“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” is a phrase coach Taylor uses to inspire his Texas high school football team to victory in the TV series “Friday Night Lights”. Bringing everyone on board and building “full hearts” is, and should be, part of the strategic planning process for any company. But building “clear eyes” can be a lot more challenging, especially in growing companies where things change rapidly and multiple perspectives on everything from goals and objectives to product development and hiring practices start to emerge.
Strategic planning is something every company should be doing at least once a year and sometimes more often. It should be the source of ideas for the next phase of growth and the basis for understanding how to measure success. A strategic planning session should have a solid structure. It should be prepared in advance and incorporate people from every department of the company. It should also be rooted in a thorough understanding of the current state of the company—are the managers and founders on the same page with respect to the current situation?
Strategic planning is something every company should be doing at least once a year
A strategic plan should involve growth—new initiatives, new people, and new ways of doing things. It should ladder off the last plan and understand the successes and challenges of what came before. It should take stock of the state of the company in an objective fashion so that everyone is on the same page going into the planning and execution cycles.
Our belief is that an Organization Audit can help make planning quicker, easier, and most importantly, allow companies to achieve stretch goals faster.
Though the execution of strategy often resides with product development, marketing, and other frontline teams, a company’s infrastructure has an enormous part to play in how successful that execution will be. In order to achieve growth, all aspects of the company need to be running smoothly including less prominent departments such as finance, customer success, and HR. A good plan involves a communication strategy to ensure that everyone is on board and understands where they stand in relation to the plan, as well as updating them regularly on whether the plan is being executed.
A company’s infrastructure is what allows companies to successfully execute strategy.
A BeachHead Organization Audit rapidly reviews all major aspects of a business’s infrastructure to note areas of improvement as well as areas of strength to build on. This assessment covers areas such as office management, communications, procedures, finance and other areas that tend to get overlooked in favour of more high-profile projects and departments.
A company’s ability to measure growth is key to understanding the success of a strategic plan. Our BeachHead Organization Audit digs deep to understand whether the team has the ability to build, integrate, and communicate the KPIs that will come out of the strategic planning session. It questions finance’s role in understanding the revenue and expense implications of success and the challenges of each team’s KPIs.
An audit asks the question of whether the company is in a good position to scale. Can the company add the capacity that may be required to execute the plan and still be on solid ground? Is the company making the necessary longer-term investments? It asks senior management and owners questions about organizational structure, hiring practices, and includes notes on legal and regulatory issues that growing companies encounter as they scale.
An audit asks the question of whether the company is in a good position to scale.
Above and beyond analysis, an Organization Audit provides you with the tools and recommendations you need to implement meaningful change. As such, we believe that a BeachHead Organization Audit should be done just before a strategic planning session to help lock and load the potential of a company to build a great plan and get it executed well. Building clear eyes on what works and what needs improvement makes executing strategic plans easier and allows companies to focus on the right areas for growth.
Connect with BeachHead
At BeachHead, we are passionate about helping businesses scale up from a strong Operations foundation. The BeachHead Organization Audit (BOA) helps founders evaluate their business through an objective lens. Our BOA scorecard allows us to evaluate all aspects of a growing business so we can recommend changes based on what the organization wants to accomplish in the next phase of growth.
If you’re ready to take your company to the next level, reach out and let’s start a conversation.
Email: rdrynan@beachheadstrategic.com
Phone: 416.888-4004
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