How Amazon’s Strategic Planning Examples Can Transform Your Approach

Leaders know that traditional strategic planning processes aren’t working—but it’s hard to find strategic planning examples of what does work. One study of 400 global CEO found that “between two-thirds to three-quarters of large organizations struggle with [strategy] execution” while just 35% of corporate leaders believe their strategy will succeed.

One company has consistently beat the odds: Amazon. We’ve put together an in-depth look into Amazon’s semi-annual budgeting and planning process, but it’s both unrealistic and undesirable to try to directly copy and paste their approach into your organization. Instead, leaders should take key tactics from Amazon and embrace experimentation of the strategy process itself.

But where to start? If you’d like to borrow some of the tactics Amazon has implemented to develop and implement its strategy, try one or more of the following ideas.   

Assess Last Year’s Results

At Amazon, the first question every team answers when planning is, “What outcomes did you achieve last year in comparison to what you planned, and why?” Teams are expected to be transparent and objective in their self-assessment, or leaders may have less confidence in them or their plans moving forward.

To conduct this analysis in your own organization, consider: 

• Running a retrospective. Bring teams together to compile their list of outcomes for the prior year: what did they hope to achieve? Then, ask them to think through what helped them achieve those outcomes, what didn’t, as well as any activities that didn’t have a clear result. Finally, have them brainstorm what they want to try doing differently next year, and prioritize the top ideas. 
• Reviewing metrics. Organizations are awash in data—but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re measuring the right things. Often, metrics focus on outputs (what people do) instead of outcomes (the desired results). To be fair, it’s often easier to track outputs—but will it move you closer to your goals?   

Work Backwards from the Customer Experience

Amazon famously uses a mock press release format to define new ideas so that the customer’s experience is put front and center. From there, teams work backward to answer the questions required to bring the vision to life.

We innovate by starting with the customer and working backwards. That becomes the touchstone for how we invent. – Jeff Bezos

Other ways to incorporate the customer viewpoint include: 

• Using storyboards to imagine the customer journey. Sketch out key moments of the customer interacting with your brand. What challenges do they face? How can your brand assist them? Don’t worry if you’re not an artist! 
• Discussing what’s changing in the life of the customer. Teams may be familiar with customer personas—snapshots of different types of customers and their needs. But instead of a static image, bring the team together to brainstorm on what’s changing for the customer, and what that means for the organization if those trends continue.
• Checking in with customers. Sit in on an existing customer interaction, or directly interview them to find out how their needs are changing. Consider tracking “time since last customer interaction” to make sure you’re staying up-to-date.  

Go Bottom-Up, Not Top-Down

At Amazon, the strategic planning process starts at the bottom, flows up to executives, and then goes back down. Leaders get the benefit of hearing directly from front-line teams, and teams feel more engaged in the process.

To include more input from different levels of your organization:

• Involve people from different levels. All too often, strategic planning takes place behind closed doors with executives only. When possible, invite other members of the organization to join the discussion. Or, have senior leaders set the overall direction, and then ask middle managers to build out the roadmap.  
• Host regular learning roundtables. Use your network or survey the organization to identify people who are breaking new ground or have unique insights into organizational challenges. Then, bring them together to share what they’re learning, and look for opportunities to support further experimentation and development. 
• Hold a Q&A period during your next All Hands. Encourage everyone to ask questions in a company-wide session. If you’re not comfortable answering questions on the spot, invite people to submit questions anonymously in advance so you have time to prepare. 

Challenge Convention

One of the key questions Amazon expects every leader to evaluate is what would be required to 10X their outcomes—that is, deliver ten times what they believe they can currently achieve. 

If you decide that you’re going to do only the things you know are going to work, you’re going to leave a lot of opportunity on the table. – Jeff Bezos

Of course, that’s not the only way to push people to achieve new heights. You could also: 

• Think wrong. Shake people out of conventionality by asking them to envision the “wrong” approach. What would be the worst way possible to achieve desired goals? Then ask teams to consider the existing approach: does it share any similarities? If you did the complete opposite of the wrong way of doing things, what would have to change?
• Stake out a moonshot. Act as a role model for other leaders and set an extremely ambitious course. Instead of focusing on, “What’s at risk?” ask your team, “What’s possible?”
• Try scenario planning. Bring teams together to create different future scenarios. The goal isn’t to predict the future or be the most right. Instead, use it as an opportunity to assess what your organization should do to be best positioned no matter what future comes to pass, and what big bets the company should make to take advantage of potential opportunities. 

Rethink (and Simplify) Communication

At Amazon, all strategic plans are expected to be delivered on a 6-page prose document. The goal is to both clarify decision-making on vital information, including the narrative, and limit unnecessary effort polishing the material for presentation.

To make communication about strategy more effective: 

• Start each strategy meeting with reading time. Instead of launching into a presentation, give all attendees 10 minutes to review any documents, and only then start with a discussion.
• Focus on behaviors, not attitudes. Too often, strategies are conveyed with lofty slogans to convince teams to adopt new attitudes like “Customer First.” Instead, identify a few key observable behaviors that you want teams to adopt, and the desired impact they’re intended to produce.
• Flip the script. Many strategic initiatives kick off with a massive announcement—and then no other information follows for months. Aim for more modest, but more frequent, communication to reinforce your messaging.

Be Single-Minded

When it comes to executing strategy, Amazon organizes around what they call, “separable, single-threaded teams.” In essence, leaders and teams are wholly dedicated to single outcomes so that they can’t get distracted by other parts of the business or competing priorities.

To get something new done you have to be stubborn and focused, to the point that others might find unreasonable. – Jeff Bezos

To keep teams focused on goals: 

• Be explicit about tradeoffs. Too many organizations claim to promote “collaboration” or “excellence” or “speed”—but don’t make clear what they’re willing to give up to achieve those outcomes. Bring leaders together to align on what sacrifices must be made, and how to hold each other accountable for following through. 
• Prioritize. When everything is “urgent” and teams rush from emergency to emergency, they never have time to focus on “important” work and long-term thinking. Use a modified Eisenhower matrix to force leaders to focus on the most critical initiatives.
• Map the impact on stakeholders. If every leader has their own initiative—even if it’s just one—that trickles down to the front lines of the organization, who are suddenly forced to juggle multiple, competing priorities. Make sure leaders are aligned and managing the impact on the organization as a whole.

Reinforce Values

In order to maintain the culture required to execute their plans, Amazon teams meet once a month to discuss a specific leadership value and its habits. Moreover, they look for ways to improve their shared processes in order to be better in line with those values.

To make sure that your culture is consistent and self-reinforcing:

• Set a schedule. Don’t assume that important cultural milestones will simply happen. Mark a calendar with important events that brings teams to together and reinforce the norms that you want to see.
• Review incentives. If you want to see more of a certain behavior, reward it. Remember, not all incentives are monetary. Who receives praise publicly (and for what) or who gets the best assignments and access may be an even more important currency in your organization. 
• Encourage feedback. Build psychological safety so that everyone in the organization, regardless of level, feels comfortable giving and receiving feedback. This should include building in regular opportunities for feedback as well, such as during retrospectives. 

Using Strategic Planning Examples to Transform Your Approach

Knowing what needs to change is just one part of transforming your organization’s approach to strategy. First, you may need to convince others why your strategic planning process needs to change. Learn more about why traditional strategic planning is failing to deliver.