Every fall, companies gather around conference tables with spreadsheets and dashboards, mapping out sales forecasts, marketing spend, and growth targets for the coming year. The financials are dissected, debated, and ultimately aligned. Yet, for all the rigor in those planning sessions, one conversation is often an afterthought, the people plan.
The Missing Piece in Strategic Planning
In my experience leading both public and private companies, I’ve seen organizations pour tremendous effort into “what” they’ll achieve but very little into “who” will help them get there. Leaders often emerge from strategic planning meetings feeling confident about their numbers, only to realize a few months later they don’t have the right team, structure, or culture to deliver on those ambitions.
I learned early in my career at Procter & Gamble that strategy without people alignment is just wishful thinking. My team at P&G had a mantra: “The organization delivers what it’s designed to deliver.” If you want different outcomes, you have to design and plan for different people and behaviors.
That lesson has followed me through every role since. From University of Phoenix, to One Medical and Sutter Health, and beyond, I’ve learned that forward-planning doesn’t stop at budget season; it’s an ongoing discipline of matching people to purpose.
Step One: Start with the Org Chart of the Future
When I joined one company as President, I inherited a team structured around what had worked five years earlier. We had good people in misaligned roles; high performers who were essentially playing out of position.
Our first leadership offsite wasn’t about reviewing P&L or setting KPIs. It was about designing what I call the “Org Chart of the Future.” I asked my team to imagine what our organization would look like two years ahead, not today. Who would we need? What roles would disappear or evolve? What skills weren’t even on our radar yet?
It was uncomfortable at first; forcing leaders to admit where gaps existed and where their own roles might need to evolve. But that clarity became a blueprint for growth. Within 12 months, we filled key capability gaps, created new leadership pathways internally, and accelerated growth by 22%.
Planning forward isn’t about filling open seats; it’s about creating readiness for where the business is going, not where it’s been.
Step Two: Build a Bench, Not a Roster
Small and mid-sized business owners often tell me they can’t afford “extra” talent. The truth is, they can’t afford not to develop it.
When you’re scaling, the velocity of change outpaces your ability to recruit. That’s why your bench strength becomes your most valuable currency. Who’s ready to step up if your head of operations leaves? Who could take over sales if the current leader transitions? Who’s being groomed, quietly and intentionally, to lead the next chapter?
At Laurel Springs School, where I served as President, we built a culture of succession by design. Every leader was accountable for developing at least one person who could eventually do their job, not as a threat, but as an act of stewardship. We discussed it openly and celebrated it. It changed the culture overnight. People stopped guarding knowledge and started sharing it.
Succession planning isn’t about replacing people; it’s about ensuring continuity of purpose.
Step Three: Culture Is Your Continuity Plan
The greatest succession plans fail not because of skills, but because of culture. You can teach new leaders to manage a P&L, but you can’t teach them to care, at least not easily.
When I’ve worked with founders or long-tenured CEOs, I often remind them: culture doesn’t live in the founder’s head; it lives in the behaviors they reinforce. If you want your business to survive beyond you, your culture must become transferable.
At University of Phoenix, one of the largest education brands in the U.S., we codified our marketing leadership principles into what we called “The Phoenix Way.” It was more than a slogan; it was a decision-making filter. When leaders faced tough calls, they didn’t have to ask, “What would Arra do?” They had the framework to decide themselves. That’s culture continuity.
Step Four: Empower, Don’t Abdicate
As organizations grow, founders and CEOs inevitably need to step back from daily decision-making. But stepping back doesn’t mean checking out.
I’ve seen leaders swing between extremes, micromanaging or disappearing. The healthiest organizations operate in the middle: empowering decision-making with clear guardrails. When a leader knows the boundaries within which they can operate, they make faster, smarter decisions. And the CEO earns back time to focus on strategy.
One private equity-backed company I advised had a CEO who struggled to delegate. He believed no one could close a deal as well as he could. He wasn’t wrong, but he was exhausted. Together, we mapped his “Decision Zone”, the things only he could decide, Together, we built a framework for what his team could own. Within months, his organization started running faster and more confidently, and his investors noticed the lift.
Empowerment isn’t abdication, it’s preparation.
Step Five: Make It a Habit, Not an Event
Forward planning isn’t a Q4 exercise. It’s a mindset. The most resilient leaders review their people plans as often as their financials, quarterly, if not monthly.
Ask yourself:
- Who on my team has outgrown their role?
- Where are we vulnerable if someone leaves?
- What skills will we need six months from now that we don’t have today?
- What cultural traits do we need to reinforce as we grow?
When you treat people planning with the same rigor as business planning, you don’t just prepare for growth, you enable it.
Closing Thought: The Future Belongs to the Prepared
The leaders who thrive aren’t the ones with the best forecasts; they’re the ones who anticipate the human needs of the future. The best strategic plans executed by capable, confident people who know where they’re going and why it matters.
At Newport LLC, we often tell clients: you can’t scale chaos. You can, however, scale clarity. And clarity starts with a forward plan; not just for revenue, but for the people who will make it happen.
