Strategic business planning audit - a leader’s checklist

Make reflection part of your business strategy

Time is a precious commodity for small business leaders. It might feel like spending time to reflect, away from the day-to-day grind, is a luxury. But Telstra Best of Business Awards National Judges say it’s a practice that helps set high-performing businesses apart.

In this guide we unpack practical tips and prompts to help you structure self-reflection and conduct your own business audit. These insights can help whether you’re building a business growth strategy or looking for more focus to move you forward.

1. Reconnect business progress with your core purpose

The strongest businesses that enter the Telstra Best of Business Awards show how purpose guides their decision-making. More than that, they tie it clearly to action that delivers meaningful impact.

Why business purpose matters

Your purpose is your foundation. The reason your business exists. It should be connected to smart business goals and underpin day-to-day action. For leading businesses, purpose isn’t just a page on their website. It shows up in operations, team culture, customer experience and business outcomes.

Stephanie Harvey highlights how staying connected to your purpose gives you a clear reference point, even when conditions change.

It’s really important to have that vision and purpose nailed and regularly revisit it. Your purpose should drive everything you do in the business and help you stay focused when things get hard.

Stephanie Harvey - Telstra Best of Business Awards National Judge
and CEO, Community First Development

Our judges say the habit of checking in with your ‘why’ leads to stronger leadership, clearer communication and a more meaningful business story.

Questions for your business audit

• Is your purpose still true and motivating?
• Can you link your purpose to tangible outcomes?
• Are you able to demonstrate progress?

Discover how successful businesses live their purpose

2. Understand your market position and competitive edge

A strong business doesn’t operate in isolation. Successful leaders understand where their business fits into the broader landscape. They use business benchmarking to consider their competition, and they consider how they bring value to customers in a changing world.

Why competitive positioning matters

Our judges say strong businesses show they’ve taken time to analyse their market and learn from it. They’re clear on what problem they solve, who they serve and how they’re different from others in their space.

Being clear on your competitive position lets you act decisively. Stephanie says that the ability to analyse and decide is a key leadership trait.

Leaders need to know their own business and back themselves to make decisions. You’re going to end up somewhere; it’s better you end up where you want to be.

Stephanie Harvey - Telstra Best of Business Awards National Judge
and CEO, Community First Development

Knowing your market is not just about reacting. It’s about planning with awareness, confidence and clarity. This can help you build a stronger business growth strategy.

Questions for your business audit

• What problems are you solving for your customers?
• What makes your business different?
• Are you tracking changes in your market?

Learn how communicating your value helps create business success

3. Review systems to help accelerate business growth

Strong systems help a business scale. But even successful businesses can outgrow the tools and processes that once served them well.

Why systems matter

Our judges note that the most consistent performers have defined processes and technology that supports the way they work. They’ve also taken time to audit what helps them succeed and what gets in the way.

Christopher Marr says leaders need to be mindful that even proven processes may have an expiry date.

A business's rate of change must keep pace with societal and technological evolution. The infrastructure, systems and processes that helped you win three years ago are unlikely to be what you need to win tomorrow.

Christopher Marr - Telstra Best of Business Awards
National Judge and CEO, ThinkMD.ai

Evolution doesn’t always mean major change. Often, it’s about reducing friction, enabling autonomy and removing roadblocks that slow teams down. Being proactive in this way is also a key part of business continuity planning.

Questions for your business audit

• Are your current systems still fit for purpose?
• Where are your biggest inefficiencies?
• Can you improve with better tools or automation?

Learn how strong systems help small businesses shine

4. Reinforce your learning culture

Good business leaders learn from experience. Great leaders build learning into how the whole organisation operates.

Why continuous learning matters

Our judges note how the strongest business leaders capture lessons, share them and make improvements that stick. Reflection and improvement are team efforts that help push you to the next level.

Bill Lang recommends that businesses conduct regular appraisals or audits together. These sessions can reveal important insights and strengthen internal capability.

One of the big benefits is that it forces leaders to have the conversation with their team about what we’ve actually been doing, what’s worked and why. It brings in different perspectives and uncovers opportunities to improve things.

Bill Lang - Telstra Best of Business Awards National Judge
and Chairman of Small Business Australia

Our judges also note that high-performing businesses find ways to develop people. They offer opportunities to grow skills both formally and informally. This commitment to learning helps create more resilient teams, better decisions and stronger leadership over time.

Questions for your business audit

• What have you learned from recent successes and challenges?
• How do you embed improvements into the business?
• Are you creating opportunities to keep learning?

Find ways to help upskill your team on a budget.

5. Disrupt your own business – creatively

The most successful businesses don’t wait for change to be forced on them. They proactively look for opportunities to try new things.

Why creative disruption matters

Our judges say standout businesses often show the courage to disrupt their own thinking. They might rework a service, enter a new market or shift customer engagement. They take deliberate steps to try something different, before circumstances demand it.

Christopher Marr encourages businesses to stay curious and challenge their own assumptions.

You’ve got to be humble enough to consider how to disrupt yourself. And curious enough to seek a better way of doing things.

Christopher Marr - Telstra Best of Business Awards
National Judge and CEO, ThinkMD.ai

One way to do this is through structured experimentation. Instead of big, risky launches, you might run small-scale tests to explore ideas quickly. Christopher explains how his strategy is to use a short, sharp experiment to test a hypothesis. Even if it’s proved wrong, he highlights how that learning is just as valuable and often more valuable, than a test that succeeds.

Questions for your business audit

• Are you proactively looking for opportunities to evolve?
• Are you running safe experiments to test new ideas?
• Do you revisit your strategy with change in mind?

Learn how to put AI-powered innovation into practice

Make space to reflect on your personal and business growth

Strong leaders are deliberate about how they evolve their business. They carve out time to reflect, learn and develop a strategic business plan.

Entering the Telstra Best of Business Awards can offer you a great opportunity to stop and take stock of what you’ve achieved. Many entrants have embraced the opportunity for rigorous self-reflection.

We often see businesses who’ve applied one year come back and progress further the following year. Having gone through the awards process once, they have a much sharper understanding of where to focus.

Bill Lang - Telstra Best of Business Awards National Judge
and Chairman of Small Business Australia

Discover the benefits of entering business awards.

Take time to regularly revisit your purpose, review how you’re operating and refine your systems. This practice is key to helping you make smart decisions that can help you drive sustainable progress and grow with clarity and intent.

Explore what makes award‑winning businesses stand out