Link Effective Quarterly Reviews to your Strategic Planning Cycle

Are your quarterly reviews the same each quarter?

Most companies carry out the same quarterly review meetings that assess things like bookings, billings, profit, design wins numbers, units sold, status of projects and opportunities, new opportunities and so on.

Whilst these are of course the essence of any review meeting, where you are in the fiscal year should present an extra layer that needs to be reviewed and discussed together with the results to date.

Each quarter presents its own milestone along the journey towards year-end and like in any journey, where you are at that point influences the actions you should take to reach your destination.

This tends not to happen in most quarterly reviews and actions are set regardless of whether the company is in Q1 or Q3 of its fiscal year. The return path to the overall strategy plan is often missing and so actions don’t link with the status of the plan itself. Setting actions based on the results of that quarter (and year-to-date) is not enough. The actions you create should also depend on which quarter you’re in and directly link to your overall strategy plan.

The priorities of your actions should reflect the quarter you are in.

Q1 – Settle down

The first quarter of your year will be a settling-in period of the new strategy plan. By the end of that quarter you want to be confident that the plan is fundamentally sound and that the year’s goals you’ve set are actually achievable.

This quarter is your opportunity to see that the strategy plan has started well and appears on course and, if necessary, to make any changes to the plan. In the strategic planning cycle there should be a link from the Q1 Review stage back to the Think and Plan stages.

Ask questions such as:

Are you on track? Are you hitting early targets? Does everyone in the company understand the plan? Is any part of the plan not on track? Do you know why? Does any part of the plan need to be changed? Does everyone know their responsibilities? Have they got off to a good start? How are weekly and monthly reviews going? Have early milestones been hit?

What targets and milestones should you set in order to be able to answer these questions? Set some small milestones that should be hit in the first month or two, speak to people throughout your company to see how they and their teams are getting on with the new plan.

If at the end of Q1 it’s clear that something is not working you still have the opportunity to change the strategy plan (if that is what’s needed) before your business steers too far off course. Make sure you only change an aspect of the strategy plan if it is really necessary. Don’t change it simply because a target hasn’t been hit because it’s deemed too challenging. The problem may not be with the target itself but in the execution.

Q2 – Adapt to stay on course

You’re half-way through your year and hopefully still on course to meet your goals. You should be hitting major interim milestones and able to judge better that all is according to the plan. The strategic planning system should be well embedded into your company culture and the strategy plan well-known and embraced by all.

As we saw, any fundamental issues with the strategy plan (the actual goal, objectives and means for achieving them) should have been addressed in Q1. So, if targets are being missed at this stage, and there has been no major external event to affect you, then the fundamentals of the plan shouldn’t be altered. Are there other problems that could be affecting progress? If the plan and the means for achieving the desired results are sound then there may be an internal problem with a person or group of people or a problem with a stakeholder such as a strategic partner.

If, however, an unexpected external event has taken place such as a better competitive solution or a change in government legislation then you have no choice but to return to the Think and Plan phases and change what’s necessary to either stay on course or change course to avoid the new hurdle. This is a major decision and should only be taken if there is no other choice. Doing nothing and standing like a rabbit caught in headlights is the worst thing you can do.

Another reason for possibly changing part of the plan is if a new major opportunity has come up that was not planned for but if achieved would bring a greater return than a current goal or objective.

At this stage you should not change the plan lightly but neither should you be blind to new opportunities along the way that justify making a course change. If you do, for example, add a new goal and don’t increase resource to manage it, then you will need to drop an equivalent goal from the original plan. Any new targets you introduce to the plan will have a ripple effect on the rest of the business. Make sure you carry out an impact assessment.

Q3 – Final push and learn

You’re nine months into the annual cycle. Many of your goals have been met and you know how well you’re going to end the year on.

The quarterly review may reveal some targets slipping but these should by minor issues only that can be corrected with some focus effort. If a key goal is going to be missed by a long way then something went wrong with the plan or strategic planning process. Either the goal was unrealistic or the problem wasn’t picked-up and addressed earlier in the year. Take the findings from this Q3 review and make any minor tweaks to priorities that will help your people meet any outstanding goals.

The current plan cannot now be changed and the focus as you enter Q4 must be on meeting as many of the goals in the strategy plan as possible and on starting the new Think phase in preparation for next year.

Use this review meeting to discuss the findings, issues and challenges that you faced during the year. These findings are important and will help improve your strategic planning system and help set the goals for next year.

Q4 – Reflection and Preparation

In Q4 you should have focused on three areas; a drive towards the finish line, a reflection on how the year has gone and a plan of what you’re going to do next year.

A major part of this reflection needs to be on the effectiveness of the two foundational blocks upon which your company should be built. Did your strategic planning system work well and is there room for improvement? Was quality leadership demonstrated throughout the company by all in a position of responsibility?

You should also have completed the Think and Plan phases in time for the start of the new fiscal year. Use the Q4 review meetings to ratify the goals you’ve set and how you intend to achieve them.

The Strategic Planning Health Check tool will help you assess your strategic readiness for the new annual cycle. Even if you used the tool the previous year it will highlight improvements made in the 12 months since.

Last word...

Make sure your quarterly reviews reflect the time of year as well as assess the results achieved. Act on the findings in a way that’s appropriate to the time of year. Adapt your plan early on if it’s clear that you set off on the wrong heading. Make small course corrections to stay on course later in the year and only change the plan if absolutely necessary. Learn from what worked and what didn’t as you head towards the end of the year and prepare a new course for the next year.

Use your quarterly reviews effectively in this way and you’re more likely to meet your goals and work together as a highly motivated, coherent and effective team.