Strategic Thinking

To achieve the best results when determining strategy with a group of top managers you need to have an independent facilitator with a process that works:

This should be structured and systematic
Easy to follow and provide the key questions
Use conventional terms and management theory
Keep to time
Have key concepts around which the future direction of the business can be seriously debated
Result in plans to pursue that will enable a fast and successful implementation

The Strategy Workshops "Strategic Thinking Process"

Steps to Achieve a Winning and Quickly Executable Customer Focused Strategy.

Current Strategy Profile.

Prior to the work session, project participants are briefed to ensure commitment to the process.
At the start of the work session, participants debate current strategy to ensure that they are all at the same level of understanding. Without this, it is difficult to determine and formulate future strategy and the process takes considerably more time to conclude.

Examine the Business Arena.

Systematically examine the most significant variables in the business environment. A rational approach to defining strategy requires quality data.
This is done using input from a pre-work session survey completed by each participant and edited by Strategy Workshops.
This input is used throughout the process to study the most significant issues internal and external to the business and including competition.

Strategic Options: Determine the Strategic Heartbeat.

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The starting point and general assumptions in defining future strategic options are usually based on the following criteria:

That there are certain results in terms of profit and growth that need to be achieved over the next strategic time frame
That these results will be best achieved by a strategy that is customer focused
That the products/services offered should be innovative and competitive; reflecting specific customer needs
That the organizations skills and capabilities should be continuously developed to sustain success and a competitive edge over the strategic time frame

To achieve this, during Strategic Thinking we aim to develop a better understanding of the different driving forces causing strategic influence in an organization. We use 9 clearly identifiable driving forces that we can see at work in any organization.

The first task is to understand their relative importance to each other. The second task is to decide which one of the 9 driving forces is fundamental to all major decision making. When singled out in this way it becomes the Strategic Heartbeat of the organization.

The Strategic Heartbeat is important to strategy as it will ensure consistency when allocating resources and when choosing between opportunities in all future decision making. It is also used in the construction of a strategic filter that can be employed to assist these choices.

Develop the Future Corporate Strategy Profile.

Using the Strategic Heartbeat we then construct a statement of strategy which clearly explains the concept and purpose of the business.
This statement is concise, unambiguous and easy to understand. It can be used to communicate strategy to all stakeholders both internally and externally.
A future strategy is built on the skills and capabilities that collectively we call the Corporate Excellence.
We clearly identify the Corporate Excellence so that resources can be allocated for the purpose of honing these skills into a sustainable competitive edge.
In addition, strategic measurements are set to guide the profit and growth requirements.
Management's scope for its choices of products and markets is also agreed and examples added to the Strategy Profile to facilitate accurate communication.
A strategic decision making filter is produced to aid the allocation of resources and the choices made between opportunities.

Define the Corporate Critical Issues.

The future strategy must be validated before finalization.
This is to make sure that it optimizes the organizations strengths, maximizes its opportunities and demonstrates a competitive edge.
As part of this procedure, all the issues and actions that are seen as critical to the success of the strategy are clearly identified.
Each critical issue is prioritized and all the high priority issues are taken and expanded into an action plan by identifying the key plan steps and resources needed. An owner for each of the individual high priority critical issues is also appointed.

Creating Strategic Business Area Profiles.

The final part of constructing the Future Corporate Strategy Profile is to identify all of the Strategic Business Areas that must be incorporated into the program to ensure that the implementation is successfully and quickly executed. This is done to separate the vision into operational activities.
A Strategic Business Area is any part or process in the organization that is vital to the quick and successful execution of strategy.
Examples might be:

Functional departments such as Finance or HR

Department sections such as Legal or Training

Processes such as Customer Services or New Product Development

Business Units, subsidiaries, joint ventures and alliances

For each Strategic Business Area a strategy driving team and team leader is appointed.
As their planning target, each team works under the facilitation and guidance of Strategy Workshops using the vision and business concept outputs that form the Corporate Strategy Profile. They use this to determine a Strategy Profile for their own business area. This is done to define the mission and objectives for their specific area of responsibility in the execution of corporate strategy.
In this way corporate strategy gets cascaded through the organization in a format that is clearly understandable at each level and with the commitment of those participating.

Define the Strategic Business Area Execution Plans.

Each Strategic Business Area must define and commit to an implementation plan that when completed will have made a significant contribution to the overall execution of strategy. They will identify their own specific strategic issues which will be the ones that they regard as critical to manage in order to implement their business area mission. High priority issues are expanded into a plan and the resources needed are identified.

Publish the Strategy Implementation Plan.

The Corporate Strategy Profile together with all the Strategic Business Area profiles is consolidated by Strategy Workshops into a single document. This can be used by management for a multitude of purposes including to further communicate strategy, check progress of implementation, control resources and for future reviews. It should be recalled that these published outputs are totally the own work and conclusions from the participating management teams. This is how we achieve clarity, understanding and commitment to future strategy.

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