Page 78 - The Way to the Top

Archie W. DUNHAM

Chairman of ConocoPhillips

I received some good advice in the United States Marine Corps, something
called the Five Ps: “Prior planning prevents poor performance.”

Received may be too mild a word. The mantra was pounded into my

head, just as it was pounded into the head of every newly commissioned
lieutenant who served with me. (In the Corps, it was actually the Six Ps,
and you can guess what the fourth P was. But five or six, the principle is
the same, and I’ve been grateful for the lesson ever since.) Whether in the
military or in business, preparation is critical. One reason why the Marines

are so successful is the thoroughness with which they plan: they think
about alternatives, they anticipate what could go wrong, and they provide
for contingencies. When I participated in maneuvers as a young lieutenant,

I kept a notebook where I logged every mistake and every area where I
thought we could improve. Then I shared the benefits of this ongoing
education with the young lieutenants who followed me. I did the same
thing in the business world as I rose in the corporate ranks and trained the
young, up-and-coming managers. The result was that for the rest of my

career, I almost never went to a meeting unprepared. Equally important, I
had a management team behind me that was trained to think the same way.

Prior planning always paid off—and never more so than when the time
came to realize my longtime dream of making Conoco an independent

company again. Conoco had merged with DuPont in 1981 to avoid a
hostile takeover. By 1998, the original justification for the merger had
evaporated, and there were compelling reasons for us to break free of
DuPont.