Strategic planning for Saskatchewan companies

Plan for distance first

The plan has to be readable by someone who was not in the room. Saskatoon and Regina, the capital, are the largest centres, with Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Yorkton and North Battleford well apart from them, and leadership teams here are often spread across several of these.

That changes three design choices:

• A one-page strategy that every manager can carry, rather than a long deck only head office reads.
• A short scorecard of eight to twelve numbers, reported the same way from every location.
• Written decisions. Every quarterly review ends with a decision log, so a manager who missed the call knows what changed.

See how we build these in the OKRs and KPI scorecard service.

Make the long winter a planning asset

Saskatchewan's long and very cold prairie winters mean many companies have a clear slow season. A plan that pretends otherwise sets up the team to miss targets every January and then over-celebrate in July.

We recommend using the slow months on purpose. A practical split for a company with a pronounced winter dip:

1. November: annual planning offsite while the year's results are fresh.
2. December to February: training, process fixes, recruiting for spring, and the system work that gets postponed in busy months.
3. March: first quarterly review, confirming the busy-season plan and hiring.

The leadership offsite agenda guide gives a full two-day agenda you can adapt.

A distance-aware cost example

Travel is a real line in a Saskatchewan plan, so price it before choosing a review format. Suppose a leadership team of six includes three people who drive four hours each way to meet in person. Four in-person quarterly reviews would cost those three people roughly 24 working days a year on the road, before fuel and hotels.

Running one annual offsite in person and three reviews by video reduces that to about six days, and the saving can fund a second facilitated session if the plan needs one. We describe the review format in quarterly strategy reviews.

Provincial steps that appear in plans

Some growth initiatives need provincial filings or registrations, and the plan should give each one an owner and a date. We do not advise on the rules themselves; your lawyer and accountant do.

• Corporate and business name filings are handled by the ISC Corporate Registry.
• Added staff bring WCB Saskatchewan premiums into the hiring budget.
• Changes in how you sell to consumers may involve the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority, worth reviewing with your adviser.

One scenario every Saskatchewan plan should hold

The most useful scenario is often the loss of a key person, because smaller leadership teams carry a lot of knowledge in very few heads. If one manager runs a location that produces $1.4 million of a $4 million business, that is 35% of revenue tied to one relationship.

The scenario asks what happens to the first 90 days if that person leaves, who steps in, and what the plan spends on building a second leader. The scenario planning guide shows how to lay this out.

Three questions to settle before the offsite

The offsite goes better when the team has already agreed on the facts. We send three questions to each leader two weeks ahead, and their written answers form the opening hour of the session:

1. What is the one result from this year you would repeat, and what caused it?
2. Which customer, location or service should get less of our time next year?
3. What would have to be true in three years for you to call this plan a success?

Fees and tax

Fees follow our published consulting rates in Canadian dollars. As of October 2026, Saskatchewan clients add 5% GST, with provincial sales tax only where it applies to the specific service, using the Canada Revenue Agency rate tool as reference. Call, text or email to begin.