Oh yeaaaaaaah!
It's Friday, and even though I'm busy as all get-out (which is actually related to today's HTRASDC article), I'm going to bestow the greatness of my writing upon your face. Enjoy!
Do everything at the last minute
Failure to plan == planning for success, or at least that's what I've heard from this homeless guy that I pay to wash my car every other week. If there's one thing I know for sure, it's that planning is a complete waste of time. As we have established, your software developers are lazy slackers. They're not doing anything constructive, so it's no big deal if you want to spring something on them at the last minute. They'll actually appreciate it, because random surprises like that keep life interesting.
So, let's say, hypothetically, that you find out that there's a business opportunity that requires your company to produce some deliverable in order to get money. Let's say that the deliverable isn't really due for about three months. That's great! You can let your developers keep being lazy for 11 weeks, then spring the deliverable on them at the last minute: "Oh, by the way, I committed us to this deliverable that's due next week; everyone will be working overtime and coming in on the weekend." 'Nuff said! Your developers should be more than willing to sacrifice whatever plans they had. If they're not, that means they aren't as committed as you are.
Just because you are demanding that your peons work insane hours to meet this deliverable that you committed them to doesn't mean you have to mess up your plans. It's Friday! Go have fun! Your developers will take care of it all!
If something goes wrong and the quality of the deliverable is not up to your golden standards, or if the developers somehow miss the deliverable, the blame rests 100% with them. You told them about the deliverable before it was due. There is simply no excuse for them not completing it perfectly on the timeline that you agreed to without consulting anyone.
You make a lot of good points in your analysis. I think many companies overlook the business model in favor of jumping into the thick of development. This leaves them directionless and can lead to disaster down the road.