma to benchmarking. Keeping up with the latest and greatest, as well as deciding which tools to put to work, are key parts of every leader's job. But picking the winners from the losers is tough. As new tools appear every year, others seem to drop off the radar. Unfortunately, there's no Consumer Reports for management tools, so choosing and using tools can become a risky and potentially expensive gamble, leaving many leaders stymied.

In 1993, Bain & Company, a leading management consulting company, launched a multi-year research project to get the facts about management tools and trends. The objective of the study was to provide managers with information to identify and integrate tools that improve bottom-line results as well as understand their strategic challenges and priorities.

Bain assembled a database that now includes nearly 10,000 businesses from more than 70 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. The Bain & Company's 2011 Management Tools survey received responses from a broad range of international executives. To qualify for inclusion in the study, a tool had to be relevant to senior management, topical as evidenced by coverage in the business press, and measurable.

The results? Out of all the tools included in the survey, 65 percent ...