Pressler recognized that it would be premature in the first hundred days to develop a comprehensive strategic plan - and even if he did, it might be wrong. But he knew that in an organization of 165,000 employees, he needed to find a way to set a direction and motivate the people.

You cannot possibly have enough insight yet to craft a detailed plan or an in-depth strategy. But you should certainly have a clear idea of what you believe, the key issues that you are going to be focusing on, and some form of organizing framework for the key actions you will want to take.

The first thing you ought to do if you’re the new person in charge is nothing,” says Schacht. “I have learned this over and over again. Resist the temptation to ‘hit the ground running.’ It is absolutely almost certain to be wrong.” He stresses this is even true in a crisis situation.

Finding the right balance between creating a compelling picture of where you plan to lead the organization and not becoming prematurely locked into a plan of action is one of the most important ways to make the most of your first hundred days. Think not about developing your strategic plan but about crafting your strategic agenda.

At Gillette, I felt comfortable only about a year after I walked in that we knew exactly what we would need to do over the next five years.

“A leader must take action immediately to fix obvious problems. But developing an insightful strategic plan will take three to five months. There is too much information and too steep a learning curve to try to implement solid strategy in the first thirty to sixty days.” - Jim Kilts.