Strategic planning is critical to the continued success of any organization, yet fewer than half of the executives who responded to a new online survey conducted by The McKinsey Quarterly¹ say that they are satisfied with their company's approach to planning strategy. Further, although more than three-quarters of the respondents report that their company has a formal strategic-planning process, fewer than a quarter say that the process is key to making their most important decisions; senior executives—most important, the CEO—drive decision making. The executives also raise significant concerns about the way their company executes the strategy, communicates it, aligns the organization with it, and measures performance against it.