Von Moltke’s Plans

Helmuth von Moltke was a Prussian Field Marshall, one of the most creative military minds of his generation. He firmly stressed the importance of meticulous planning. That said, he’s best remembered for his observation “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” One would be forgiven for thinking that von Moltke was giving evidence for the case against him, but one would be wrong.

Another general, later President, Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke of plans and planning in this fashion: “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”

There is no contradiction in either saying. Both generals understood that the purpose of meticulous planning is not to provide a script for battle, but to ensure that the army is prepared for whatever may unfold, and to understand the range of possibilities that may transpire.

One of my best ever criminal defence trials, in terms of a successful outcome against the odds, occurred one Monday. It just happened to be the Monday after the weekend we moved offices. The file in question seems to have been the only one which didn’t make it successfully to the new office, so for the first and only time in my life I opened my case with no paper except my notepad. However, I had spent most of the preceding week in careful preparation, and I had every permutation and combination of evidence “sliced and diced”, backward and forward. “The plan” was probably still out in a moving truck somewhere, but the “planning” had made me ready for all eventualities.

Careful planning applies to all aspects of life. Recently I was part of a panel talking about business succession, and when all is said and done, “successful succession” really comes down to being ready for what comes along. Selling the business to the kids, to the staff, or to a third party, or sometimes just winding it up, never works out exactly as anticipated, but thorough planning years in advance will determine if thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars end up in your pocket or in the taxman’s pocket. Or just evaporate. Successful succession requires that you are getting things in order years, if not decades, before you actually “pull the pin”.

Whether it’s a kitchen renovation or a hot war, things will never turn out as imagined, but those who plan meticulously will, on the average, succeed far better than those who don’t. “If you fail to plan,” goes the old saying, “you are planning to fail!”