A strategy session is a regular planning event for the future of the company that should be held in a business. At a strategy session, the vision of the company’s future is updated, strategic goals are set and plans are developed to achieve these goals. A strategy session is held by the key members of the company’s top management, but in very small companies all employees may be involved in such events.
How often should strategy sessions be held?
The optimal rhythm of strategic sessions is one large annual strategic session once a year and intermediate small sessions once a quarter.
At the annual strategic session, the results of the previous year and the current market situation are analyzed, the vision of the company’s future (long-term and for the year) is updated, and annual strategic goals are formed, which are further decomposed into a set of strategic projects. Further, each strategic project is assigned a responsible employee, a working group is formed and its implementation is planned.
At interim quarterly strategic sessions, interim control of strategy implementation takes place, if necessary, the vision of the future and goals are adjusted, expected results and tasks for the next quarter are formed.
Who should attend the strategy session?
If you have a very small company (up to 15 people), you can invite the whole team to the strategy session. But when you are a company with a large staff, only the key executives will participate in the strategy session. In large companies, however, it would be very helpful if, before the strategic planning, you instruct the executives to conduct brainstorming sessions in their departments, highlight the most valuable ideas of the team, and break them down at the main strategy session.
How do you prepare for a strategy session?
Before the strategy session, it is important to prepare some information:
- Market analytics (growth dynamics, competitor analysis, global trends)
- Indicators and key results of the company for the previous year
- Key ideas for further development gathered from the team
- Shareholders’ vision of the company’s future
Based on this data, a presentation is prepared to start the strategy session.
In addition, it is important to gather the key team before determining the length of the strategy session and to generate a set of questions to be answered in the strategy session.
Here are examples of such questions:
- How will the company’s product line change in a year?
- How will the quality of the company’s products/services and customer satisfaction with them change in a year?
- How will the company’s sales volumes change in a year?
- How will marketing and sales tools change a year from now?
- What organizational structure will our company have a year from now?
- How will the team change?
- How will management processes be structured?
- What is the optimal structure for a strategy session?
- A strategy session should start with….
- How to distribute tasks after the strategy session?
Business Constructor has been helping both small entrepreneurs and large companies conduct effective strategic sessions for over 10 years. If you are interested in assistance with conducting strategic sessions in your company, leave a request, and our specialist will tell you how we can help you.
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