FCB #009: Strategic Planning Retreat: Get Away For Two Days And Transform Your Company

So, you are considering professional business coaching for you as a founder-owner and your firm, and you’re wondering where to start.  I always recommend a two-plus-day, on-site, away-from-the-office, live Strategic Planning Retreat (SPR) with you and your leadership team.

The purpose of the SPR is to get you and your Leadership Team on the “same page” and all rowing in the right direction. Future goals are established and agreed upon and any major issues are included in your goals and milestones for the coming year and quarter.

Before we discuss the SPR, it’s important to understand the three top levels or “boxes” in any organization and some basic organizational theory.

Three Major Boxes

Most major companies have three major boxes: (1) the Owners box, (2) the Board of Directors (BOD) box, and (3) the Org Chart box.  

• The Owners Box – Regardless of whether you are the sole owner of your firm or have partners or co-owners, you and any other shareholders in your company have a role in the Owners box and that role is to elect your BOD. In large corporations, the owners or shareholders typically do not participate in day-to-day operations or decision-making processes unless they also hold positions as directors or officers.
• The Board of Directors Box – The Board of Directors (BOD) is a group of individuals elected or appointed by the shareholders to oversee the management of a company. Their primary role is to represent the shareholders’ interests and “provide strategic direction to the company.” Directors are responsible for making major corporate decisions, such as appointing and supervising the CEO, setting company policies, approving budgets, and making decisions regarding mergers, acquisitions, or major investments. They also have fiduciary duties to act in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.
• Operating Officers – Operating officers, also known as executives or management team, are responsible for the day-to-day operations of a company. They are typically appointed by the BOD and are accountable for implementing the strategic decisions made by the BOD. The executive team is usually led by the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) or President, who reports to the BOD. 
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – The CEO is the highest-ranking executive in a company and holds ultimate responsibility for its overall performance, strategic direction, and success. The CEO is accountable to the BOD and, in turn, represents the company to shareholders, employees, and external stakeholders. The CEO’s duties include setting the company’s vision, mission, and long-term goals, formulating and implementing strategic plans, making major corporate decisions, and ensuring the company operates within legal and ethical boundaries. The CEO often serves as the primary spokesperson for the company and participates in high-level negotiations, partnerships, and investor relations. The CEO typically has a broad focus on the company as a whole and works closely with the Chief Operating Officer (COO) to ensure organizational alignment and achieve business objectives.
• Chief Operating Officer (COO) – The COO is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company, ensuring that business activities are efficient, effective, and aligned with the overall strategy set by the CEO and the BOD. The COO’s duties include managing various departments, such as finance, human resources, operations, and sometimes sales and marketing. The COO is involved in developing and implementing operational policies, processes, and performance metrics to optimize productivity, quality, and profitability. The COO often works closely with department heads to ensure coordination and collaboration across departments and may be involved in identifying and implementing operational improvements and cost-saving initiatives. The COO typically reports directly to the CEO and may also have regular interactions with the Board of Directors (BOD).
• Department Heads (Directors) – The reporting structure within an organization can vary depending on the company’s size, industry, and specific organizational structure. In general, the COO may have several departments or positions reporting to them. The specific reporting relationships can be customized based on the company’s needs, but the three most common positions in the simplest of organizations include (1) Director of Marketing/Sales, (2) Director of Operations, and (3) Director of Finance/Administration.

Organizational Hats

The problem most small companies run into is that the owners, if a partnership or corporation, wear multiple hats without consciously being aware of the different roles they are playing and the corresponding duties and responsibilities of each of those roles or “hats” they are wearing at any given time. This is especially true in a very small business with only a single owner, or perhaps only two or three partners.

This is compounded by the fact that, in most small businesses (whether an LLC, partnership, or corporation), the business doesn’t have a formal Board of Directors (BOD), even though it would be very beneficial if it did have a BOD.

Leadership/Management Team (LMT)

For purposes of the Strategic Planning Retreat (SPR), the Leadership/Management Team (LMT) consists of the company’s key executives (CEO and COO, or in very small companies, a combined CEO/COO) and its department heads (Directors of Marketing/Sales, Operations, and Finance/Administration). In very small companies, their Leadership/Management Team includes the owners and one to four key employees who may already be department heads or are being groomed for such a position. In the Strategic Planning Retreat, the Leadership/Management Team is, in effect, acting as the BOD for the company. In this role, they “provided the strategic direction to the company.” 

Core Values

In the first SPR for a company, the LMT decides on the Core Values for the company. These are typically 3 to 5 key fundamental beliefs and principles that guide the behavior, decisions, and culture of a company. They represent the organization’s identity, purpose, and the standards by which it operates. They should be woven through all of the various business processes in a company. Examples of typical core values for a company include:

• Integrity
• Innovation
• Customer Focus
• Teamwork
• Accountability
• Respect
• Excellence
• Growth & Learning
• Adaptability

Ideal Organizational Structure

In a company’s first SPR, they not only determine the company’s core values but also its ideal organization structure. They decide on whether they want or need two executives at the top of the organization (a CEO and a COO) or just one (a combination CEO/COO) and what their titles and responsibilities should be. 

They then decide on what major departments they have and need heads over. In very small firms this may just be Marketing/Sales, Operations, and Finance/Administration. In larger firms, these departments may expand to include Marketing, Sales, R&D, Purchasing, Production, Delivery, Quality Control, Accounting, Finance, Facilities, HR, IT, and Risk Management.

Once they have decided on the executive and departmental positions, they then have the difficult task of deciding which of the Leadership/Management Team will be hired for each position.  To do this effectively, they need to adhere to two basic rules:

1. There can only be one person responsible for each position. If there are two people responsible for a position, then no one is responsible for that position. In other words, each position is held and owned 100% by only one person.
2. Each person on the Leadership/Management Team can wear multiple hats, meaning they can be responsible for more than one position in the company. 

Once they hire or install themselves into the various leadership and management roles in the company, the LMT can proceed through the Strategic Planning Process.

SPR Ground Rules

It is important for the LMT to be aware of some basic ground rules before they start the Strategic Planning Process:

1. For purposes of the SPR, the LMT should consider themselves the BOD for the company.  As such, they have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. They should always make decisions that are in the best interests of the company, disregarding their own personal interests, either as owners of or officers within the company. 
2. They need to place “Principles before Personalities,” meaning they will endeavor to let their newly decided upon “Core Values” direct their decisions, not the individual personalities and/or opinions of the LMTG.
3. They need to be fully engaged, committed, present, and operating “all in” and “full out” during the entire SPR.  Strategic Planning is hard, taxing work, especially for the facilitator, and the LMT needs to sit up, stay highly energized and present during the entire two-plus days.

The Vision

Once the Core Values and Ideal Organizational Structure are determined, the LMT will proceed to create their Vision for the company. The Vision component of the SPR includes the following areas:

• Core Values – 3-5 key principles that will direct all of the company’s decisions and processes.
• Core Focus – This includes the company’s vision or BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) and its mission, or reason for existing.
• 10-Year Target – Typically expressed in terms of gross revenue and net profit percentage.
• Marketing Strategy – This can include the company’s target market (defined by demographics, geographics, or psychographics), three uniques (defining its unique selling proposition or USP), its proven process for fulfilling its brand promise, and whether it offers a guarantee.
• 3-Year Picture – This includes the future date, revenue and profit goals, specific measurable such as number of jobs and per-unit prices, and a detailed description, in bullet point form, of what the company will look like at that future date. The key here is to try and paint a mental picture or visual image of three years down the line and what the company will look and feel like then.

Traction

After the Vision component is completed, the LMT turns their attention, with the help of their SPR facilitator, to the Traction component, which consists of the following areas:

• S.W.O.T. Analysis & Issues Lists – Part of the Strategic Planning Process is a S.W.O.T. Analysis, where each member of the LMT lists what they believe the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are for the company.  In addition, prior to the SPR, the facilitator will typically ask the participants to each write out a list of the major issues each believes the company is facing an needs to solve.
• 1-Year Plan – This includes a future date, revenue and profit goals, measurables, and three to seven major goals for the year.  If this is your first time going through an SPR for your company, you would be well advised to keep these to 3-5 major goals. In the beginning, less is more in this regard. These goals are based on the S.W.O.T. Analysis and Issues Lists, which will be honed down to the critical few goals that need to be accomplished in the coming year.
• Next-Quarter Rocks or Milestones – In this section, you again include a future date, revenue and profit goals, and measurables. However, instead of goals, you now decide upon five to seven milestones you need to achieve during the next quarter in order to reach the goals you’ve set for the year.
• Remaining Issues List – Any issues that weren’t covered by the annual goals or quarterly milestones get “parked” to the side on a long-term “Issues List”. Not all of the issues facing a company can get resolved in a year, let alone a single quarter.  Parking this issues off to the side doesn’t mean they go away or are lost, just that you as the LMT are deciding to focus on your highest priorities, and you have now have this list to come back to at future quarterly and annual SPRs.

Weekly Team Meetings

After the Strategic Planning Retreat is complete, the Leadership/Management Team has a clear vision of where the company is heading with a simple two-page strategic plan that can be shared with internal and external stakeholders, as needed.

The company now has a set of core values that it will use moving forward to help it with all major decisions and business processes. It has clear roles and responsibilities for each member of its Leadership/Management Team. It has developed a clear vision for the future and developed a concrete plan for making that vision reality.

Real traction occurs at the Weekly Leadership Team Meetings where the LMT carves out 90 minutes each week, to take off their tactical hats of working “in” the business and put on the Board of Directors hats so they can work “on” the business from a strategic mindset.

In the Weekly Leadership Team Meeting, the LMT goes over the company’s metrics and scorecard, reviews progress on their rocks or milestones, present any major news about employees or clients, report on tasks accomplished (or not), and spend a significant portion of the meeting time working together to solve the company’s major issues, staying focused on a systems perspective, remembering that most problems facing a company are “system” problems not “people” problems.

If you might be interested in exploring working with The Founder Doctor for a Strategic Planning Retreat for your company, please feel free to reach out to us.