The days are getting shorter, the leaves are changing colors and the temperatures are dropping.
That can only mean one thing: It’s time to start planning for 2022 and beyond.
Last week the York IE senior leadership team gathered off site to kick off our 2022 strategic planning and establish our growth path from now to 2025. It was a very productive day, with a packed agenda and consistent excitement and optimism. It was also a strong reminder that we have an epic, growing team that is driven and bullish about our future.
And that doesn’t just apply to the senior leadership team. At some point throughout the day, every single team member was mentioned in one positive capacity or another. Everyone is making a meaningful impact, and I truly appreciate all of their hard work.
Our entire team is able to make important contributions because we have a culture of transparency that aligns us around a common vision and goals. Through our weekly virtual water cooler meetings, open-door policy, Slack channels and more, everyone from the co-founders to the newest hire knows what drives our success — and how their specific job contributes to that.
In that spirit, the morning after our 2022 strategic planning meeting, I took to York IE’s main Slack channel to share the agenda and key takeaways, and to encourage everyone to weigh in and ask questions.
Every company’s short- and long-term goals will be different, as will their plans for achieving those goals. But there can be a common framework for how to think about the future and the broad topics to focus on. Here’s our 2022 planning agenda, so you can see how we think about strategic alignment and our long-term vision:
- York IE in 2025: If you can’t see the future, you can’t make the future.
- Landscape: What does the future of venture capital look like, and what are the forces of disruption in the startup space?
- SWOT analysis: What are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
- Business alignment: How do our investment arm, advisory services practice and SaaS platform (Fuel) complement each other? How can they, together, drive greater value for our portfolio clients and subscribers?
- 2022 strategic planning: It was only after discussing all of the above big-picture topics that we dove into the nuts and bolts of next year: org charts, budget discussions, etc. After all, as we said at the beginning of the day, if you can’t see the future, you can’t make the future.
There is lots of work to do from here to close 2021 strong and gear up for a monster 2022 — not just for York IE, but for startups everywhere!
If you need strategic planning help, check out York IE’s startup advisory services.
