
“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” –Warren Buffett, American businessman and investor. “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” –J.R.R. Tolkien, English philologist and novelist, in The Hobbit. To paraphrase Dwight Eisenhower, while plans might prove useless once the rubber hits the road, planning is indispensable. All but the most oblivious of companies, organizations, and businesspeople make long-term planning an essential part of their infrastructure; those who don't go the way of the dodo. It's a harsh type of natural selection that constantly hones productivity and its pleasing by-product, profit. In pursuit of both, over the years "long-term" has been repeatedly redefined as … [Read more...]