CLIENT
Technology Company, 4,200 employees
CHALLENGE
Company did not have a consistent thinking and planning process in place and the quality of strategy differed dramatically across the organization. Desire was to create a uniform strategic thinking and planning process for the organization while at the same time, build the strategic thinking skills of its mid- and senior-level managers.
NEEDS
- Create a strategic thinking & planning process that can be used year round.
- Build an organizational competency in strategic thinking.
- Develop middle and senior manager’s strategy skills to help them proactively set strategic direction and successfully execute strategic initiatives.
SOLUTION
- Telephone interviews with a sample of mid- and senior-level executives to identify the current business context and their key challenges and issues.
- Creation of a five-phase strategy development process to fit with the organization’s current processes (operations & budgeting).
- Session pre-work included participants taking the Strategic Thinking Assessment to baseline the current level of strategic thinking among the group; completion of the Strategy Survey — a tool designed to focus executive’s thinking on the critical components of the business; and review of several cornerstone strategy articles.
- Development and facilitation of a two-day strategy off-site sessions for senior executives. First half-day focused on education of key strategy concepts. Remaining 1½ days of session focused on applying the strategy tools to their business in small group settings.
- Consultation with leaders to help them facilitate additional strategy input meetings with other groups in the organization.
- Customization of the StrategyPrint template to act as the organization’s business blueprint and feedback on its development.
- Consultation with two senior leaders to help them present the resulting strategic plan to the board of directors.
- Facilitation of a one-day strategy execution meeting to discuss ways to ensure the successful implementation of the strategic plan.
- Senior managers access to the Strategy Vault online resource center to provide them with tools and templates to develop and execute strategy throughout the year.
- Development of guidelines for Strategy Tune-up Sessions. The Strategy Tune-up stimulates thinking and discussion on the market, customers, competitors and the company. Leaders agreed to conduct the 2-hour Strategy Tune-ups on a monthly basis to calibrate plans as necessary.
CLIENT RESULTS & COMMENTS
- Revenue increased by 17% and operating profit increased by 9% after year one of implementation.
- Organization developed and cascaded the five-phase strategy development process through each level of leadership within 8 weeks.
- Knowledge of strategy terms and principles increased by 42% from baseline assessment.
- Survey of employees found that confidence in the organizations strategic direction increased by 31% after the strategy rollout phase was completed.
- 100% of senior leaders developed StrategyPrints for their business units and were able to use them to drive daily activities in support of the key strategic initiatives.