Reading Time: 2 minutesSuccess story from my time serving as a board director.
“We found the soul of our business.”
The challenge
A long-established, sales-driven business was facing more competition. Revenue had levelled off, and several key customer groups had dropped away. The team – many of them with the company for more than a decade – was tired, and some were considering leaving.
A traditional strategic plan hadn’t delivered the change the owners hoped for. They knew the business needed to reconnect with what made it special, so we tried a different approach.
Finding the pulse before the plan
We started with people. We met with the owners, frontline staff, customers and partners to understand how the business added life to its community – and how the community gave back.
The relationships were deep and valuable. But a recent change in approach had unintentionally split the business’s community into tiers, and people felt it.
Unpacking the story
The passion was still there. It needed room to breathe.
Together, we worked through decades of history:
- Origin stories – why the business began and who it was built to serve.
- Honest lessons from initiatives that hadn’t worked.
- Celebrations of the successes along the way.
- Bigger goals for the years ahead.
We named what was driving the business forward, and spoke openly about what was holding it back.
The outcome
The work produced three-year and five-year strategic plans. Within months, operational plans were updated, and a re-energized team was putting the core ideas into action.
In the first year after implementation:
- Customer retention rose 13%.
- The business won back 28% of the customers it had lost in recent years.
- No one on the team resigned.
Try this
At your next team meeting, ask the longest-serving person in the room to tell the story of why the organization began. Then ask the newest person what they think it stands for today. The gap between the two answers is where your next plan starts.
Be well.