Strategic Planning: April 19, 2021
Title: Military Principles for
Business Success: Turning Available Means into Desired Ends
Presented By: Tom Ruby, Ph.D., Colonel, USAF (Ret.); CEO of Bluegrass Critical Thinking Solutions; Former Vice Dean, Air Command and Staff College.
Description: Strategy is the art and process of developing a detailed plan to achieve a desired end using your available means to achieve it. Strategy is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be able to do it well, yet so few can. The reason is that most practitioners either skip important steps altogether or do not follow through on the details. This lesson starts with the two most important aspects of strategic planning: your objectives and your assumptions.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will be able to comprehend the link between desired ends and available means: the necessity of specifying in detail your objectives;
- Participants will be able to comprehend the necessity of ground truth to strategic planning: how unchallenged assumptions can derail strategic planning.
Biography: Tom Ruby is a retired Air Force Colonel who served 26 years on active duty in positions from Squadron Intelligence Officer, to Chief of Doctrine for the AF ISR Enterprise, to Chief of Special Programs for the Air Force Materiel Command. He was Associate Dean of the Air Command and Staff College where he developed exchange programs with the NATO School, the French École Militaire, the German General Staff College and Poland’s National Defense University. He served on General Petraeus’ Joint Strategic Assessment Team as well as in three combat deployments. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Kentucky, and actively mentors graduate students through the American Political Science Association. He is widely published and speaks globally on topics from critical thinking, to leadership, to strategy, to morality in warfare. He is currently CEO of Bluegrass Critical Thinking Solutions, a business and Defense consulting firm.
