Ep. 507 - Think Ahead Act Now: Winning the Game with Dual Focus

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Second in Command with Cameron Herold

Episode 507 – Think Ahead Act Now: Winning the Game with Dual Focus

Date: September 4, 2025
Host: Cameron Herold

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Overview

In this episode, Cameron Herold dives deep into the vital difference between strategy and planning in organizational leadership. He explores why separating these two concepts—often mistakenly combined as “strategic planning”—is critical for high-performing COOs and their teams. Through real-world examples and vivid analogies, Cameron provides actionable advice for aligning long-term vision with disciplined annual execution, highlighting the planning cycle, staffing foresight, and the power of the vivid vision framework.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Fundamental Distinction: Strategy vs. Planning

[01:43 – 04:00]

• Strategy is about long-term thinking, “what if” scenarios, SWOT analysis, and creating a broad roadmap—over 12 to 24 months or more.
• Planning is a focused, operational process, detailing exactly how to bring strategy to life within a tight 12-month window.

“I hate the term strategic planning because those are two different things. They're as different as marketing and sales... So, we don't say strategic planning, we say strategy and planning.”
— Cameron Herold [03:06]

• The leadership team should set aside dedicated time for each: strategy for vision, planning for action.

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2. The Power and Limits of Annual Planning

[04:00 – 06:23]

• Cameron argues planning should never go beyond a 12-month horizon due to variables and market unpredictability.

• October is suggested as the ideal time to begin planning for the next year, aligning fiscal and operational priorities.

• Key Elements of an Effective Annual Plan:

  • Clear goals tied to strategy
  • Core projects for profitability, revenue, employee and customer engagement
  • Proactive SWOT review—mitigating weaknesses and threats
  • Detailed staffing plan: Who to hire, when, and initiating recruitment cycles months in advance

“If you need to have somebody starting July 1st... the recruiting has to start March 1st. So planning is critical, but you only lean out 12 months.”
— Cameron Herold [05:27]

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3. Vivid Vision: Aligning the Organization

[06:24 – 08:07]

• The vivid vision is a tool for team-wide alignment, providing a shared picture of the future.
• Annual, strategy, and quarterly meetings break down each piece of the vivid vision to determine action order—like building a house from foundation to finish.
• Foundation starts with core values, core purpose, leadership capability, and people alignment—the rest follows.

“If I showed you a picture of a home and I said, this is what we're going to build, we would do the plan, the blueprints to build that home, and then we would start with the foundational parts first.”
— Cameron Herold [08:12]

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4. Multi-Year Strategy: Broad Brush, Not Concrete Plans

[06:53 – 08:00]

• Three-year roadmaps are strategic and directional—not “absolutely tight, absolutely measured, absolutely committed.”
• Use high-level annual committed outcomes, but reserve specificity for the immediate 12-month cycle.

“Your first year plan is really strong, really tight, really measured—who's doing what, exactly who’s responsible, when it’s happening...Your two year out is going to be a little bit more of a broad brush.”
— Cameron Herold [06:57]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the value of separate discipline:
  “Strategy is about thinking... Planning is how we’re going to make it come true.”
  — Cameron Herold [02:45]

• On staffing foresight:
  “If you need to have someone starting July 1st... the recruiting has to start March 1st.”
  — Cameron Herold [05:27]

• On making vision actionable:
  “The goal of the vivid vision is to have everyone aligned with where we’re going. The strategy is how we’re going to get there.”
  — Cameron Herold [06:15]

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Timestamps by Segment

| Time | Segment | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:43 | Strategy vs. Planning distinction | | 04:00 | Why 12-month planning matters | | 05:27 | Staffing timelines and planning | | 06:24 | Using the vivid vision for alignment | | 06:53 | Yearly vs. multi-year planning details | | 08:07 | Blueprint/house-building analogy for executing vivid vision |

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Conclusion

Cameron Herold underscores the “dual focus” required of great leaders: think boldly (strategy) but act pragmatically (planning). He urges COOs to harness the vivid vision to unify direction, then structure disciplined, 12-month execution cycles and regular reviews. The result is an agile organization that adapts, achieves, and remains aligned.

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Transcript

[A]

Hey, it's Cameron Herald, the host of the Second in Command podcast. Before we dive in, there's something you need to know. If you're a coo, VP Operations, or you're in any role where you're the second in command to the CEO, the COO alliance is the place for you. If you're the integrator to the visionary, you're going to want to join us. The COO alliance is the world's leading community for the second in command. We've had over 500 members like you join from 17 countries to grow their skills, connections and confidence. You'll get the tools, friendships and a 10x guarantee to ensure that you get your money's worth. Go to cooalliance.com to learn more and see if you qualify. You can even book a free call with our team to ask questions. Now let's jump into this week's episode. There's way too many things that can happen to a company that can take your plan off track when you go outside of 12 months. So so I do believe that in kind of October is when you need to start having your strategy sessions for 2026 and October. November is when you need to start putting your plans in place to make the strategy and those goals come true for 2026. But you don't put any plans in place for anything past that next 12 month period.

[B]

Welcome to the second in command podcast, produced by the COO all and brought to you by its founder, Cameron Herold. In the second in command podcast, we talk to top COOs who share the insights, strategies and tactics that made them the chief behind the Chief. And now here's your host, Cameron Herald.

[A]

Today we're diving into a critical distinction often confused in business strategy versus planning. While strategy involves long term what if thinking and SWOT analysis, operational planning should focus on a tight 12 month cycle due to rapid market changes. We'll explore why a vivid vision helps align everyone. But only a focused annual plan with clear goals and staffing needs truly brings it to life. Strategy is about thinking. It's about what if scenarios. It's about coming up with these kind of crazy potential and thinking about those potentials. It's thinking about your SWOT analysis and then planning is different, right? Planning is how we're going to make it come true. So there's different parts of the leadership meeting rhythms. One is to have time in your calendar to be strategic, to Talk about your SWOT, to look out 12 to 24 months to think about staffing plans 12 to 24 months to look at your virtual benchmark to consider and ask yourself, are we really sticking to our hedgehog concept? Like it's all around the thing it's thinking, right? So call it. I hate the term strategic planning because those are two different things. They're as different as marketing and sales, right? So we don't say marketing sales, we say marketing and sales. We don't say strategic planning, we say strategy and planning. So the planning side, I believe, should only be 12 months out. There's way too many things that can happen to a company that can take your plan off track when you go outside of 12 months. So I do believe that in kind of October is when you need to start having your strategy sessions for 2026 and October, November is when you need to start putting your plans in place to make the strategy and those goals come true for 2026. But you don't put any plans in place for anything past that next 12 month period. And I really like coming up with the goals to make the strategy happen, to make the vivid vision happen for that 12 months, coming up with the core projects to drive profitability, to drive revenue, to drive employee engagement, to drive customer engagement, and then taking a look at your swot and thinking, what are the things? What are weaknesses that we have to buffer and threats that we have to consider and how do we make sure that those things are all happening as part of the plan? And then I put the financial plan in place and I put. Sorry, before the financial plan, I put the staffing plan in place for that 12 months as well. So it's kind of leaning out over that 12 month period and thinking, what are the core roles that we need to hire? What month do we need to hire them in? And then thinking about when do we need to start the recruiting for each of those roles, Right? If you need to have somebody starting July 1st, you need to actually do the offer, have them quit their prior job, probably takes two weeks vacation, do the reference checks, do the second interviews, do the first interviews, get the video submissions, and start the recruiting process to get all the resumes. That's like a four month process. So if you need to have them starting July 1st, that means that the recruiting has to start March 1st. So planning is critical, but you only lean out 12 months. Foreign Herald, your high energy leadership guru here to pump you up on the Second in Command podcast. If you get frustrated because your managers aren't leading like you want them to be, check out my Game Changing leadership [e-mail] that's investinyourleaders.com for just 347 per liter you get 30 years. My proven experience straight from taking 1,800 got junk from 2 million to 106 million as CEO and it's packed with 12 easy modules. Learn situational leadership coaching, delegation, conflict management and more all in under six [e-mail] with straight to the point videos, worksheets and real life scenarios, your team will master time management, be able to hire a players and get aligned with your vision. It's all backed by a 30 day money back guarantee and raved about by hundreds of CEOs and thousands of managers already learning from the content. Grab this now and watch your business store. So the the goal of the vivid vision is to have everyone aligned with where we're going. The strategy is how we're going to get there. Thinking about the SWOT analysis is just kind of taking a look at the lay of the land considering that the people needs, you know, the virtual bench you've got and then figuring out the plans to make it come true. Did that over complicated or did that.

[C]

No, that's our committed outcomes. And then so my question, if you've answered it saying I don't need a strategic plan, that's one thing. I'm not if you have. But my question is because there are certain things that in order to plan, like I say we've got committed outcomes. That annual plan as you were describing, there are things that are going to span multi years. Like what we do this year in our committed outcome needs to be working towards the roadmap for the three year.

[A]

Yeah. And again that that's kind of the strategy, right? That's like we're deciding to do these things to drive us toward their. But your first year plan is really strong, really tight, really measured. Who's doing what exactly? Who's responsible when it's happening. It's like virtually right down to the fact that it's plan, brief, execute, debrief. You come out in November, early December, you've got the plan in place for the entire 12 months. You brief all the management team and the frontline staff. So everybody knows what's happening for the year and then you can execute and you can kind of press reset on the plan every month or every quarter. Your two year out is going to be a little bit more of a broad brush, a little bit more of a lighter plan. So as an example, when we were thinking about scaling 1, 800 got junk we knew what our revenue goal would be three years out, what it would be two years out, what it would be one month out or one year out. We knew what our profit goal would be for each of those three years. We knew our rough headcount. We had a broad idea, but it was more strategic, it was more directional, it was more just to be thinking about stuff. But it wasn't anything that was like absolutely tight, absolutely measured, absolutely committed to.

[C]

What'S the thing between the vivid vision, very high level, and the strategy to achieve it?

[A]

It's your annual planning meeting, your annual strategy meeting, your quarterly it's sitting down and thinking about what are all the sentences in that vivid vision? How do we make them all come true and in what order do we want to do them all? Almost like building a home. If I showed you a picture of a home and I said, this is what we're going to build, we would do the plan, the blueprints to build that home, and then we would start with the foundational parts first. Then we'd put in the walls, then we do the electrical and the plumbing. There's kind of like an order of operations. So the planning around your vivid vision is figuring out what sentences do we make come true first. For me, it usually starts around core values, core purpose, your bhag, all the people systems, getting rid of the wrong people, aligning the right people. It's around strategy and knowing where you're going and then putting plans in place to get there, having the meeting rhythms in place to support everyone on the team and making sure that your team has the leadership skills. Those are all very foundational parts to make everything happen.

[B]

You've been listening to Second In Command, brought to you by COO alliance founder Cameron Herald. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to like, share and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and our other podcast streaming platforms. For more best practices practices from industry leading COOs, visit cooalliance. Com.