Not long ago, I posted about the need every business has to effectively blend strategy and operations. I’ve included the basic methodology we have used at Infusionsoft for over five years, and I must say, it works amazingly well. From high-level strategy to daily tactics, it all ties together. I’ll explain how.

• Strategic Intent — the long-term (10 years or so) stated intention of the business
• Primary Objective — the quantification of the accomplishment of the Strategic Intent
• Strategies — the 3 – 5 top available resources or competencies your company POSSESSES that can be leveraged, capitalized or exploited to create a sustainable competitive advantage
• Annual Priorities — the top 5 or six things your company will do in a calendar year, based on the Strategies, that will propel the company toward the accomplishment of the Strategic Intent and Primary Objective
• Quarterly Tactical Operating Priorities (TOPs) — the top 5 or 6 priorities for the quarter that, when accomplished, will further the accomplishment of the Annual Priorities.
• SMARTs — the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant Time-bound tasks that must be done during the quarter to accomplish the TOPs. Each SMART must have an owner and a deadline.

All of these elements should be posted in an open area for everyone to see, track progress and understand how their work aligns to the strategy of the business. At Infusionsoft, we have them posted throughout our building and in my office, for visitors to see.

So, how do we create this plan?We hold offsite planning meetings that focus us, free us from the daily fires and bind us together as a team. Here’s how we’ve always done it… and it works amazingly well.

• A 3-day annual off-site where Annual Priorities are established. I take the management team through a series of exercises designed to see the big picture and draw out the raw material we use to hash out annual priorities.
• A 2-day quarterly off-site each quarter to establish our quarterly TOPs. Again, we go through a bunch of exercises, including review of customer data, employee feedback and several strategy exercises that all have the effect of focusing us on the opportunities and challenges at hand.
• Monthly one-day offsite meetings to measure quarterly progress and stay focused on the TOPs.
• Weekly staff meetings on Monday mornings to stay unified, track the numbers and discuss an item or two that needs strategic attention.
• Daily 15-minute standing huddles in my office (4:04 to 4:19) to connect used to report daily measures, and bring up any items we’re stuck on.

These series of meetings provide us the big-picture thinking, daily focus and rhythm needed to execute our plan. It prevents distraction. It unifies the management team and the whole company on our goals, objectives and measurement. It reminds us all about what’s important. And it keeps us in a proactive mode rather than a reactive mode as we run our business.

One last point, which isn’t really about this methodology, but it’s necessary to make the methodology work:

Aside from the strategy and operation planning methodology, you need to state your company’s purpose and values. Jim Collins gives great advice on this in the book, Built to Last. Read it. It will make your business take off. The methodology I described above is about your strategy. The purpose and values are about your business philosophy, which underlies your strategy and makes your strategy come alive.

Running this methodology is one of my favorite parts of Infusionsoft! I hope my transparency and candidness are helpful to you. I plan on sharing more about what we’re doing soon here. I’d love your feedback and thoughts on this while my team revolutionizes the way small businesses grow.

–Clate

You might also like these blog entries:

• Annual Priorities at Infusionsoft (‘09)
• Progress on Our ‘09 Annual Priorities
• Happy Independence Day Weekend!