PRE-WORK
Research the market and prepare management for strategic thinking
RETREAT
Agree on vision, strategy, objectives, action items, and KPIs
FOLLOW UP
Meet with the management team to ensure execution
DOCUMENT
Create visuals, including vision map, action plan, and strategic plan
Every client is different, and we adapt based on their business, team and circumstances. Below is a snapshot of our typical process:
Pre-work
Over the course of four to eight weeks, we will help your team prepare for the strategy meeting. The consultant will:
- Conduct executive interviews
- Launch an organizational survey
- Review key documents including marketing plan and strategic plan
- Assist in pre-meeting preparations
- Create a custom agenda
Strategic Planning Meeting
There will be a strategy meeting (usually off-site) with your management team. As a function of time and fees, most of our clients plan for two days.
The meeting will begin on a broad level with discussion about what kind of company you want to be. This includes mission, values and vision. We will discuss your market, and how your company can deliver unique value. We will set high-level corporate goals, usually for a three-year horizon, based on the preferences of the group.
This broad strategic dialog will turn into a discussion about your company’s value proposition, as well as sales and marketing plan. This defines which customers you should target, under what circumstances, and with what capabilities and messaging.
After the broader strategy discussion, we will get into presentations about functional departments (such as accounting and product development), where we talk about what infrastructure will be required to support growth. Infrastructure refers to people, processes and technology.
We view our work as 70 percent strategic and 30 percent tactical, as one is of little value without the other. Every session results in the formation of an action plan with deliverables, champions and dates.
Please note that there is a lot of “noise” going into strategy meetings, especially if your company has done this formally with a professional facilitator. There is often trepidation about using a consulting firm, and fear about what their agenda might be. We have no agenda other than to provide an environment where your team can make the best decisions. We will offer advice, but the discussion and resulting plan belongs to you.
As experts who do this all the time, we are not the variable in this equation. The real question is, how will your team show up?
For advice on how you might approach the strategy meeting, see this guide.
Follow-Up
We typically complete follow-up sessions with the client to ensure their strategy is being implemented.