Mastering the Business Strategy Template

Summary The Business Strategy Template is the SD used to plan how a Business Unit (BU) will develop and grow. It has two sections. The Strategy section has three parts: a Review, which sets the BU's purpose, vision, elevator pitch and defining idea; an Analysis Kit, with tools such as a SCOT-T analysis; and a Roadmap, where team members' ideas are sorted into Key Result Areas (KRAs) and turned into tasks with owners and deadlines. The Leadership Role(s) section, also titled Leadership Team, records who owns the BU and embeds the PARs of the staff who deliver the strategy.

See also: Strategy System, the ideas behind the template.

Steps

Step 1

Decide whether the BU needs a formal strategy. In PaT, a business is a collection of areas of responsibility, each called a Business Unit, or BU. The size and scope of a BU depend on the business. For a small business like a hairdresser, the entire operation might be a single BU led by one person. A multinational organisation might begin with a global BU, then create country-level BUs, which break down further into functions like sales, operations or finance. Traditionally, BUs might be called departments, branches, territories, units, subsidiaries, divisions or offices. A business strategy is a focused plan to develop, nurture and grow a BU. Not every BU needs one, but for key areas strategy is essential: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Step 2

Create a Business Strategy SD from the PaT Business Strategy Template, and attach it to the relevant BU. If you're unfamiliar with how SD templates are made or how to find them, learn that first in the PaT SD Templates Overview module.

Step 3

The template is split into two sections. Strategy is where you work out the plan. Leadership Role(s), also titled Leadership Team, shows who is employed to execute the strategy.

Step 4

Click the down arrow at the far left of the Strategy row to expand it. Three related sub-sections appear beneath it: Review, Analysis Kit and Roadmap.

Review: the Strategic Foundation

Step 5

Start with the Review sub-section. The first thing any strategy needs is the Strategic Foundation of the BU, set out under Strategic Foundation(Strategy House). Just as you can't build a house without a solid foundation, you can't build a strong BU without one either. If the BU supports a larger business, it usually inherits its Purpose and Vision from the parent company. If you're developing the strategy for the highest-level BU, you define them yourself.

Step 6

The first part is PURPOSE, with Our Story beneath it. Purpose is the heartbeat of the strategy. It reminds everyone why you started, what problem moved you enough to act, and why this BU matters. Telling the story of where you came from and what you believe in creates more than a plan: it creates meaning. Purpose unites people, fuels resilience, inspires belief, and helps others believe in you too. To fill in this and the other sections, drag and drop note elements into the SD. The SD Elements module shows how.

Step 7

Next, define the VISION, starting with Our 100m why. Ask a bold question: why does this BU deserve to play a critical role in helping the business become a $100M company? The large number is chosen on purpose, to stretch imagination and dream beyond limitations. Big thinking sparks big ideas, and this mindset allows ordinary people to achieve extraordinary success. Then, in Our customers 100m why, ask the same question through the customer's eyes: put yourself in the future and ask why they thought the business deserved to be a $100M business. Seeing the business through their eyes often unlocks insights that transform how you view its potential. This shift in self-image is often the difference between simply doing well and becoming truly great.

Step 8

In Elevator Pitch, write a concise, compelling summary of the business model, clear enough to share in the time it takes to ride a lift. If you can explain what makes the business remarkable in just a few seconds, you create a powerful anchor: one that grounds the team in tough times and inspires it when it's needed most.

Step 9

Finally, in Our Northern Star, identify a single, defining idea that captures what the BU truly stands for. It becomes the lens through which all future decisions are made, and the benchmark that keeps the BU aligned with its core values. In multi-level organisations, the overarching vision is often shaped at the top and cascaded down. However, a BU-specific version that reflects how the team feels and what drives them can be a powerful way to build ownership and alignment.

Analysis Kit and Roadmap

Step 10

The Analysis Kit provides a suite of essential business tools designed to support critical thinking, such as SCOT-T (Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, Threats and Tasks) and PESTEL. At a minimum, run a SCOT-T analysis as part of your strategy workshop with the key people shaping the BU. It is a pure brainstorming exercise: capture each idea as a separate note. Fast Notes allow quick-fire idea capture and keep the creative momentum going. Some of your most valuable thinking will emerge during this process, and it will help shape the future direction of the business.

Step 11

The last sub-section of the Strategy section, Roadmap, is where you build the actual roadmap. Its sections include IDEATION, the KRAs (Key Result Areas) and Key Strategies.

Step 12

Add a sub-section header for each team member, named after them and indented beneath the IDEATION section header. Ideally, invite your team to the SD and ask them to add their ideas under their own header ahead of the strategy workshop. If you're short on time, you can build them live during the session. Many of the ideas will naturally flow down from insights uncovered in the Analysis Kit.

Step 13

Next, review the Ideation section and decide which ideas to drag and drop into the relevant KRA sections, such as Customer Centricity or People Capability. These become the actionable items that make up your strategic plan. It's completely normal to leave some ideas behind in the Ideation section. As you work through priorities, the team weighs importance against available resources and time. You can't do everything, and you shouldn't: focus on the 20% of ideas that will deliver 80% of the value. You'll revisit the strategy every 3 to 6 months, so build this discipline: drop any new idea to improve the business into the relevant team member's Ideation section as it arises. That way no good idea gets lost. It's stored safely and reviewed during the scheduled strategy cycles, when the team is in the right headspace for big-picture thinking.

Step 14

The final step in developing your strategy is to convert each agreed KRA (Key Result Area) item into a task or project, assign it to an owner, and set a realistic deadline. This is where strategy becomes execution: without clear accountability and timeframes, even the best strategies fall flat, and assigning each initiative to a specific person with a due date turns intent into commitment. Once the tasks are in PaT, the system tracks them automatically, giving you full visibility of: - Progress: what's moving, what's stuck and what's complete; - Deadlines: how dates shift over time, and patterns in delivery behaviour; - Accountability: who is responsible, and whether follow-through is happening. With reminders, escalations, workload views and dashboards, PaT supports people to succeed and keeps the strategy on track. Most businesses struggle not because they don't have a plan, but because they don't manage its execution.

Step 15

Optionally, use the Key Strategies section to write a synopsis of the strategy that summarises all of the KRAs and high-level objectives for the next period.

Leadership Role(s)

Step 16

In the Leadership Role(s) section (Leadership Team), record who owns the BU and embed the PARs of the staff employed to deliver the strategy, for example under Strategy Owner and Direct Reports. PARs (Performance Agreement Reviews) are the core employment documents in PaT. They are used to manage staff performance, development and growth, and they are a two-way communication platform between the employee and the business: a dynamic employee file that evolves over time, as your people and the business evolve. PaT files documents in the SD Map, a filing system built on the principle of "a place for everything, and everything in its place". The SD Map gives every document, file and digital asset a logical home, and doubles as a security framework: it connects the right documents to the right people based on their job titles and membership permissions. The business logic behind it enables smooth handovers, protects knowledge, and keeps processes and projects on track, even through staff changes.

Note. The core process for building a BU strategy: - Create a Business Strategy Template and attach it to the relevant BU. - Under Ideation, add key stakeholders as indented section headers and ask them to contribute ideas before the strategy workshop. - Run the strategy workshop. - Review and expand the Ideation section. - Work through the Analysis Kit: at a minimum, complete a SCOT-T. - Prioritise, and pull the most valuable and realistic ideas down into the KRA sections. This becomes your formal plan. - Convert the ideas into tasks, assign them and set deadlines. Your strategy is now actionable. - In the Leadership section, record who owns the strategy and embed the PARs of the staff responsible for delivering it. The root cause of most stress and failure is a lack of planning. Your odds of success shift dramatically when you trade "meaning well" for a well-considered written strategy.

Tip. An orange i icon at the right end of a section header's row means there's extra information available. Click it to open a window with helpful guidance for that section. To learn more about the SD Map (intermediate level), see the PaT SD Map Presentation module. PaT customers can set up their own SD Map, following the How to set up your SD Map module (advanced level), or engage a certified PaT Consultant to do it for them.