A recent article in The McKinsey Quarterly elucidated their three top strategic planning tips for 2009. In brief, they were:

• Be realistic about scenario planning
  Recognize that several different futures are equally plausible, develop plans accordingly, and try to focus on the underlying drivers of the uncertainty.
• Intensify Monitoring
  That’s the only way you’ll be able to detect which way the marketing is shifting and bring the appropriate plan to bear. And be sure to carefully monitor suppliers and competitors as well as customers. A single supplier bankruptcy could derail all of your plans.
• Look Beyond the Crisis
  Regardless of how devastating the downturn may be, it cannot hold back fundamental market trends forever — such as the aging customer base in Europe and North America and the fact that every downturn must eventually stabilize and give way to an upturn on the market sine wave.
  Besides, if you can’t see beyond the crisis, how can you possibly expect to get out of it? So identify your post-downturn market, start marketing to it, and ramp up R&D to make sure you have the products ready that your market wants when it’s ready to buy them.