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How to Develop a Corporate Strategy
Strategy empowers leaders to make bold decisions, confidently.
Learning how to develop a corporate strategy and getting value out of the strategic planning process requires deep research and analysis, honest engagement, and challenging conversations. Too often we see the strategic planning process fall short due to four common pitfalls. Learn how to avoid these mistakes and ensure the success of even your most audacious strategic goals with our five phased approach.
Pitfall #1:Quitting the Process Too Early
Pitfall #1:Quitting the Process Too Early
For many organizations, strategy development starts and ends with answering the big philosophical questions, such as: Who are we? Why do we exist? Where are we going? What are we unwilling to compromise on?
Well-crafted strategic objectives should be the start, not the end, of the strategic planning process.
Pitfall #2: Basing the Process Solely on Employee Viewpoints
Pitfall #2: Basing the Process Solely on Employee Viewpoints
Employee and executive participation is critical to the strategic planning process. Ideas and issues that are brought up in engagement sessions need to be considered, validated, and tested, however, these should not be the processes’ only data inputs.
The strategic planning process also needs to be informed by in-depth research, analysis, operational data, and issues investigation. Strategic options need to be reviewed with both lenses applied to understand trade-offs before key decisions are made.
Pitfall #3:Glossing Over Trade-Off Conversations
Pitfall #3:Glossing Over Trade-Off Conversations
Change can be uncomfortable. Deciding on one direction inherently means saying no to others. Too often, strategic planning attempts to keep all the good ideas by putting them in ever-expanding ‘buckets’. The result is a laundry list of actions items rather than a handful of clear priorities.
Strategic planning needs to clearly articulate the anticipated impacts of various options and what will be given up to pursue them, separating real trade-offs from perceived ones.
Pitfall #4:Ending Staff Participation When the Planning Process Wraps
Pitfall #4:Ending Staff Participation When the Planning Process Wraps
Keeping employees engaged in strategy implementation is critical to the success of any strategic plan. This means setting up mechanisms for employees to provide input on opportunities for improvement. Engagement infrastructure that is set up during the strategic planning process, including feedback mechanisms, survey platforms, decision evaluation tools, and process evaluation tools can be used regularly after the strategic planning process to solicit and test ideas from employees on how to continue to improve efficiency, safety, and customer experience.
Avoiding Pitfalls:The Five Phases of Strategy
Avoiding Pitfalls:The Five Phases of Strategy
Cascadia Partners can help guide you on how to develop a corporate strategy and avoiding the strategic planning pitfalls. Our approach to strategic planning has five phases. They include three cascading layers of strategic decision-making and two tools that prepare the organization for strategy implementation.
The five phases of strategic planning are:
- Organizational Strategy. Sets the organizational direction, aligning leadership around the organization’s values, vision, and mission
- Competitive Strategy. Defines the customers, value proposition, and differentiators that will propel the organization forward.
- Functional Strategy. Lays out the internal structure and resourcing that will support an organization’s operations to make the plan possible.
- Current State Assessment. Completed after the first three phases, this information can be used to help identify what changes will be necessary to align the organization with its new strategic objectives.
- Tactical Roadmap. Developed to ensure that the future shifts in activities are prioritized, communicated, and measured according to the new strategic objectives.
To learn more about each of the five phases, how to work through them, and what questions to ask yourself at each stage, download our full whitepaper.
As Strategic ConsultantsOur Advice
As Strategic ConsultantsOur Advice
Strategy development goes beyond setting a clear vision and mission.
A successful corporate strategy is actionable. It determines where you should play, how to win, and aligns teams and resources around a collective vision, a clear value proposition, and the resourcing, partnerships, decision structures, and processes needed to realize them.
Each of the five phases is essential to successful strategic planning and realizing your goals. By completing each step, you avoid the most common strategic planning pitfalls and set your organization up for success.
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Learn more about how to apply the five phases of strategy to set and meet your organization's goals.
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