Strategic Planning for Michigan's Second Stage Companies

The company that got you to where you are ran on your judgment. The company you're running now asks more of it.

Somewhere past the first twenty employees, the decisions changed. They got bigger, less familiar, and more expensive to get wrong. A call that once took a hallway conversation now involves a leadership team, a banker, and sometimes the family. The instincts that built the business still work most of the time, which makes the misses harder to see.

That gap has a name. Second Stage Judgment Drift is the slide into misalignment a company faces as the judgment that built the business gets applied to decisions it was never calibrated against. It's the most common reason a strategic plan gets written, agreed to…and doesn't work. The Judgment Application Framework lays out how to read it.

Phimation Strategy Group works with owner-led, family, and closely held companies across Michigan on strategic planning that holds up after the retreat ends. The practice is based on Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor.

What changes when a company reaches Second Stage

The Edward Lowe Foundation in Cassopolis coined the term "second stage" for companies that have moved past startup and haven't reached maturity. Its definition runs from 10 to 99 employees and $1 million to $50 million in revenue. Phimation focuses on the part of that range with 20 to 100 people and $1 million to $20 million in revenue.

At this size, three things shift at once.

• Decisions outgrow the owner's experience. A new market, a second location, a senior hire, a technology bet, a succession question. Each asks for judgment the company hasn't needed before.
• Systems fall behind the company. The informal ways of working that ran a 15-person shop start to strain at 50. The Growth Stack maps where that strain shows up: the Functional System, the Operating System, and the Growth System above them.
• Important calls spread across more people. The owner can no longer carry every decision. Judgment has to live in a leadership team, and in rising leaders who haven't been tested yet.

What a strategic plan has to do at this stage

The plan has a harder job here than listing goals. It has to change how the company decides.

A useful plan answers four questions.

1. Where is the company going, and what will it say no to? Direction narrows choices. A plan that adds goals and removes none hasn't set a direction yet.
2. Which few variables decide whether it gets there? Most companies track too much. Four to six things usually determine the outcome, and the plan should name them.
3. Which systems need to grow first? Sales, operations, finance, and people systems rarely fall behind at the same rate. The plan should address the binding constraint before the convenient one.
4. Who carries which decisions? Many plans skip this question. If every important call still routes to the owner, the company won't be able to carry out its plan.

Michigan owners tend to want a plan they'll use, and that instinct is right. Plans that read simply and hold sophisticated thinking underneath get used. The ones that impress the board and confuse the team get filed.

How strategic planning works with Phimation

Each engagement fits the situation, and most follow a similar arc.

1. Listen first. Individual conversations with the owner, the leadership team, and often the board or family members. The goal is to see how decisions get made today, which is often different from what the org chart suggests.
2. Read the company. Where systems are falling behind, where judgment is concentrated, and where it's missing. This becomes the shared picture the planning starts from.
3. Set direction together. Facilitated sessions with the leadership team to agree on direction, the few variables that matter most, and what comes off the list.
4. Assign the decisions. Owners for each priority, and clarity on which calls sit where. Rising leaders often take on more here than they expected, which is part of how they grow.
5. Carry it through the year. Quarterly strategy sessions to check the variables, adjust as conditions change, and keep the plan in the room where decisions happen.

Many engagements continue for several years, working across the board, the C-suite, VPs, and rising leaders as the company grows.

Strategic planning facilitation for leadership teams and boards

Some companies have the strategy work underway and need a facilitator to bring a leadership team or board to a decision. Phimation facilitates leadership retreats and board planning sessions built around the few questions that have to be settled before people leave the meeting.

Good facilitation makes the conversation produce a decision. That means preparing the questions in advance, drawing out the people who don't usually speak first, naming disagreement when it surfaces, and closing with clear owners and next steps.

Dave Haviland led the strategic plan for the Stevens Center for Family Business at Michigan's Saginaw Valley State University, where he is also a sponsor and peer group facilitator. Peer groups of family business owners bring a particular kind of candor to the table, and that experience shapes how he runs planning sessions for family and closely held companies.

Michigan companies, from the inside

People outside the state picture Michigan as factories. Manufacturing matters here, and engineering matters as much. Michigan has a deep base of owner-led engineering firms that design, test, and solve problems for other companies.

Engineers make strong planning partners. They want to solve the problem in front of them, so they come to the table open-minded and practical. They're also used to adding value to someone else's business, which gives them a head start on understanding customers and positioning. Dave has worked with Michigan engineering companies for over 25 years.

Midwest practicality runs through companies of every kind here. Owners want to know what the plan changes in the short term, not just where it's aimed in the long term. That's a healthy filter, and good planning work respects it.

Strategic planning experience across Michigan

Dave's work reaches across the state, with clients in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Royal Oak, Birmingham, Saginaw, and as far north as Calumet and Lake Linden in the Upper Peninsula. They include engineering and technology firms, professional services companies, and family-owned businesses.

Since 2018, Dave has hosted SPARK.grow, a podcast produced with Ann Arbor SPARK in which Ann Arbor-area business leaders talk through how they've grown their companies. The series opened with Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of Zingerman's.

Dave's work with Second Stage companies has also been covered by Crain's Detroit Business.

Frequently asked questions

What does a strategic planning consultant do for a company with 20 to 100 employees?

A strategic planning consultant helps the owner and leadership team set direction, choose the few priorities that will decide the outcome, and organize the company to follow through. The work also covers who makes which decisions, because the owner can no longer carry them all.

How long does strategic planning take?

A first plan can take from 4 to 12 weeks, depending on how deep the questions run and how big the aspirations are. It's useful for the process to continue with quarterly sessions to review and adjust.

What's the difference between a strategic planning consultant and a strategic planning facilitator?

A facilitator runs the sessions that bring a team to its decisions. A consultant also shapes the substance: reading the company, framing the choices, and helping carry the plan through the year. Phimation does both, and a company can start with either.

What is Second Stage Judgment Drift?

Second Stage Judgment Drift is the slide into misalignment a company faces as the judgment that built the business gets applied to decisions it was never calibrated against. It shows up as a company grows into Second Stage and its decisions arrive more complex, more consequential, and less familiar than the ones that built it. A good strategic plan accounts for it by naming which decisions need more than the founder's reflexes.

Do you work with family businesses in Michigan?

Yes. Family, closely held, and owner-led companies are the core of the practice. Dave led the strategic plan for the Stevens Center for Family Business at SVSU and works with family companies on succession planning as well as strategy.

Do you work with engineering firms?

Yes. Phimation has a long history with Michigan engineering companies, and their problem-solving habits make them strong planning partners.

Do you work outside Southeast Michigan?

Yes. Phimation is based in downtown Ann Arbor and has worked with clients from Detroit to Saginaw to Calumet in the Upper Peninsula - as well as companies in Ohio, Minnesota, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Arkansas.

Start a conversation

Getting started takes three steps.

1. Reach out through the contact form.
2. Dave sets up a short call to understand where the company is and what it's facing.
3. Together, you decide whether there's a fit and what the first step should be.