5 Reasons to Repeat your Strategy
July 13, 2009This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO
I believe that every great company should have a high-level strategy that can be explained in two minutes or less. A company’s strategy is the blueprint to success, and a great strategy helps connect every single employee to the vision of the company’s growth.
Anyone who works at Punchbowl Software has heard me talk about our company’s strategy countless times. During any significant meeting, I’ll typically repeat our strategy complete with visuals on the whiteboard. Fairly often in these meetings, I’ll ask someone to explain our strategy in their own words. I believe the best way to learn is to put the concepts in your own words — it’s a powerful thing to listen to someone else describe the company’s strategy. No one is immune from being asked to repeat the strategy — from the developers to the financial people, and even the intern (sorry Jill).
Most around me would agree that I repeat our strategy a lot — probably to a fault. In fact, it’s become a company joke to make fun of the “pyramid” that I draw on the white-board. To me, this just tells me that I’ve done a good job at getting everyone on the same page.
So why do I repeat the strategy so often? Well, here are my top 5 reasons to repeat your strategy:
- Get everyone on the same page: Whether your company is big or small, it’s important to make sure everyone understands the high-level strategy. Repetition is one way to make this happen.
- Build ownership: The more each individual in the company feels ownership of the strategy, the more buy-in each person will feel in the company’s overall success. That’s a great way to build team unity.
- Guide small decisions: There are countless small decisions your employees make everyday. If everyone truly understands the strategy, then all of these decisions will be made with your objectives in mind.
- Keep your employees on message: Each employee is a window to the outside world. As you repeat your strategy, you’re also helping shape how your employees talk about the company with the outside world. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool — and strategy is an important part of your overall message.
- Impart your vision: As I’ve written before, great managers are the ones that can step away from the office for a week at a time and know that the team is moving the company forward. As CEO, my vision and the company’s strategy are closely aligned. That makes it easier to take time off and re-charge.
And for all of the smart Alec’s out there — I’ll spare you the trouble. No, I’m not going to repeat this blog post. But you might want to read it again and ask yourself — can I repeat the strategy of the project/company I’m working on in less than two minutes? Why or why not? Perhaps a few more repetitions of the strategy are in order.
Posted by mdouglas







