Tools and Processes for Effective Business Strategy Development
Many organizations rely on various tools and processes to develop business strategies and ensure that those strategies cascade through the organization. These processes guide decisions on which business initiatives and projects to invest in. However, challenges often arise in creating a seamless link between strategy and execution.
Consider, for example, the commonly used Balanced Scorecard. While it has been seen as a useful tool for identifying strategic goals since the 2000s, it often falls short on execution. Key criticisms include:
- Lack of clear processes for defining strategic statements
- Unquantified KPIs
- Weak linkage between project deliverables and overall strategic goals
Bridging the Gap Between Strategic Goals and Project Investments
Our value delivery approach directly addresses these shortcomings through intuitive and logical processes and tools.
At the heart of successful strategy execution is the ability to transform high-level goals into executable strategic business outcomes. We help organizations achieve this by applying the same principles used for actioning business initiatives and projects. This approach fosters consistency in business value delivery throughout the organization.
Each strategic outcome you define is measurable, clearly describing your strategic goal in terms of a business end-state. In essence, each strategic statement answers key questions:
- Who is responsible for doing what?
- How will it be achieved?
- What is the scope?
- What is the payoff (the measure of success)?
Example:
“We have exited the US market by selling our US business, including the required product support services, and no longer have any obligations or commitments to this market, thereby avoiding current losses.”
In this example, the success criteria are easily measurable through a simple yes/no question:
“Have we achieved this outcome?”
In TOP, meaningful quantification and measurability is a key principle embedded in every process.
Our Value Delivery Tools and Processes
Our processes, tools, and models are teachable, learnable, and repeatable, providing sustainability and scalability within your organization. We..
- Advise and train on transforming strategic goals into measurable strategic outcomes.
- Help link your strategic outcomes directly to business initiatives and projects.
- Support the construction of value delivery governance roles and responsibilities.
If you need something specific that isn’t listed, we’re here to help. Just ask—we speak your language.
Operationalizing Strategy Delivery
Business strategy is the driver of organizational change and improvement. However, there is often a disconnect between high-level strategy and the business initiatives that get funded, resulting in compromised strategy execution.
Using TOP processes and principles, strategic goals are transformed into actionable strategic outcomes that operationalize the strategy. By stating your strategy in measurable, business-oriented terms, you provide clear visibility into what success looks like, making it intuitive for the organization to understand and achieve.
Once your strategic outcomes are established, we develop roadmaps for each, consisting of Desired Business Outcomes that deliver on individual strategic initiatives. These roadmaps not only guide efficient execution but also enable you to perform high-level Benefit-Cost Analyses, ensuring that the business value of each initiative is clear and justifiable.
From Strategy to Projects: A Value-Driven Approach
Once your strategy is validated and approved, you can use the Desired Business Outcomes to deliver specific strategic goals. Here’s how it works:
- Define Desired Business Outcomes for each project that supports the strategic goal.
- Establish an Outcomes Dependency Roadmap for efficient project delivery.
- Identify and quantify the benefits of each project to track and manage them during execution.
- Identify necessary change activities, which will provide the data to project the cost of delivery.
By identifying and quantifying benefits at the project level, you gain transparency and alignment on the project’s contribution to the overarching strategy. KPIs are crafted based on real data, not guesswork, and the direct link between each project and its strategic contribution is clear, trackable, and manageable.
Optimizing Strategy Execution
To summarize, optimized strategy execution follows a clear process:
- Validate the value and feasibility of your strategy—can you and should you do it?
- Establish clear, measurable success criteria—strategic outcomes and financial metrics.
- At the project level, define the Desired Business Outcomes in specific, measurable terms.
- Measure and track the contribution of each project to your strategic goals.
- Execute the projects—focusing on delivering the business outcomes and benefits tied to the strategy.
- Continuously measure and track project progress—are you still on course to realize the expected outcomes?
- Assess the overall business contribution—have the business outcomes and benefits been delivered as planned?
- Evaluate the final return on investment—did you achieve the desired outcomes and financial results?
Our Role in Strategy Execution
Our advisory services are designed to help you and your team create precise and transparent business strategy outcomes that drive organizational progress.
Whether through one-on-one consultations or workshop formats, we guide you through the entire process of developing and operationalizing your strategy.
This approach is learnable, teachable, and repeatable. Once implemented, you’ll be equipped to define, measure, and update your strategy independently. Should you need training, we provide that too.
Ultimately, our goal is to make strategy measurable and optimize its delivery—ensuring that your organization achieves its full potential and gets the maximum business value from its investments.
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