In the last episode, the focus was on discovering how well your company strategy is understood by the sales team that sells what you can produce. It can be an interesting discovery process, especially for companies that have been in business for decades. It’s likely that the nature of the business, the equipment used, and the customers served have changed over time.

This time the focus is on updating or building your strategy and getting everyone on board. Strategy work doesn’t need to be a drawn out process. In fact, when you know your business and capabilities well, the basics of your strategy should emerge. If you look at the strategy and find that it doesn’t meet your needs today, this is the time to built anew and get it communicated.

If you use your favorite search engine to confirm what elements your strategy should include you will find arguments for including a host of touchpoints. The authors assure that they are essential and that if your create clear statements for each element you will have a viable strategy. It’s a sound approach, but for many of the SMB members of our community, it may be overkill. Let’s take it down to just a few building blocks.