Have you looked at your strategic plan recently? Is it an actual business strategy, or is it merely a list of tactics to execute through the year ahead without a full understanding of where the organization is going?

Strategic execution of tactics, while important, is not a strategy in and of itself. Ultimately, your strategy should answer where your business is going (your vision for the three to five years ahead), along with outlining what the organization will say yes to and what it will say no to. This includes looking at customers, partners, employees, your approach and more.

If you’re worried that outlining a longer-term picture of your company may limit the flexibility of your strategic execution, stop. Yes, you may have to change your execution over the course of the company’s life. However, if you don’t first have a clear understanding of where you’re going, then any amount of execution won’t have an impact, no matter how well it’s planned.

Set a destination, but allow for flexibility along the way.

Concise Strategic Plans

While your strategic plan must include key information, it’s not meant to be a long-winded writing exercise. Some of the most effective plans I’ve worked with and on are limited to one page.

By limiting your strategy to one page, you get your ideas on paper in a format where you can see all their interconnections. This allows you to consider the internal aspects of your business (the service and product) and the external aspects (your clients, potential clients and vendors), seeing where they’re aligned and where there may be gaps.