Strategy Consulting
“Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.”
— Michael Porter
Strategy Seems Easy Enough Right?
According to Webster’s Dictionary, strategy is a “careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal, usually over a long period of time”. This sounds easy enough. But, is it?
How many organizations say they have a strategy, but it is invisible in day-to-day operations? How frequently do companies have a strategy that is a very well-written, professionally produced document that sits on the senior staff’s book shelf used only to impress the Board of Directors? Or, the company that claims a laundry list of 20 or more things to do is its strategy? There are other examples of misapplication of the term strategy which you have probably seen in your career.
What’s The Reason?
One reason this situation exists is that corporate strategy consultants claim to know the secret of strategic planning and execution. A problem is many strategy consulting firms can produce the well-written document, but they are not built to participate in execution. They can tell a company what they “should” do — not how to go about doing it.
What’s The Result?
So, what is the effect of a strategy’s failure to launch? A key result is a general cynicism across the organization. People have seen strategies come and go and the current one will be no different, so they just carry on as if nothing is changing. Another key result is a loss of real money. Strategy consultants can and do charge millions of dollars for their work. Also, there can be a general sense of confusion about how the strategy applies to different sub-elements of the organization — all the way down to the individual. First, we work with you to develop organizational goals and objectives describing what the organization is trying to become. Next, we help company’s develop strategies aligned to their long-term future.
How Can We Help?
In truth, there are other consultants who can do this. What many of the others can’t do, however, is work alongside the people of your organization to develop and implement the required changes.
Professionals Trusted by Top Companies Around the Globe
Jennifer Dahl
COO
Bob Jeske
Vice President
Al Landers
Vice President
George Strodtbeck
Vice President
Jim Longshore
Vice President
Insight
Global Supply Chain Reset
High Volume Discreet Part Manufacturer Over the previous years there were several attempts to deal with the situation. Ultimately none proved to be successful as the client was busy dealing with increased sales, new products, customers and suppliers and trying to...
A Fist Full of Data
Jim Longshore and Dick Scott collaborated on this blog to provide a sample of techniques taught during the MBB curriculum. Additional information on our upcoming Master Black Belt wave can be found here. Scenario: You just finished your Design of Experiments and...
The Mystery of the hidden factory!!! -The Happy Ending
This is a five-part mystery: The mystery The call The investigation The solution The Happy Ending Part 5 – The Happy Ending…24 months later Si and Mr. Under sat drinking coffee in Mr. Under’s office. They had been meeting like this regularly for an hour to review...