NASCAR Racing and Strategic Planning – What it Takes to Win the Race! I recently went with my husband and son to the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, KS to watch my very first NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) race. The experience was amazing and one I will never forget.

In the middle of the race (when cars were going around and around and there were no cautions for about one hundred laps) I got inspired to write this article as I saw a clear analogy between NASCAR racing and strategic planning. Since I had no paper or pen, I typed myself an email on my phone! Needless to say, it took me a while to type this entire article with one finger yet I thought it was worth it to share with you my observations as a result of this wonderful experience:

• I reflected on the importance of each race team having a strategic plan that everyone knows and understands. If only the driver knows the plan and the vision then the crew cannot support him/her. The same way, you can’t lead and run a company on your own. You need your crew and they need to know the specific strategies to win the race. Every person on the team has a job to do in order to win. If one lug nut is not tight correctly on the wheel, the car can lose that wheel and will be out of the race. At the minimum, will lose valuable time that can cost the team the victory.

• The driver is key but is not the most important person on the team. He/she drives the car but if the car is no good, he/she, nor the team, are going anywhere…the crew that prepares the car and supports the driver is hugely important to win the race. For example, if their driver is in first place and goes to the pit for gas or to change tires and the crew is not fast and accurate, the driver can lose the first place easily—in a matter of milliseconds.

• I also noticed there is constant communication on the ground among the team and between the “spotter” and the driver. The same should happen in a company. The leader needs to communicate with the leadership team and they, in turn, should communicate with the rest of the staff continually in order to keep the momentum going.

• The NASCAR teams are very organized and do things orderly. They follow rules. Every game, every sport, every team, every industry has rules. The best players follow the rules. They take them seriously because there are consequences and penalties if they violate the rules. In NASCAR’s case, someone can die if they don’t follow rules. Even though in corporate America daily decisions may not be life or death, the decisions leaders make do affect the lives of the employees.

• There are things ahead that only the driver can see or feel. He/she needs to communicate and alert the crew immediately to come up with a plan of action. For example, the driver may be the only one to notice that something is wrong with the car. At the same time, there are things ahead that only the spotter can see and need to tell the driver to watch for it. For example, if the spotter sees a wreckage and there is a fire, he/she needs to tell the driver if he/she can get through the smoke or not. If the driver makes a bad move, he/she can wreck and completely lose his car and in some instances his/her own life. The entire team loses—no car, no team. They have to trust each other. The driver’s life may depend on it. Again, the same happens in a company. Sometimes the leader sees things ahead and other times the staff sees things that are coming up that could affect the company’s performance.

• You could say the race is not fair. One driver could have the lead for most of the race (even one hundred laps!) and lose at the very last minute because of a wreck caused by one bad move or by another driver that cut him/her off or hit his/her car at the wrong angle and sent him/her spinning off the track. The same happens in life. Your company can be doing excellent for many years and all of a sudden the unexpected happens. One of your key employees leaves, or the market crashes, or a new competitor comes to town. It can be anything and you need to keep in mind that in those moments is when you have opportunities to start over or fix things that have been broken or on hold for a while in your company.

• I also noticed that if there were no cautions and the cars just went around and around it becomes boring. There is no action or adventure. That’s when companies get in a routine and start doing the same thing over and over. The employees become unchallenged, the customers get bored, and the leadership becomes stale. It’s time for a change and move things around. Time to introduce new ideas and do things differently.

• Finishing the race is what matters in the end. There was one car who went to the garage four times and every time he started a lap he had to go back and get something else fixed but he/she finished the race. In fact, drivers are rewarded with points for every race they finish regardless of how many laps they were behind. What goes on their record is that they finished. The same happens in business. Every time a company tries something new and it doesn’t work, the team needs to figure out new strategies to continue the race but they must never give up. They must finish the race.

Even though all the teams want to win and they all have strategies, there is only one winner. Only one driver and one team gets the trophy. Only one driver gets to do the “burnout” after crossing the checkered flag! Sometimes, however, even when you have the best team and the best strategy, life may throw a dart at you and your company and you don’t win. In those moments, you need to remember past successes, gather your team, pick up the pieces and with your head up, start over. The most important thing is to never give up and finish your race! 

Does your CIO or IT Leader Understand Your Corporate Strategic Plan? I love IT people. They are talented individuals who have a gift to understand technology and “how things work” behind the scenes that not many people have. And we also know that their number one gift is usually not communications nor being “touchy/feely” type people. From experience, being married to an IT person, having been an IT Director for a nonprofit and a community bank, plus having managed many IT personnel through the years, I have learned how to communicate with them and also how to engage them in the strategic discussions of the organization.

“IT people” as we call them, are very smart people but so are the rest of us. In many corporations, there is a noticeable gap in communication between the leadership team and the CIO. This manifests itself in the gap between the corporate strategic plan and the technology strategic plan—if there is one in place. For example, if your institution wants to grow 15-20% in assets in the next fiscal year, do you have the technological infrastructure to support that growth? How soon do you start planning for the continuous growth you are projecting in your strategic plan? What type of infrastructure (both physical and logical) do you need? Do you have the appropriate security controls in place to handle new customers and to offer brand new products or services? Do you have an enterprise risk management risk assessment process in place that incorporates how the new technology will or could impact the organization?

These and many other important questions need to be part of your risk assessment and strategic planning process in order to coordinate and have an integrated IT infrastructure to support your organization. To bridge the gap, therefore, IT professionals need to learn corporate talk, company politics, become very familiar with the company’s strategic plan/goals. At the same time, the leadership team needs to learn about technology—not only what systems they need to run their companies but also what type of technology would benefit their company most in order to ensure continued success.

Communication is the crucial component for a successful marriage between IT and the company’s strategic plan. Including the IT Director/CIO (or whatever title you choose for your company’s IT leader), is key to successful communication. Once the IT leader understands the needs of the company, where the company is going, and feels like a valuable team member, he or she will come up with the right technology solutions to support the company. Your IT strategies will then align with the company’s strategies

The IT infrastructure of a company is the foundation of the organization and all the pipes/framework have to be in place correctly—and from the start—just as you build your own home. I used to tell my team, “Our pipes can be full of customers but if our pipes are broken, we’re all going home!” Meaning, the sales staff and processes are just as important as the organization’s infrastructure. We’re all in this together and are part of one team, one company!

The IT Security Program includes having a strong IT Strategic Plan, which in turn should be integrated with your overall company’s Strategic Plan.