Setting a strong strategic foundation is fundamental to success. It sets the focus, direction, and path to growth. Without a clear strategy, it can be difficult to make everyday decisions such as pricing, to bigger picture considerations like geographic expansion. We work with companies that need to develop a strategy, as well as with those who need to revisit or update their strategy.
There are three key elements that encompass our strategy development services:
Strategy Diagnostic
We begin this type of work with a strategy diagnostic that identifies your business' key issues and opportunities. The objective is to determine your current strategic position or starting point by better understanding the market and customers you serve, the competitive landscape and players, your business model and associated economics, as well your capabilities. A big focus is on synthesizing the analytical insights into a few key learnings that will guide the strategy. More specifically, the diagnostic typically looks at the following, though both the categories and depth of review, vary by client need and situation:
- Internal/company review – market share, customer needs & loyalty, financial performance (revenue and cost metrics), capabilities & core competencies. Analysis is performed for the overall company, and if relevant, by business unit
- External/industry assessment – market trends, industry structure, customer segmentation and needs, competitor market shares, competitor profiling, economics
Strategy Definition
Following from the diagnostic takeaways, the strategy is then defined (or refined) to clearly identify your focus and where you will and won’t compete. This includes articulating (1) what you are trying to achieve (strategic objectives and goals) and (2) how you will achieve it (products/services, target markets, customer segment(s), customer targets, competitive advantage, capabilities required, etc). Multiple options are often considered and financial modeling is used to support the decision making. The end goal of this step is clarity of purpose, focus, and path.
Strategic Planning
This is the critical translation of the strategy into everyday actions and decisions that will take you from where you are today to the desired future state. Specific strategic initiatives, basically your to-do list, are developed for each area of the strategy to ensure everything is in place to achieve the goals. This includes identifying initiative owners, deadlines, and a management process to ensure everything stays on track.