Hook
the company is 102 years old. it has never had a strategic plan.it's employee owned. it makes things people use every day. it has outlived recessions, wars and at least one very bad decade for manufacturing.so when they hired me to lead their first-ever strategic plan, I asked the obvious question:why now?the answer, from someone who has been there 30 years:"because the people who carried the plan in their heads are retiring."that's it. that's the whole strategy problem for most companies.the plan exists. it's just not written down, not said out loud, not shared with the people who will run the place next.so we're not building a binder.we're building:
✔️ a 1-3 year direction people can repeat in one sentence
✔️ the why behind it, told by the people who lived it
✔️ a rhythm of strategy conversations, all year, at every levelbecause a plan nobody can say out loud isn't a plan.it's a memory.what would happen to your strategy if your three longest-serving people left tomorrow?
