“Perfection is the enemy of progress.” – attributed to Winston Churchill
Disciplined Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) has long been recognized as a transformative process for aligning demand, supply, and finance with long-term strategic goals, providing a single, integrated view. For many organizations, the promise of S&OP is very compelling in its potential to achieve improved service levels, lower costs, better overall alignment, and faster, data-based decisions.
So, then, why do so many companies stall or fail in their S&OP implementation efforts?
First, the bad news: one common culprit is perfectionism. A fully mature S&OP process that functions flawlessly on day one simply does not exist, and an organization’s pursuit of perfection before implementation often becomes the very reason nothing meaningful gets launched at all.
The Trap of the “Perfect” S&OP
All too often, organizations defer S&OP implementations until:
- All data is available, clean, and integrated across all systems
- Forecast accuracy is “high enough”
- All stakeholders are on board and trained
- The “perfect” KPIs are defined
- Executive leadership is 100 percent aligned
These are all worthwhile goals — but they should not be prerequisites. After all, a well-designed S&OP program, geared toward continuous improvement, can help address, or even resolve, these very concerns. If company leadership’s demand for a perfect process becomes the bar for starting S&OP at all, there’s a high probability that it won’t ever actually happen.
Overused analogy aside, S&OP is a journey, not a single release event.
Start Small Rather than Waiting for Perfect
When companies choose progress over perfection, they quickly gain:
- Momentum: Small wins build credibility and energy
- Learning: Real-world feedback reveals what’s important
- Buy-in: Success breeds adoption, even from skeptics
- Clarity: You see which data, metrics, or tools are truly essential
- Flexibility: Each cycle identifies course corrections for the next
Why Good Outperforms Perfect: A Simple Case Study
One organization delayed its S&OP for six months, waiting for IT to complete a custom dashboard. Another kicked off with a simple spreadsheet showing demand vs. supply for their top ten items. Within two weeks, the second group was having better discussions — and catching issues early. Six months later, their process was more advanced than the one still waiting for perfection.
Keys to Making Progress Now
Launch, or relaunch, your S&OP process without falling into the perfection trap:
- Start with what you know: Use existing data and systems.
- Focus on issues and decisions, not documentation: The goal is alignment, not reports.
- Engage the right people: Cross-functional doesn’t mean everyone — just the key voices.
- Set a cadence and stick to it: Monthly reviews with a clear agenda are enough to begin with.
- Be transparent about gaps: Call out data issues, assumptions, and tradeoffs — it builds trust.
- Make iteration part of the plan: Document learnings and evolve over time.
Progress Is the Path toward Perfection
“Perfect is the enemy of good.” – French Philosopher Voltaire
There’s nothing wrong with aspiring to have a best-in-class S&OP process. But this doesn’t come overnight — it’s achieved through consistent progress.
- You can’t optimize what doesn’t exist.
- You can’t refine what hasn’t been tested.
- You can’t learn until you’ve started.
So start now. Start simple. And improve relentlessly.
Because when it comes to S&OP, good can be more rewarding than perfect, especially when it leads to more rapid alignment and better decision-making.