Our consultants work with CEOs to align executive leaders and their direct reports to new strategic priorities and the resulting financial and operational targets, which are committed to their companies and Boards of Directors.
We have substantial expertise in producing the coherence among people and systems throughout an organization. This alignment feature of every organization is often experienced as ‘part of the culture’ and it’s very typical for people to be somewhat reticent about making improvements to it. We work with the executive team to help them understand the landscape, identify the key drivers affecting their industry, and see the possible future scenarios implied by the nexus of independent drivers. This has become more complex and critical as Business Strategy, Regulatory Strategy and Technology Strategy have become inextricably linked in most industry sectors.
Strategic Drivers
In undertaking the development of the strategy, work with the leadership to identify the ‘driving forces’ that are shaping, and will shape, their target markets. By examining the drivers and identifying those drivers that are largely independent of one another, we can help executives develop scenarios that describe the range of possible future markets.
The illustrative example below considers two driving forces, Technology Advancement and Energy and Environmental Policy. Taking the drivers and examining the extremes allows us to characterize the potential future that they could create, thus allowing us to identify critical parameters and business imperatives for each of the scenarios.
Through this effort we can identify a full range of plausible scenarios, each of which could play-out for the target market. This will enable the executive team and the organization to identify and quantify the risks and opportunities that exist within each scenario as well as the types of skills and capabilities required for success in each. Executives then have the ability to undertake a candid assessment of the potential strengths and gaps within themselves their organization and develop “no regrets” or “low regrets” strategies for each of the target markets. We also work with the executives to identify initiatives that could be deployed in the event the market begins transitioning from one stage (quadrant) to another. We help the executive team use the results to identify leading indicators or precursors for each of the scenarios that would provide advance indication that a particular scenario was emerging in reality, enabling them to put the preplanned initiatives into action at a much earlier stage.
Once the work of defining scenarios and strategies is complete, we work with the executive team to ensure that there is true alignment among the executives and support them as they begin the work of aligning their respective organizations around the strategies. Creation of alignment is vital for organization success so we pay particular attention to ensuring there is clarity of the Vision, understanding of the implications for the organization and seeking declarations of alignment. So frequently perceived alignment or tacit support is the greatest impediment to organizational change.