Strategy

Most growth businesses do not have a strategy problem so much as a strategic clarity problem. Everyone is busy, but not everyone is busy on the few things that will move the company forward this quarter and this year. Strategy, done well, is the discipline of deciding what you will not do, writing the rest down on a single page, and then checking against it every ninety days.

This section collects our articles on building and keeping a strategy that the whole leadership team can see, understand and act on. They draw on the Scaling Up and Rockefeller Habits methodologies that we have used with hundreds of companies, but they are written for leaders of UK scale-ups rather than for strategists.

Running the planning process. Why have a strategic planning meeting? is the place to start if your planning days have become status updates. It explains what a good session produces and who needs to be in the room. How to focus on growth initiatives tackles the problem that follows: protecting time for the projects that matter once the plan is agreed.

The one page strategic plan. The one page strategic plan is the tool at the centre of our work. It puts core values, purpose, long-term targets, annual goals and quarterly priorities on one sheet so that nobody in the business can be unclear about what matters. If you have never seen one, read that first.

Long-term vision. A ten to twenty-five year goal is what gives the quarterly plan its direction. The pitfalls to avoid when developing your BHAG covers the common mistakes, and game-changing BHAGs that drive strategy and team alignment shows what a good one looks like in practice.

Measuring what matters. Strategy without numbers is a wish. Harnessing the power of KPIs and OKRs explains how the two frameworks differ, when to use each, and how to keep the scorecard short enough that people actually look at it.

Strategy under pressure. Navigating business cycles and the common mistakes leaders make when developing a business strategy are useful reads when conditions change faster than the plan.

Thinking strategically as a team. Strategy is not the MD's job alone. How to get everyone in your company thinking strategically and from planning to strategy look at how to spread that thinking through the business, while how scenario planning drives growth in uncertain times offers a practical way to prepare for more than one future.

Browse the latest articles below, or move across to our leadership, team and implementation sections. When you are ready to put a strategy in place with your own leadership team, our facilitated scale-up workshops and intensive VIP days are built around exactly this process.