Many businesses question the value of quarterly review meetings, considering the cost and time required for preparation and execution that could have been spent elsewhere. But experts agree that businesses that invest in quarterly reviews have a greater chance of meeting their goals and succeeding in the marketplace.

According to a Harvard Business Review blog post on best practices, titled Four Fatal Flaws of Strategic Planning (Ed Barrows, March 13, 2009,) number four on the list is: “Dodging Strategy Review Meetings.” Enough said.

At Communiqué, we believe quarterly reviews are an essential piece of the strategic plan and value partnerships with clients who share this belief. One example is Tecplot Inc. They invest regularly in quarterly review meetings and have experienced first-hand the inherent benefits. Having just participated in another productive quarterly review with their marketing team, we are reminded of the value. Below are highlights from some of the best counsel we’ve heard and read from strategic planning experts, including M. Dana Baldwin of the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning:

Why invest in quarterly review meetings:

Think of a quarterly review as a quarter break or time-out in an NBA game. Why don’t the players just keep playing and trying to win? They watched the films and had a plan before the game started. The answer is simple: time-outs allow the coach and team a chance to pause, discuss how the game is going and adjust strategy to ensure the best possible outcome. They do this throughout the game so they can course-correct while there is still time.

The same strategy applies to business. If you only review your success once you execute against your annual strategic plan, you are only able to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. There is no time left to change what wasn’t working. Strategic plans should be living documents and companies should be flexible enough to change course when needed. Changing a plan is not necessarily a sign that the original plan was weak.

Why might you need to course-correct if you’ve developed a good strategic plan at the outset? Strategic decisions are based on the knowledge you have about your business at that time and the assumptions you make about the business environment. And the assumptions are many: the appeal of your product or service, opportunities that lie ahead, competitive threats and/or roadblocks. You can only plan based on what you assume will happen. What actually happens remains to be seen. A quarterly review allows you to take stock of which of your assumptions have played out as expected and to what extent.

Other factors may also affect your strategy that cannot be planned for in advance, such as big events or market changes that might impact your product (think 9/11 if you’re in the travel industry or the fast rise of the iPod if you’re in the business of CD players.) Also, new opportunities might pop up that you hadn’t anticipated. Are they more or less valuable than the opportunities you targeted in your plan? The quarterly review allows you to factor in these changes and adjust the plan accordingly.

Tips for a successful quarterly review:

Planning for quarterly reviews should not be an arduous task. Ideally, the data should already exist in weekly or monthly status reports. This data can be pulled, summarized and analyzed for the quarterly review. There should not be much new data shared at the quarterly review, but it’s a chance for deeper analysis of what is already known with corresponding strategic “regrouping”.

The quarterly review should be a broad look at the business addressing large functional areas together, rather than each piece individually (for example, the entire marketing team rather than a PR-specific review.) As such, the review allows you to hear what other cross-functional teams are doing and ensures a greater chance for integration and consistency.

Successful quarterly reviews should also be held in person where all participants are in the same room, if possible. In today’s perennially “connected” world, employees are often disconnected physically with many working remotely or simply working heads-down in their office and communicating mostly via email even with colleagues down the hall. Quarterly reviews allow the team to pull back from the day-to-day work, and have a chance to think more strategically and collaboratively. And the chance to come together in-person also results in more cohesive teams and a higher functioning organization.