- The best CEOs in the world,
I'm talking the best of them out there
do this one thing every quarter.
They get their entire executive team together
in one place or on one Zoom call,
and they go through a very specific
strategic planning process.
And because they go through this very specific
strategic planning process,
they actually come out and go into the quarter
completely aligned on their key initiatives,
completely aligned on their strategy to actually win.
And then they do it again the following quarter,
and again the following quarter.
Having been a CEO of a venture backed scaling company
and having an executive team.
Having been the SVP of Strategy
by a private equity backed company
that was in hundreds of millions of dollars in ARR,
I learned a few things about how to properly run
these strategic planning processes.
And in this episode,
I'm going to dig into the three key principles
that you absolutely need to know
to make sure that you properly run
a strategic planning process.
Intro!
(upbeat music)
What's up everybody?
Welcome to unstoppable I'm TK
and on this channel, I help SaaS founders and CEOs like you
grow your SaaS businesses faster
with an unstoppable strategy.
If you are new to this channel, welcome.
Be sure to hit the subscribe button
and that bell icon that way you'll get notified
every single time I drop an episode
with actionable advice with the TK energy.
If you're already part of my community,
if you're part of my SaaS, Guru Market Coaching Program,
welcome back.
It's really awesome to see over here.
Now I remember there's this one quarter at ToutApp,
I was CEO, we had hired our VP of sales
and our VP of customer success all in one quarter.
We also hired a Director of Sales development.
It was like three really great executives that we hired,
and we brought on with deep experience.
On one hand, that was awesome,
because I wasn't doing everything myself anymore.
On the other hand, it became very apparent very quickly,
that they had a lot of context, a lot of experience,
a lot of horsepower, but unless we got into a room
and really got to align on our strategy to actually win
on some specific goals that we wanted to go after,
we'd all be running in different directions.
And very quickly, I had to transition
from just the founder led everything to the CEO.
And that's really when I started to fall in love
with doing these strategy offsides,
these strategic planning processes.
Now in my experience,
I've been part of good strategic planning processes,
I've been part of bad ones, I've been part of okay ones.
And over the years, over a decade of being in SaaS,
and being in an operator and an executive role,
I've developed this very specific way
to run a strategic planning process.
So in this episode,
I'm going to dig into the exact three principles
that you absolutely need to know,
what is strategic planning and how to actually do it right.
It's not just trust falls, it's not just MBTI ratings,
there's actual science to this.
So if you are excited to dig in,
go and smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
And let's dig in to principle number one.
So principle number one
is kind of your default thing, right?
Especially when it comes to strategic planning.
The default thing is raw execution.
And most teams, most high performing teams
tend to just be focused on raw execution.
Believe it or not, those successful teams
are actually more execution oriented
rather than strategy oriented.
And that's perfectly fine.
What's important to recognize is that
when you're doing just raw execution,
you're just gonna keep going, keep going, keep going,
it ends up being where you're very inward's focused,
or you're being very reactive to what's happening.
And chances are, if you're watching this video,
or you search for strategic planning,
or you look for strategy,
or you're just like part of my coaching program,
you start to understand, like, look, there's the execution,
but then there's the higher order of things
that we have to look at as well.
And that's when most teams especially in SaaS,
especially in tech, especially in Silicon Valley,
if you if you kind of grew up there,
you start to think about principle number two,
which is beyond just execution,
let's actually get very clear on our objectives
and key results.
This is specifically an OKR framework
that most companies use today,
to actually define here are the key objectives
we want to go after,
Here's how we're going to measure it,
here's who's going to be responsible for it.
And based on that, we're going to drive our raw execution.
So that way, we're not just kind of running around
with our heads cut off,
we're actually marching in the same direction.
So and by the way, if the concept of OKRs are new to you,
or you want to learn more about OKRs,
be sure to check out this video
where I dug more into exactly what OKRs are
and how to implement them.
You don't have to go right now,
I'll link to it below, no worries.
So principle one and two
in your overall strategic planning process
is just hey, let's make sure we're executing.
Let's actually drive raw execution.
Let's do what's necessary to make sure
we have the right people to drive this raw execution.
But let's also make sure we're aligned on objectives
and key results.
And both of these two things are fairly straightforward
when it comes to strategic planning.
You get into your room every quarter.
You want to make sure you're executing on the right things,
the right people are on board.
You're thinking about how to motivate the team,
is everyone good?
And you're thinking about what are the objectives
and key results for the upcoming quarter.
By the way, up until this point,
there's probably nothing new, right?
If you're not doing those two things in some shape or form,
you should start doing them.
It's basically a no brainer.
But this third piece
is where strategy really comes into play.
This third piece is where you start to ask
the more important question,
which is, hey look, we're executing,
we have some objectives,
maybe we have some key results around,
we have a specific revenue goal,
we have an NPS score we want to get,
we have a DRR we want to get, we have a margin commit.
If you're private equity owned,
there's specific EBITDA, that you want to hit.
If you're VC backed there's specific growth you want to do.
If you're Vista backed, you can do both.
So you probably have some key results.
But eventually, you're starting to think about,
hey, how do we win, right?
And this is when you go from kind of principle one,
principle two to principle number three.
Someone in your team, or maybe you, you're starting to say,
hey, you know what, how do we actually win this thing?
What does being number one look like?
How do we actually beat the competition?
How do we compete to begin with in the market?
And what are the market dynamics like?
This is a set of questions that is in rarefied air.
This is a set of questions that teams don't usually ask
because they're usually stuck in raw execution mode.
Sometimes they'll get together and say,
well, we really should set some objectives and metrics,
so do that.
But very rarely will teams actually take a step back
and say, what's like our actual way to win?
Like, how do we beat the competition definitively.
And this is what strategy is,
strategy is essentially making choices
and defining how you're going to compete
and beat the competition.
This is about having a specific way
where you're going to differentiate in the market,
and actually make a difference.
And this is where the best strategic planning happens.
And a lot of times,
CEOs forget to actually drive this specific discussion.
Now how do you do something like this?
Like, how do you actually drive a discussion like this?
I'll tell you that in a second, but before I do that,
let me just kind of pause here for a second.
Are you starting to see the power in this?
Are you starting to see the power in that most times,
you're stuck in the raw execution?
Sometimes you'll get into the objectives.
But if you can pull your team all the way to this level,
where you're actually thinking about strategy and saying,
well, how do we win?
How do we differentiate?
What are our strengths?
What are our weaknesses?
Are you starting to see the power in this?
If you are starting to see the power of this,
can I just get a yes, in the comments below.
Also smash that like button,
the YouTube algorithm really likes it when you do that.
So does my team.
I love it when you do that, it just means a lot to us,
we put a lot of love into these videos.
Now, by the way, if you are starting to think about
how to do a strategic planning session,
if you want an actual framework to follow
to build out a growth strategy for your SaaS business,
I have a SaaS Scale Coaching Program.
It's brand new, we just added it,
because we have some founders
graduating from our Go-To-Market Program.
And this is for founders that are further along
that have revenues, that are looking to scale.
This is what my SaaS Scale Program is for.
And we've really focused on this process
on building out your strategy.
So if you're interested in that,
I'll tell you more about it at the end in this video,
but let's go to exactly how to run this piece.
So there's some specific questions that come into play
when you're doing this thing.
The first one, what are the market dynamics, right?
That's one thing.
Market dynamics, meaning who are the competitors?
Who are the other players?
Is there some big trend happening in the market?
Is there some change in how things are being done?
Are customers looking at a certain way?
There're some questions and some data to look at for that.
The second thing to think about is
what are the choke points?
Meaning there essentially, is a internal process
you're running for your business,
everything from lead acquisition
all the way to renewing customers and servicing customers.
What are the choke points along that line?
I found that SaaS businesses
actually have 27 different choke points
you need to look at.
That can be holding up your growth.
That are important to think about strategically.
So basic question is,
what are some of the choke points that we know about.
Even asking this question with your executive team
is super powerful.
The third thing you can think about specifically is
what is around the curve, right?
What big changes are happening in the market?
Or what opportunities are coming up?
Maybe around AI
or maybe around a certain legislation that's coming out.
What are some changes that are happening,
that are opportunities for us to take advantage of
so we can kind of move ahead?
When you start to ask these set of questions,
within the context of how do we win?
What does winning look like?
How do we beat the competition?
Who is the competition?
What are they doing?
What's working for them, what's not working for them?
What's working for us?
What are the choke points for us?
When you start to ask these questions,
then you get into a true strategic planning discussion.
Because then what happens is,
you start to have these discussions
and then you start to feed those insights
back into your objectives and key results.
And when you feed that back
in your objectives and key results,
then you're actually setting objectives
to win in a differentiated way,
to compete in a differentiated way.
To be purposeful about being the best
in a very specific way.
And that's where the power really comes.
Because when you set those objectives,
these become clearer, the metrics become prioritized.
And then the raw execution is done
in a much more focused way.
So instead of just saying, we have a strategy, it's to win,
you're saying, look, here's a very specific way to win.
Here's the specific way we're going to compete.
Here's a specific way
we're going to move ahead in the market.
Here's the specific way
we're going to actually meet what our customers really want,
and no one else can do that except for us.
And that's where strategy really comes in.
When you're running a strategic planning process,
with your executive team, with your team members,
across these three layers,
that's when you truly have an unstoppable strategy,
and everything starts to come together beautifully.
So those are my three core principles
on what goes into a strategic planning process.
First, you got to look at the raw execution,
how's that going?
Then you have to look at your objectives and key results.
Then you will have to ask some of these strategic questions.
And then it feeds back this way.
You drive alignment across the team,
drive alignment across the company and start to execute,
but now you have a strategy to actually win.
So those are my three principles.
If you got value from this video,
be sure to smash that like button.
But more importantly,
if you actually want to follow my framework,
this is kind of the the tip of the iceberg
on how I think about strategic planning.
If you want a framework to follow
on how to think about what are the 27 choke points?
And how do we evaluate them?
What metrics do we look at?
What strategic questions should we ask?
How do we design a strategy?
How do we actually take that strategy
and turn it into actual OKR so that we can mobilize them?
How do we drive the raw execution?
If you want a framework to follow,
and you want my coaching around your strategy.
If you want someone that's been there
and done that in SaaS in early stage,
very specific stage that I work with for CEOs.
If you want someone that can actually help
guide you in the strategic planning process,
if you want to turn this overall strategy
into a proper narrative
that you can communicate to the rest of the company,
which is also important, then I invite you
to check out my SaaS Scale Program.
My SaaS Scale Program is specifically for founders
that are actively scaling their company.
They've these strategic questions
they need to think through.
They've these competitive dynamics
they need to think through,
and they need to actually make decisions
on how they're going to win,
and find a way to actually drive alignment with their team
and communicate it to themselves, the company, the investors
and the market with a strategic narrative.
This is what my SaaS Scale Program is all about.
I'm super pumped about it.
And I invite you to join and check it out.
It is application based.
So the way it works is you just go to tkkader.com/scale.
In it, you'll get all the details about the program.
And there's a little application form.
So you just basically put in your email address,
answer a few questions.
If you're in the right stage, then we'll get on a call.
We'll get on a call,
and then we'll walk through what your challenges are,
what you're looking to accomplish,
and if I feel like I can help you
with my SaaS Scale Program, then we're off to the races
we start working together.
It's super impactful.
This has been battle tested this framework
with multiple founders already.
I'm super excited about it.
So go ahead and go to tkkader.com/scale.
And check out the program and apply to join
and we'll get on a call and we'll dig more deeper into it.
That's all I have for you today.
I will see you on our call.
Lastly remember, everyone needs a strategy
for their life and their business.
When you are with us, yours is gonna be unstoppable.
I'm TK and I'll see in the next episode.
(upbeat music)
We are going to redo that intro.
I screwed up (laughs)
Let's do that again.