Most companies have some form of strategic blueprint, strategic development, goal setting and business planning. In fact, when was the last time a major corporation didn't go through their annual budgeting process or a start-up business didn't submit a business plan to the bank? These are all forms of business strategy.

Developing a business strategy and a high level plan is critical whether you have 1 employee or 500. As the organization grows, the need for more strategy to unify the team and their efforts compounds. It is critical the strategic plan is high level and considers every aspect of the business. It also need to consider multiple time frames - now, short term (like this quarter), this year and even as far out as five years. Beyond five years, it is often reduced to a broader vision and ambition with less defined strategy.

All this said, Strategic Planning has to connect down to the actions required every week by all people, otherwise its a wasted exercise and wasted plan. This is the downfall of almost all plans and strategy work; it gets done in a boardroom by a few key people and never makes it into the hallways - to the team of people who need actions, directives, timelines and tactics.

At Evolve, we love to help clients develop their strategic plan AND then help them start to implement it. Good business demands both. Too often we find struggling companies with a solid strategic plan that is sitting in the president's office on a shelf. A plan without action is a waste of the time committed to thinking up the plan!

So the best value is in being able to know each week, month and quarter, what actions each person is undertaking to move the strategy forward. This requires a review and discussion of strategy weekly, and even daily, at times. The regular review of strategy keeps what is important out in front of what is urgent and on fire each day (where most people exist).

Use some tools like the gazelles.com one page plan as an example of how your strategy should get down to a single page outline. We then recommend you take each strategic mandate and break it into pieces that can be executed weekly.

Strategic business is like marathon running. You know when the big race is, you know what training will be required AND you know what distance and speed needs to be implemented today to ensure you cross the finish line.

Author's Bio: 

Marty started his first company at the age of 21. He has owned 13 companies to date and is a serial entrepreneur. He has dedicated a large portion of the last 12 years to being a coach and mentor to both entrepreneurs and other coaches. By taking to the practical and actual experiences in his world and applying them to other companies, situations and industries, he has found the common ground for all business globally, and has built a curriculum around this foundation for all his companies and his coaching.

Marty’s coaching approach is relaxed yet pragmatic and results driven. He empowers clients to act with pragmatic, bold action plans and strategies. He often wanted to avoid the “touchy, feely” side of coaching for the hard-hitting business results. Over the last decade Marty has embraced the connection between personal barriers and business barriers. Personal breakthroughs drive business breakthroughs.

Marty currently operates 4 companies with operations in the US and Canada. His first company was a technology startup, after which he ventured into audio production, software, retail, the hospitality industry and more recently, advertising/marketing. He has been a crucial player in all phases of start-up and growth.

Marty was awarded the 2002 Business Coach of the Year for North America and the 2003 Recipient for Global Contribution to the coaching profession*. In addition to international recognition, Marty has been selected as one of Calgary’s Top 40 Business Professionals under 40 in 2004 by Calgary Inc. magazine. Marty was awarded the CYBF Canadian Mentor of the Year in 2006. More recently, Marty was selected one of 18 entrepreneurs to represent Canada at the G20 Entrepreneur Summit in Nice, France in 2011 and Mexico City in 2012. http://www.evolvebusinessgroup.com/coachforresults