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Trust the Plan: Demand Management for Business Leaders
Trust is what separates companies with exceptional planning processes from those that are regularly frustrated by their planning processes. Business leaders can't simply put their heads down and focus on only on their own departments, they must trust and work with cross-functional counterparts to synchronize plans.
Weaving in an intricate case study throughout, Trust the Plan shows executives how to develop and lead Demand Management processes that are trustworthy and will enable business objectives to be achieved. Topics include the rationale for trustworthy planning; the difference between goals and plans; roles and responsibilities; and best practice characteristics of processes, performance measures, and individual capabilities.
Key
--Shows why cross-functional planning is an executive responsibility and a critical enabler for achieving business objectives in today's post-pandemic supply and demand world
--Thoroughly explains Demand Management and the commercial roles and responsibilities that are essential to its successful implementation
--Shares approaches and best practices for making plans relevant and trustworthy for different business stakeholders
--Addresses the necessary resource capabilities (people and tools) needed for building next-level Demand Management capabilities
--WAV offers numerous whitepapers to enhance the adoption of world-class Demand Management best practices--available from the Web Added Value Download Resource Center at jrosspub.com/wav
Weaving in an intricate case study throughout, Trust the Plan shows executives how to develop and lead Demand Management processes that are trustworthy and will enable business objectives to be achieved. Topics include the rationale for trustworthy planning; the difference between goals and plans; roles and responsibilities; and best practice characteristics of processes, performance measures, and individual capabilities.
Key
--Shows why cross-functional planning is an executive responsibility and a critical enabler for achieving business objectives in today's post-pandemic supply and demand world
--Thoroughly explains Demand Management and the commercial roles and responsibilities that are essential to its successful implementation
--Shares approaches and best practices for making plans relevant and trustworthy for different business stakeholders
--Addresses the necessary resource capabilities (people and tools) needed for building next-level Demand Management capabilities
--WAV offers numerous whitepapers to enhance the adoption of world-class Demand Management best practices--available from the Web Added Value Download Resource Center at jrosspub.com/wav
Kindle Edition
Published April 18, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 21, 2023
“Let's start by exploring the fundamental premise that plannings is a good thing,” writes Greg Spira at the beginning of his new book, Trust The Plan: Demand Management from Business Leaders. “Some may ask: Why do we plan in the first place? Why not be carefree and deal with issues as they arise? This might sound a bit exaggerated, but I have encountered people who, frustrated with ineffective planning, focus their energy solely on improving their ability to react. Let’s address the question of why we should plan by reviewing an example. I recently enjoyed a tropical vacation with my family…Even though we were flexible, that didn't mean that the activities that we wanted to do would be available on a whim. For example, we wanted to take
a road trip, but we needed to be careful about weather conditions. We wanted to visit one of the national parks, but tickets were limited. Dinner reservations were needed in most cases, and activities like golfing, scuba diving, and surfing al had to be booked in advance.”
What Spira is highlighting personably is a trend that seems to be overtaken the previously staunch lines between the professional world, and the personal one. Now, if anything, that has proven to be significantly blurred, if not on its way to being out-and-out obsolete. In effect, the personal and the professional have become symbiotically linked, whilst the idea of corporate hierarchal echelons have become more and more questioned. The idea of a more socialistic systemic model than a traditional, coldly removed corporate blueprint is taking up the varying fields of industry by storm. There are considerable questions to be had, and Spira provides a nuanced, informed roadmap for how to have those kinds of conversations. “I have frequently observed people lower in the organization questioning their business leaders ability to work well together,” he writes. “The hard and soft costs associated with the lack of leadership trust and alignment are real and significant. When trust is lacking between leaders, it inevitably cascades down through their teams. Silos become strengthened, and the cross-functional collaboration at lower levels in the company becomes difficult, if not impossible. People shift their energy away from proactively solving problems to preparing explanations for why they weren't at fault. It can, in extreme cases, become outright combative.”
The key to improving aforementioned problems is understanding the core differences between concepts critical to the industrial model. It starts by highlighting terminology and ideological cruxes under the banner of Similar, but Different. In the spirit of this, Spira writes: “Companies that achieve their annual goals and strategies have a different leadership mindset than in the SmartCorp example. Business leaders in high-performing companies understand that goals and plans are different. Goals are expressed as outcomes, and plans are expressed as actions that will deliver a result, such as achievement of revenue and profit goals. The leadership team also understands that goals can remain fixed over time, Plans, however, can and should change to adapt to new conditions that may impede achieving the goals and strategies.”
a road trip, but we needed to be careful about weather conditions. We wanted to visit one of the national parks, but tickets were limited. Dinner reservations were needed in most cases, and activities like golfing, scuba diving, and surfing al had to be booked in advance.”
What Spira is highlighting personably is a trend that seems to be overtaken the previously staunch lines between the professional world, and the personal one. Now, if anything, that has proven to be significantly blurred, if not on its way to being out-and-out obsolete. In effect, the personal and the professional have become symbiotically linked, whilst the idea of corporate hierarchal echelons have become more and more questioned. The idea of a more socialistic systemic model than a traditional, coldly removed corporate blueprint is taking up the varying fields of industry by storm. There are considerable questions to be had, and Spira provides a nuanced, informed roadmap for how to have those kinds of conversations. “I have frequently observed people lower in the organization questioning their business leaders ability to work well together,” he writes. “The hard and soft costs associated with the lack of leadership trust and alignment are real and significant. When trust is lacking between leaders, it inevitably cascades down through their teams. Silos become strengthened, and the cross-functional collaboration at lower levels in the company becomes difficult, if not impossible. People shift their energy away from proactively solving problems to preparing explanations for why they weren't at fault. It can, in extreme cases, become outright combative.”
The key to improving aforementioned problems is understanding the core differences between concepts critical to the industrial model. It starts by highlighting terminology and ideological cruxes under the banner of Similar, but Different. In the spirit of this, Spira writes: “Companies that achieve their annual goals and strategies have a different leadership mindset than in the SmartCorp example. Business leaders in high-performing companies understand that goals and plans are different. Goals are expressed as outcomes, and plans are expressed as actions that will deliver a result, such as achievement of revenue and profit goals. The leadership team also understands that goals can remain fixed over time, Plans, however, can and should change to adapt to new conditions that may impede achieving the goals and strategies.”
September 18, 2025
Great book for finance professionals wanting to learn more about demand planning. I can definitely see myself coming back to this book again and again if/when I’m tasked with building out a demand plan for my company, which is great for any reference book. Good and short introduction as well. Easy to read. Definitely not for a casual audience, though.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews