The one word that confuses so many companies is strategy, what strategy is and is not and who sets strategy, plans and tactics.
In one of the most popular and most shared leaders newsletter, WTF is strategy we shared how you build strategy, simply: you have one company-wide strategy, departmental plans rolling up into the strategy and then tactical layers underneath.
Simple right?
Well, it should be, however, with so many demands to have longer plans and missions to complete, here is a free breakdown and cheatsheet to build the right framework for your company’s strategy journey.
Mission
The incompletable mission your company is on. The biggest of achievements.
Missions can be revisited every five to ten years or in big times of world change.
Set by leadership (founder + board)
Vision
The ten-year vision for the company, vision is what you will strive to become.
Vision is to be revisited every 3 years.
Set by leadership and supporting panel
5x Principles
The guiding principles to make decisions. If there is confusion or your strategy is going off course, your principles make decisions easier and guide you into the vision and the mission.
These principles should be re-visited each year but stay the majority the same to keep the company on track
Set by leadership and supporting panel
Annual Strategy
The annual company-wide strategy, the things you are going to do and the things you definitely will not be doing. It should fit on one page and everyone in the business should be able to tell you what it is and what success looks like.
The annual strategy should be re-visited but rarely ever change significantly.
Set by leadership
Departmental Plan
No company should have departmental strategies, your department plans have to roll into the annual strategy. Your plans have to be cross-functional and understand the overlap and how you work together with other departments to make the company successful. If there are no cross-functional elements to part of the plan, you have to revisit.
Departmental plans can evolve and change but when they do it has to be known across the business.
Revisit the plans every month, these unlikely should significantly change quarterly
Set by the department (lead+) and their panel
Tactics
These are the number of activities you will take, including the channels and the levers the teams are going to pull to roll up into the plan, that rolls up into the annual company-wide strategy.
Tactics can change regularly, fortnightly/bi-weekly to quarterly. The more you change, the more you will struggle to keep everyone updated and believe in long terms plans.
Set by tactical discipline team
Supporting Resources