The Strategic Operating System (Strategic OS) is a platform designed for leadership teams to develop business strategy for their company, business units, and product or service offerings. While a number of other platforms provide support for budgeting, operations, and execution, the Strategic OS is uniquely built to help business leaders determine how to win by creating enduring competitive advantage.  

The comprehensive process begins with pre-work to baseline the team’s strategic capabilities and elevate their thinking to see the big picture of the business. The team then utilizes tools to generate external insights on the market, customers, and competition and internal insights on their organization’s competencies, capabilities, and strategic approach to winning. From there, the team moves through several planning exercises to channel their external and internal insights into a strategic action plan. Finally, the team moves through relevant governance artifacts designed to ensure strategy development and insight generation is continuously fueled throughout the year. The result is strategy moves from a static plan to an evolutionary path to achieving goals and creating real competitive advantage.  

The Strategic OS

  1. Pre-Work

    • Strategy
      Survey

  2. External Insights
    • Contextual
      Radar
    • Competitive
      Landscape
    • Customer
      Excellence
    • Positional
      Strategy

  3. Internal Insights
    • SWOT Analysis
      & Alignment
    • Strategy
      Filter
    • Trade-Off
      Matrix
    • Prioritization
      Matrix

  4. Strategic Planning
    • GOST
      Framework®
    • Resource
      Reallocation
    • StrategyPrint®
    • Decision
      Rights

  5. Strategy Update
    • Monthly
      Update
    • Meeting
      Audit
    • Quarterly
      Review
    • After Action
      Review

Strategy Artifacts

  • Strategy
    Charter
  • Strategy
    Calendar
  • Business
    Case
  • Initiative
    Brief

The following is a description of the areas and tools comprising the Strategic OS: 

PRE-WORK 

Strategy Survey: Qualitative perspective on the market, customers, competitors, and company. 

EXTERNAL INSIGHTS 

Contextual Radar: One-page visual assessment of the key factors in the four areas of market, customers, competitors, and company. 

Competitive Landscape: Analyzing the similarities and differences with key competitors on seven factors. 

Customer Excellence: Determining the customary elements of value for customers and coming up with different ways to generate value. 

Positional Strategy: Creating strategies specific to one’s position within the market as either a leader or challenger. 

INTERNAL INSIGHTS 

SWOT Analysis & Alignment: Identifying the key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the business and aligning them to develop strategies. 

Strategy Filter: Explicitly calling out the “nots”— the areas for the team that should not receive resources. 

Trade-Off Matrix: Assessment of current resource allocation and recommended changes to improve the ability to achieve goals.  

Prioritization Matrix: Evaluating priorities based on probability of achievement and impact on the business. 

STRATEGIC PLANNING 

GOST Framework: Based on the external and internal insights generated, development of the goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics for the business.  

Resource Reallocation: An intentional guide on how capital and people get allocated and reallocated throughout the year. 

StrategyPrint: Completion of the 1-2 page strategic action plan. 

Decision Rights: Inventory of the key decisions and who owns their rights. 

STRATEGY UPDATE  

Monthly Update: A status update on priority activities along with future topics for discussion.  

Meeting Audit: Documentation of recurring meetings to identify their purpose, cadence, outputs, and proposed changes.  

Quarterly Review: A recap of achievements, challenges, and learnings from the previous quarter and priorities for the next quarter. 

After Action Review: Examination of key initiatives following their completion to identify learnings and aspects of improvement for the future. 

STRATEGY ARTIFACTS 

The Strategy Artifacts are a series of guides and templates that are optional to augment your strategy development process throughout the year. Please review and determine which would complement your process. 

Strategy Charter: Establishing a consistent and common language for strategy to be used across the organization along with key strategy principles. 

Strategy Calendar: Description of the rhythm of strategy development and tune-ups throughout the year. 

Business Case: A description of a potential opportunity to advance the business along with the proposed action plan.  

Initiative Brief: A one-page overview of a key initiative to provide a common understanding of the project.