Strategy · Organising to Scaling
An annual theme
You give the year a short name with one number attached, so everyone in the company knows what this year is about without reading the canvas.
Worth reading first: Objectives for this year
Does this sound familiar?
- Your annual plan has three objectives and five priorities. Ask one of your engineers what this year is about and he shrugs.
- Everyone was fired up at the annual session. By March nobody mentions it.
- You came up with a theme, 'Stronger together'. Nobody knows what they'll do differently on Monday because of it.
- This year the company has to make one big shift, from one-off jobs to ongoing contracts, and you notice everyone explains it in their own way.
Who it's for, and when
For founders and leadership teams with a strategy on paper that the team doesn't read. It helps from Organising onwards, when people join who weren't at the annual session. In Searching and Proving it's usually too early: with a handful of people round one table, everyone already knows what matters.
The model
An annual theme is a short name for the year that everyone in the company remembers. It sums up your objectives and priorities in one line you could say in the canteen. It isn't an extra goal: what has to happen this year is already in your objectives. The theme turns them into one thing everyone can repeat.
Harnish ties one number to the theme: the critical number for the year. That's the number that says the most about whether the year has worked, usually one of your objectives. Without a number, a theme is a slogan. With one, everyone can see each month whether it's working, and in December you know whether you get to celebrate.
Then you make it visible: an image or a gauge on the wall that moves with the number, and the theme coming back in every weekly meeting. And you agree in advance how you'll celebrate when the number is hit. There's a quarterly version too: a quarterly theme with its own number, for a shorter job within the year.
You can do perfectly well without one. A team of ten that sits round the table together every week already knows what matters, and a theme is just one more word. In that case set the box on the canvas to 'Not now', and it won't appear anywhere else. It does help when your team doesn't read the strategy, when there are lots of new people, or when the year is about one big shift.
Verne Harnish, Scaling Up (2014). On the One-Page Strategic Plan, next to the objectives for the year and the priorities for the quarter, sits a theme: a name, a critical number, an image and a celebration. Harnish took it from Mastering the Rockefeller Habits (2002).
The name
Two to six words that say what changes this year. Everyone has to be able to remember it and repeat it, including the engineer and the new planner.
The number
One measurable number, with where you are now and where you want to be at the end of the year. Usually one of your objectives for this year, the one that says the most.
The image
Something you put up that moves with the number: a thermometer on the wall, a board in the workshop, a line at the top of the weekly meeting.
The celebration
Agreed in advance: what happens when the number is hit. A dinner with the whole team, a day off, a bonus. If you only decide afterwards, there's nothing to build up to.
Pitfalls
A marketing slogan
A theme that could go on your website is written for customers. An annual theme is for your own people, and it's fine if it sounds internal.
The same every year
'The year of growth' fits any year. If the theme would work next year too, it doesn't say what has to change this year.
Watch and read
Harnish himself on why you give a strategy a name, with examples including Domino's.
Watch on YouTubeA coach who works with this method, on a company with fifty projects in one quarter that found its focus again with a single theme.
Watch on YouTubeA founder shows how his company picks a number and a theme every quarter, with the names they used.
Watch on YouTubeRead
Scaling up: de groeiformule
Verne Harnish · 2016 · ISBN 9789047008682
The Dutch edition of Scaling Up (Business Contact). The strategy section puts the theme next to the objectives on the One-Page Strategic Plan, and the execution section covers the critical number and quarterly themes.
View the bookApply it
- 1
What's the one change this year?
Put your objectives for this year and your priorities side by side. Which one thing has to happen that the rest follows from or depends on? If you can't pick one, you may not need a theme, and you can set the box to 'Not now'.
- 2
Which number goes with it?
Pick the number that best shows whether that change is working, with where it stands now and where it should be at the end of the year. It's usually already in your objectives for this year.
- 3
Which name will everyone remember?
Write down a few names and read them out to someone who isn't on the leadership team. Pick the one they still remember a week later and can explain.
- 4
How do you make it visible?
Where does the number go up, and who updates it? Choose a spot the team walks past every day, and a fixed moment in the weekly meeting.
- 5
How will you celebrate?
Agree now what happens when the number is hit, and say it out loud at the start of the year.
Examples
An installation company
'The year of the returning customer.' Number: from 25% to 40% of revenue from maintenance contracts. A gauge in the canteen that's updated every month. At 40%, the whole team goes away for a weekend.
A software company
'Right first time.' Number: from 30% to 10% of tickets that get reopened. The number sits at the top of every weekly meeting. At 10%, a day off for everyone.
A wholesaler
'Every order out the door the same day.' Number: from 82% to 98% of orders shipped the same day. A board in the warehouse with yesterday's percentage.
Weak: 'Stronger together'
Too vague. It fits any company and any year, there's no number attached, and nobody knows what they'll do differently on Monday.
Weak: 'Quality first'
A marketing slogan with no number. What does quality mean here: fewer complaints, fewer call-backs, a higher NPS? Pick one and it becomes a theme.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- You write the Jaarthema section of your strategy, and it stays on your strategy page.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.Your leadership team wants to add 'New market in Belgium' as the annual theme, a fourth objective next to the three for this year. What do you say?
2.This year's theme is 'The year of the customer'. In October your business partner asks whether it's worked. What's missing?
3.You have ten people who sit round the table together every week and know exactly what this year is about. An adviser says you need an annual theme. What do you do?
4.Your marketer suggests this as the annual theme: 'Moving forward sustainably, together with you'. What's the problem?
5.The number for the year was hit in November. Only then does the leadership team discuss how to celebrate. What could have been done better?
6.This year your company has to move from one-off jobs to ongoing maintenance contracts. You notice everyone explains it differently. Which theme helps most?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
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