What it is and what problem it solves
In most companies without a strategy function, the plan gets reviewed in two ways. In the weekly sales meeting, which looks at this week's orders. And in the agency's report, which describes what was done. Neither reviews the plan itself: whether the thesis still stands, whether the actions work, whether the money is where it should be.
The period committee fills that gap. It has a fixed cadence, mandatory pre-reading, three possible decisions per action sheet and minutes. The deliverable is a report per period and the leadership decisions that come out of it.
The roles are clear. The client decides. We prepare the report, propose decisions and run the session. The third parties who execute answer for their sheets. It is the heart of the Strategic direction phase.
When to use it and when not to
It starts as soon as the playbook is running and lasts as long as execution does. The default period is the quarter, but it is adjusted to the buying cycle: shorter during a launch, when you need to correct quickly, and longer when sales take months to close.
It doesn't replace the weekly operating meeting, which still exists for what is urgent. Nor is it the place to approve creative work or debate a specific deal. And it isn't convened if the data isn't closed: a committee with half-finished data ends up arguing about the data instead of deciding.
How it is prepared and run
- Data close. Cutoff date and submission by each data owner. Deliverable: closed dashboard.
- Pre-read report. Result against baseline per indicator, status of each action sheet and deviations with their cause. Deliverable: report sent days in advance so it is read beforehand.
- Proposal per sheet. Continue, change or stop, with the reason. Deliverable: proposed decisions.
- Session. Fixed order: results, deviations, decisions and replanning. Activity is not presented. Deliverable: decisions made in the room.
- Minutes. Every decision with its owner and date, and any change to the baseline with its reason. Deliverable: minutes sent and approved within days.
- Replanning. New or modified sheets and the next period's budget. Deliverable: updated playbook.
Anatomy of the deliverable
The period report is a table, not a slide deck. One row per action sheet or per indicator:
| Sheet or indicator | Baseline | Period target | Result | Deviation | Cause | Proposal | Decision | Owner and date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Signed value | Agreed value | Measured value | Difference | Explanation with data | Continue, change or stop | What leadership decides | Name and date |
So the proposal doesn't depend on the mood of the day, we use default criteria:
| Situation | Default decision | When an exception is made |
|---|---|---|
| Action done and KPI on target | Continue | If the target turned out too low, it is revised for the next period |
| Action done and KPI below target | Change the action | If it was already changed last period and is still below, stop |
| Action not done | Review owner and dependency before judging the KPI | If the dependency won't be resolved, stop |
| KPI above target with action not done | Find the real cause before taking credit for anything | None |
The session is attended by the people who can decide: the CEO or general manager, the heads of sales and marketing, and the action sheet owners. Third parties join for their part. Everyone else gets the minutes.
The classic framework: the QBR
The QBR, or quarterly business review, took hold in account management and customer success: the vendor sits down with its client every quarter to go over the value delivered and the next steps. Many large companies do the same internally with their business units. Its strength is the fixed cadence, which forces everyone to look at the whole picture at regular intervals.
It has three limits we know well.
It turned into a presentation
In many QBRs the vendor presents to justify the contract. It looks backward, runs long and ends without decisions.
It assumes a strategy function
The QBR assumes someone prepares the data and that leadership knows what it is deciding. In the companies we work with, that function doesn't exist in-house. That is the layer we provide. We are the layer you don't see.
The quarter is an accounting convention
The buying cycle doesn't always match it. Tourist season in the Dominican Republic, the Christmas campaign or a Spanish mid-sized company's budget close matter more than the calendar.
Our adaptation: the buying cycle defines the period, pre-reading is mandatory, there are only three possible decisions, and results are always compared with the signed baseline, not just with the previous period.
Common mistakes
- A committee turned into an activity report. It is prepared by the third party that executes, who measures what they control: assets, posts, visits. That is why we prepare the report, against the baseline.
- Decisions without an owner. Everyone agrees to “review” something and nobody knows who or when. In the minutes, every decision carries a name and a date.
- Changing the target instead of the action. It is the politically comfortable move. A target is only touched with new data, and the change goes in the minutes.
- Never stopping anything. Sunk cost weighs, and stopping feels like failure. Stopping is a decision, and the budget it frees goes to what works.
An illustrative scenario
Take a hypothetical Spanish B2B services company with four branch offices, two periods into running the playbook.
In the report, one branch is below its target for target-tier proposals. The training action sheet is marked done, so training isn't the problem. The cause turns up when dependencies are reviewed: the new tier's prices aren't loaded in that branch's system. The decision is to change, not stop, with a new owner for the price load and a date.
Another sheet, presence at an industry trade show, is done and has been below its KPI for two periods. It stops, and its budget moves to the sheet showing the best result against baseline. Everything goes in the minutes, and the next period starts with the updated playbook.