Post-Pandemic Strategy Series Outlines

Discovering New Opportunities for Growth and Mission Fulfillment

Traditional strategic planning rarely leads to dramatic and enduring success. Hard fought gains fade as competitors copy technology and counterattack with new offers of their own. Such is the way of business.

Using cutting edge concepts to drive value innovation and demand creation, your company can chart a course to a “blue ocean” where the competition does not yet exist and your company’s distinctive process capabilities deliver value to the customer that would-be competitors cannot easily copy.

OUTLINE

I. ROBOBS: The World of Growth Possibilities

• What is a Red Ocean, a Blue Ocean, a Blue Sky?
• Where do you need to look for opportunities?

II. Value Innovation and Red Oceans

• What is Value Innovation?
• The Strategy Canvas

III. Finding Blue Oceans and Blue Skies

• The four phases of assessment: financial, customer, process, and learning & growth
• Utilizing process assessment to discover ROBOBS opportunities
  • Process extension
  • Market extension
  • Enterprise creation
• Utilizing customer analysis techniques to discover ROBOBS opportunities
• Customer Analysis
  • Kano Models
• Selecting a strategy that best capitalizes on your distinctive capabilities

IV. Integrating ROBOBS into the Strategic Assessment Process

Aligning Objectives and Communicating Goals

Often times, corporate strategy is less than the sum of its parts. Different departments or projects work at cross purposes, with employees not understanding how their work impacts the “big picture.”  Enter the Strategy Map.

A strategy map is a tool that enables an organization to articulate how its strategic goals fit together and the relationship between key initiatives. It creates the alignment that is essential to strategic success.

OUTLINE

I. Developing a Strategy

• Types of organizational strategies – What makes you so special?
  • Customer Intimacy
  • Operational Excellence
  • Product Leadership
• Strategic objectives

II. Building a Strategy Map

• Generating key strategic data
• Identifying key themes
• The strategy map: linking key objectives workshop
• How to use the strategy map
• Tips for implementation

Monitoring and Managing Strategy Execution

“What gets measured gets done.”  It’s a business axiom you’ve heard a thousand times.  Unfortunately, the things most companies measure don’t help them achieve long-term success; their lag metrics are good for reporting, not managing.

Your strategic plan is like the flight plan that shows the route from your current location to the promised land. Strategic metrics should be the tool that allows you to make course corrections as conditions change or performance varies over time. To help your organization meet its strategic objectives, your management dashboard must be balanced, actionable and relevant to leadership

OUTLINE

I. Strategic Measurement

• Four perspectives
• Linking the perspectives to vision and strategy
• Lag versus lead measures

II. Building the Balanced Scorecard

• Road map to implementation: What’s the process?
• Establishing measures to support goals
• Selecting the “correct” format

III. Using Metrics as a Management System

• Managing strategy: Four processes
• Impact of BSC on operational decisions
• Communication of progress

Defining the Best Actions to Deliver Sustainable Business Results

According to MIT, a recent survey of global CEOs revealed that the ability to execute strategy was their #1 challenge. This is not a new development. For years, senior leaders have struggled to convert strategic aspirations into executable projects and actions that can be integrated into day-to-day operations.

This module will present tools and techniques to prioritize strategic actions, develop initiatives that are supported by operational leaders, create the framework for managing your strategy portfolio.

OUTLINE

I. Converting Objectives into Initiatives

• Ideation: Generating potential initiatives
• Prioritizing and scheduling initiatives
• Catchball: Getting buy-in from operational leaders

II. Executing Project Plans

• Define and document the strategic initiative charters
• Allocating resources – time, budget and accountability
• Working with stakeholders across the organization
• Monitoring implementation

III. Integrating the Solution

1. a) Validating results
2. b) Aligning project-based metrics with BSC and operational metrics.
3. c) Celebrating and communicating success

How to Gain Organization-Wide Ownership for New Solutions

It has been said that the only constant is change…and, after COVID-19, this statement is more true than ever.

Think about all the situations within a typical organization in which strategic change is vital but not broadly supported. Organizational redesign forces role and responsibility shifts that can be very difficult for staff to accept. Cross-functional improvement projects result in changes that make some departments apparent “winners” and others apparent “losers.” On a more micro level, fear of change can undermine brainstorming and the execution of strategic initiatives.

In short: Change management is a critical component of strategy.  That is why this series dedicates to sessions to Navigating Change.

OUTLINE – Session 1

I. Create Vision for Change

• Create consensus on the destination
• Confirm strategic alignment
• Define and engage stakeholders

II. Organize for Change

• Roles and responsibilities
• Developing your strategy
• Communication: Gaining broad buy-in

Delivering Sustainable Results

OUTLINE – Session 2

III. Deploy Change

• Develop implementation plan
• Overcoming resistance to change
• Demonstrating commitment

IV. Evolve Toward the Desired State

• Implementation strategies to optimize results
• Measuring progress
• Course corrections and results