Picture yourself in the driver’s seat of your dream car, ready to go—but the windows are all painted black and there are no gauges. You turn the key and the engine roars. You push the pedal to the floor and away you go!

Oh you’ll end up somewhere, all right—but it won’t be pretty.

Too many banks operate exactly this way. People go to work every day and push that pedal to the floor. But do they have any idea WHERE they’re going? Too often, the answer is no—and the reason is a lack of outcome-based thinking. “What is the end result I’m after?” and “What’s the best way to get there?” should be front and center at all times.

Getting a clear framework in place BEFORE you hit the road matters more to the outcome than anything else. Unaligned teams, fuzzy objectives, and a lack of common goals often bog down strategic planning sessions.

Sound familiar? If so, it’s time to get serious about lifting the hood on your strategic planning process. Strategy clarifies how you will operate your bank, your department, and your marketing plan, not just in the long term, but on a day-to-day basis.

Roxanne Emmerich
President and CEO