I am often amused by marketeers'  obsession with planning models. The business sections of bookstores are stuffed with serious-minded tomes describing and dissecting the marketing plan. Yet in the end, most of us return to SWOT which, of course, is not a planning device at all but an assessment tool.

There is a planning regime which I learned many years ago as a young second lieutenant and which I've been using ever since. I know from experience that it works - even in creating marketing and communications plans. Those of you who are biased against all things military can stop reading right now. And you can retrieve your dusty undergraduate textbooks or fly to Barnes & Noble to select a book written by some underachieving Ivy League don who knows less about real world marketing than you know about the Ptolemaic concept of the universe.

This planning device is so simple and elegant it's downright beautiful. And it's comprehensive, too. Use it properly and you'll cover all the bases. It's called the five paragraph field order. Designed for small combat unit leaders, it provides a planning template that is both structured and effective even under duress. Here it is:

1. Situation (enemy forces, friendly forces, attachments/detachments)
2. Mission (who, what, when, where, why)
3. Execution (concept of the operation)
4. Administration/logistics (service support)
5. Command/signal

If you'd like to know more about this and how to apply it, let me know. I'd be happy to elaborate. Or invite me to your place, pay my travel expenses and an outrageous fee and I'll train your whole ineffectual staff.

Speaking of military topics, do you the know the differences among the Persian, Peloponessian and Punic wars? Didn't think so. It's worth looking up. Lots of great stories and characters, e.g., the 300 Spartans and the battle at Thermopylae. Besides, people will think you're very smart when you throw names around like Herodotus, Thucydides and Pericles.