Worksheet · Strategy Health Check
Finish one exit this year
It prints on A4 with room to write.
Exits get discussed every year and deferred every year. This sheet picks one, plans it to the end and tracks where the released resources go. It builds the Competent step of the check:
The business has made at least one real stop-doing decision in the last two years and finished it.
Step 1. Look at the tail
| Candidate (product, customer group, region, project) | Profit after allocated cost | Fits the strategy? | Harvest, fix, close or sell | Who might buy it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| e.g. Small-order export service | Loss | No | Close | Nobody; refer to a freight agent |
- Harvest: stop investing and take the cash while it lasts.
- Fix: one last attempt, with a date and a test.
- Close: stop selling and wind down.
- Sell: find the owner who values it more.
Step 2. Pick one and plan it to the end
| Step | Owner | Date | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decide, and tell the people affected first | |||
| Tell customers and offer them an alternative | |||
| Stop new sales | |||
| Run down stock and contracts | |||
| Release or redeploy people and assets | |||
| Confirm the last sale and the last cost |
Step 3. Show where the released resources went
| Resource released | Amount | Moved to which priority | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| People | |||
| Budget | |||
| Capital or space |
Done when: one exit is finished, with the last sale made, and the released people and money appear in a priority's budget.
Adapted from our own strategy ghost deck (Forty 2, 2025).
From the Strategy Health Check. Your report links the sheet for each of its moves.