The Plan Is the Plan (Until It Isn’t). Do You Have One?
Are you ready for the 2027 plan? What’s your process? Do you have a plan for the plan?
I often say that ‘the plan is the plan until we change the plan – together’. My point: while things will inevitably change, we will stay focused on what we’ve committed to the organization, execute, and deliver on the results that matter most. Then we decide on any changes from those original plans together. In 2026, that’s been more challenging than ever – the plan has changed wildly for most of us, with or without AI costs ballooning and blowing out your budgets.
Most companies will produce a 2027 plan this fall. Leadership will align on slides. The board will nod. By February, half the org will be executing a version of the plan that only exists in their function’s head.
What’s changed this year
AI is already rewriting how work gets done inside your company – usually before you’ve decided how it should be used. Sales reps are drafting with it. Support is triaging with it. Marketing is producing with it. Nobody asked permission. Nobody’s measuring the impact on the results that matter most.
So when planning season hits, most companies do one of two things. They bolt ‘AI initiatives’ onto the existing plan as a line item – a pilot here, a tool there – while the change in your workforce and workflows goes unmanaged. Or they skip the hard conversation entirely: what does each function’s job look like when AI takes the augmentable 30-50% and what do the humans do instead?
That second question is the one your board actually wants answered. Not the superficial ‘are we using AI’. The strategic questions: What outcomes are we seeking? What will and won’t we invest in? Where is AI freeing capacity – what are we doing with it? How will we stay focused on the results that matter most – together?
A 2027 plan that can’t answer that isn’t board-ready. It’s a deck buried and lost in the cloud.
One plan, not two
The companies that get this right won’t have a separate AI strategy. They’ll have a single SPARC-maximized plan – a unified, high-impact strategy, enabled with the right people, skills, and capabilities. Each function aligned. Executed with disciplined routines and rigor. Accelerated by a culture that measures what matters and permits and promotes the right behaviors.
So how are you thinking about 2027 planning? What does your 2027 planning process look like right now? If you don’t know, we can help.
If you’re ready to build a plan your board, your team, and your customers will believe in, I’d welcome the conversation. Connect with me or follow CLG Partners.
– Dariusz Paczuski, Founder & Managing Partner, CLG Partners