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Strategic Planning: Process-Based Competition

Orion Development Group’s strategic planning process is a fusion of the most successful aspects of multiple well-known strategic planning and operational excellence methodologies. It gives our clients the highest probability of effectively deploying strategic initiatives and sustaining strategic success based on their unique process capabilities.

Check out Orion’s rapid strategy redefinition service.

Look to Orion to help you:

  • Establish a clear corporate vision with actionable goals
  • Leverage unique process capabilities to develop a Blue Ocean® or Blue Sky Strategy
  • Link and align strategic objectives via the Strategy Map
  • Develop scorecards and initiatives to assure successful execution
  • Align day-to-day operations with strategic objectives

Orion Development Group’s strategic planning process is time-tested, straightforward and flexible. It has been used successfully by major corporations, mid-sized government agencies and small not-for profits. There are four cornerstones:

  • Results-Oriented Vision Statements to provide clarity and metrics for success
  • Strategic Process Assessment to identify unique capabilities and critical weaknesses
  • Strategy Map to communicate dependencies and priorities
  • Balanced Scorecard to monitor progress and enable course corrections

These important work products are created during an easy-to-follow, seven-step flow that can be use to develop new strategies, refine deployment of existing strategies, and improve strategic execution. Services include:

Vision and Goal Setting

Every organization needs purpose. Without purpose, functional areas become silos and the workforce becomes demotivated. Unfortunately, most vision statements are bland, generic and non-specific. Orion will help you create a vision statement and accompanying goals that are tangible, relevant and can be linked to day-to-day operations.

Blue Ocean and Blue Sky Strategies

Your organization must have “red ocean” goals: Strategic needs that are driven by your traditional business model. Strategic planning is also an opportunity for aspirational thinking. Orion’s team members are trained in Blue Ocean Strategy®. We have also developed Blue Sky Strategy techniques that enable you to leverage unique process capabilities to grow your business and/or expand services.

Strategy Mapping

The Strategy Map is a simple yet incredibly powerful tool. It creates alignment and structure for your strategic plan. It also very clearly communicates to people across the organization what your goals are and how all of the pieces fit together. Orion has been helping executive teams develop and utilize Strategy Maps since the mid-1990s, before the term Strategy Map was coined.

Balanced Scorecard Development and Refinement

Properly designed and utilized, the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is the best weapon you have to manage strategy execution and assure strategic objectives are met, even as business conditions change. Orion’s approach leverages the structure from your Strategy Map to develop relevant metrics and to inform the selection of impactful strategic initiatives. We will facilitate both the executive team and an “execution team” so that your Scorecard will be effectively deployed and your organization will have internal experts who can adjust and refine the BSC as needed.

Initiative Development/Execution

The Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard make it easy to identify necessary projects and to prioritize their execution. Orion will help you charter impactful initiatives and establish project management protocols that will drive each initiative to a successful conclusion.

Integration and Change Management

According to Harvard Business Review, 67% of well-formulated strategies die on the shelf. Either initiatives are not effectively executed or strategic intent is not integrated into day-to-day operations. Change management is a critical investment to make sure you bring the entire team along in support of the new strategic vision, goals and objectives. Orion’s practical CODE methodology helps you past all of the technical, behavioral and cultural barriers to change.

Building Your Strategic Competency

At its best, the strategic planning process produces a clear picture of your future that is both actionable and measurable. Too often organizations fail to reach the future state because there is a disconnect between strategic priorities and day-to-day process execution. Orion’s Strategic Planning curriculum will give your organization the skills needed to make business processes both the source of strategic differentiation and the guarantors of effective strategy execution.

Strategic Planning: A Process-Oriented Approach

How to Leverage Process Excellence to Improve Your Profitability and Competitive Advantage

Blue Ocean Strategy

How to Discover New Growth Opportunities

Strategy Maps

How to Link Strategic Objectives to Operational Initiatives

Business Process Management and the Balanced Scorecard

Deploying Processes and Innovation as Strategic Weapons

Discovering the Breakthrough Customer Experience

How to Generate Innovations that Matter to Your Customers and to Your Strategy

Using Strategy Maps and the Balanced Scorecard to Improve Performance

How to Achieve Superior Performance and Strategic Success

Developing Your Public Sector Balanced Scorecard

How to Clarify, Deploy and Manage Strategy in the Public Sector

These skills can also be delivered as a consulting engagement applied to real projects. For more information, email Margaret Powers.

Strategic Services Leader – Ralph Smith

Ralph Smith is Vice President, Strategic Services for Orion Development Group.  He has personally supervised the performance improvement efforts in more than 100 organizations worldwide.

Over the past 25 years, Mr. Smith has helped organizations in all industries increase quality of service and rethink strategic positioning by adapting and applying contemporary process improvement techniques.  Mr. Smith is intimately familiar with strategic planning.  He is a recognized expert in this discipline and author of the highly rated text Business Process Management and the Balanced Scorecard. Ralph is uniquely qualified to help organizations align customer experience improvement efforts with the organization’s long-term strategy.

Mr. Smith has a Masters degree in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Bachelors degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Georgia.

CX Practice Leader – Amanda Dietz

Amanda (Mandy) Dietz is Vice President-Solution Integration for Orion Development Group.  She has more than 25 years of experience in operations management, process innovation, technology deployment and customer service.  As a trainer and consultant, Ms. Dietz is able to leverage her diverse expertise and strategic outlook to help clients fully realize CX transformations.

Prior to joining Orion, Ms. Dietz served on the senior management teams for two companies.  In these roles, Ms. Dietz’s accomplishments included:

  • Product line profitability in excess of 10% for multiple years
  • Award-winning improvements in operations and customer service
  • Numerous successful information technology conversion projects

Her clients stem from all industries. They include:

  • Bank of America
  • Chatham County, GA
  • State of Maine PERS
  • University FCU
  • Automobile Club of America
  • Aurora Healthcare
  • Coca Cola
  • Truliant Federal Credit Union
  • Fannie Mae
  • Duke Energy
  • Consumers Credit Union
  • U.S. Postal Service
  • Eaton Corp.
  • Target

Ms. Dietz earned her BS in Finance from Indiana University and MBA in International Management from the University of South Florida.  She is a Certified Quality Manager (ASQ).

Organizational Change Consultant – Joseph Cirafesi

Joe CirafesiJoe Cirafesi is a Strategic Process Management consultant and instructor for Orion Development Group. Prior to joining Orion, Joe Cirafesi spent more than 20 years at Air Products and Chemicals where he has helped the company evolve to an internationally recognized benchmark for excellence in cross-functional process management.

As a Human Resources Manager, Joe Cirafesi helped lead major changes to the organizational structure and leadership teams from 1995 to 1997. As a Business Manager/Process Owner, Joe Cirafesi was responsible for the ongoing management of the product development, innovation, bidding, customer engagement, engineering construction and start-up work processes. As a European Region Director, Joe Cirafesi organized training and application of continuous improvement tools in 11 countries. These efforts improved profitability by 5% to 20% in various units.

Joe Cirafesi is a Certified Management Accountant who received his BA in genetics from Cornell University and an MBA from the Smeal College of Business at Penn State.

Strategic Planning Consultant – Joseph Brancaccio

Joe BrancaccioJoe Brancaccio is a Strategic Process Management Consultant for Orion Development Group. He has more than 25 years of experience in process management, strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, and leadership.

Mr. Brancaccio has worked with many Fortune 500 companies and assisted the States of Texas and Oklahoma with their quality improvement strategies. He was directly involved with the ‘Leadership Through Quality’ strategy at Xerox Corporation and assisted with the winning of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Joe Brancaccio graduated with honors from the U.S. Military School in Fort Knox, Kentucky and is a Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin.

Orion Development Group has helped more than 50 organizations chart a new path to the future via strategic planning and Balanced Scorecard services. Indeed, one client’s (Alcoa) turnaround story earned it Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame finalist status while another (Weichert) was inducted into the Hall. Our strategy clients include:

  • Alcoa Packaging
  • American Cancer Society
  • American Petroleum Institute
  • Arbitration Forums
  • Austin Energy
  • BayCare Health System
  • BT Infonet
  • Citrus County Clerk of Courts
  • City and County of Denver
  • City of Aspen, CO
  • City of Coconut Creek
  • City of Dearborn, MI
  • City of Greenville, NC
  • City of Henderson, KY
  • City of Rockwall, TX
  • The Colburn School
  • Columbus Regional Airport Authority
  • Delta Dental
  • Fairfax County, VA
  • Florida Department of Health
  • Hennepin County, MN
  • IBM Southeast Credit Union
  • Indiana Public Retirement System
  • Johns Hopkins University APL
  • King Ranch Institute
  • Kinkos International (now FedEx Office)
  • Kuraray America
  • Landscape Forms
  • Liquidnet
  • Louisiana Offshore Oil Port
  • Mary Kay Cosmetics
  • Mecklenburg County, NC
  • MERS of Michigan
  • Michigan State University
  • Michigan Department of Treasury
  • Neighborhood House
  • Ohio Public Employees Retirement System
  • Palm Beach County Children’s Services
  • Philips Lighting
  • Pinellas County Utilities
  • Publix Supermarkets
  • Serimax
  • State Farm Insurance
  • Tampa Housing Authority
  • Texas Water Development Board
  • Toshiba America Electronic Components
  • Town of Jupiter, FL
  • University Federal Credit Union
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • University of Texas
  • University of Texas Libraries
  • University of the Arts
  • Velocity Federal Credit Union
  • Weichert Workforce Mobility

Let Orion help you rethink strategy and achieve dramatic business results. Call Margaret Powers today at (800) 510-2117 or submit a question below.


Blue Ocean Strategy® is a registered trademark of Professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

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