The Joy of a Clean Slate

We are eyeball-deep in planning for 2012.

Marketing programs, campaigns, metrics, budgets and schedules are dancing in my head like visions of sugarplums.  It’s a process we go through every year, continually honing our go-to-market strategies, building upon what we’ve learned.   This year we have the added excitement of bringing a new product to market in 2012 (stay tuned for more on that!).

To me the best part of the planning is starting with a clean slate.  We get the benefit of experience, but none of the baggage.  Everything is up for grabs and as a result, strategies shift, metrics realign, tactics shuffle.  It’s the time of year when everything is possible and every wild idea that comes up gets a chance of making it into the mix.

It reminds me of my business school classes, where we’d debate case studies unencumbered by real world constraints.  The sky was the limit and the person who “won” the debate was the one who most passionately defended their position.

Back at the office, we have to be more realistic than that, but the excitement and passion is just as intense.

Once our slate is no longer clean, we’ll share some of the juicy ideas we developed.

Is your slate still clean? What’s going on yours?