Don't know your firm's strategy? Start here.

Last week, I wrote about the importance of CEOs shifting from 'easy' communication:

• Numbers

• Data

• Personnel moves

• Regulatory updates

• Market trends

• Internal initiatives

To focus on prioritizing 'hard' communication:

• Strategy

• Vision for future state

• Tenets of your CEO platform

• How people play a role in strategy

That shift can feel daunting.

I've been working with a CEO of a $200m+ professional services firm who asked, "I get it... we’ve always led with numbers, tactics, and inputs, so where do I start?"

Great question.

Look, at Baker Tilly, we invested significant capital and almost two years building an entirely new strategy for the firm.

Now, although it absolutely worked (grew from $475m to $1.5B during my time as CEO), there's also a much faster and more cost-effective (free) starting point to determine and effectively communicate your firm strategy.

Here's where to begin...

Identify Your Strategy Starting Point

If you're stuck on what your strategy is, start with your mission and vision.

It's probably tucked away on your website somewhere and even if it hasn't been updated recently, it's a starting point.

Your mission and vision will paint some sort of picture of a desired future state for the firm, the marketplace, and/or your clients. It's something forward-thinking that you and your team can aspire to.

All roads lead to/from strategy.

With your mission and vision in hand, it's time to start prioritizing consistent communication on those topics.

Internal Communication

Your strategy is a lens through which everything in the firm should be viewed.

Start communicating about internal initiatives in reference to the strategy (mission and vision).

How do systems enable strategy?
How do new hires enable strategy?
How do firm initiatives enable strategy?
What successes can you reference and how do they enable strategy?

Work your strategy into key touchpoints with leaders in your firm and any opportunity you get to speak to or in front of your entire organization.

Remind people of the vision. Emphasize how the mission is moving you one step closer to that vision.

How will you know when your strategy is sticking?

When people can start repeating it back to you or finishing your sentences for you.

I can't emphasize enough how important this is for future growth and sustained success.

External Communication

Using your mission and vision as your strategy, you can start focusing your marketing and sales efforts to reflect your strategy.

Rather than solely talking about your product features or service delivery process, talk about your vision and mission.

• What future state are you trying to bring to the marketplace?

• What does that vision and mission mean for your clients?

Communicating on strategy brings prospective clients into the conversation because it creates a future state that they can feel a part of.

It's compelling. It's collaborative. It's more likely to resonate and stick.

Let's use me as an example.

I run a boutique advisory business working with CEOs of professional services firms and founders of technology companies.

I could enter into a conversation with a prospective advisory client and talk about:

• What my engagements with CEOs look like

• The areas I typically impact in an organization

• My approach to helping an organization grow

Those things are important, but they aren't a collaborative future state that the prospective client can be brought into.

Instead, I could lead with my mission:

Enable CEOs and leadership teams to BREAK THE MOLD™ of long-time operating principles and conventions to initiate new growth.

Now I've invited them into a compelling conversation about the conventional ways of thinking in their profession...

We can talk about what it would look like to BREAK THE MOLD™ and approach things in a new, ideal way and the outcomes that might produce.

We're co-creating a differentiated future state, together.

Start Communicating Your Strategy

If you're finding yourself stuck on... "What is my strategy?", look to your vision and mission. That's your starting point.

Don't have a vision and mission? It's time to create one.

Remember: It should focus on the change or future state you want to create and how it benefits clients.

Things like revenue targets or growth targets aren't strategies.

Begin weaving your strategy into your internal and external communication and start building an editorial calendar so you prioritize consistent strategy communication moving forward.

Defining and communicating strategy is one of the most common ways I work with my advisory clients. Often, having an outsider's perspective to help you bring this to life makes a heck of a difference.

If you'd like to chat 1:1, use this link to book time on my calendar.

With intention,
Alan D Whitman