Catalyst Consulting - Facilitating High Value Strategic Planning Sessions

Your Ultimate Responsibility

Since the purpose of strategy is to provide direction, focus efforts, and facilitate consistency across the organization and over time, Shaping Strategy is often seen as the ultimate responsibility of senior executives. To effectively discharge this responsibility, executives must have a deep awareness of their organization's — and its people's — core capabilities and vulnerabilities; understand their industry, its linking industries, and the competition; be sensitive to global pressures and opportunities; and be able to lead their organizations to develop and adopt specific strategies to gain competitive advantage. It's a daunting task, but one that is essential for the survival of your business.

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Shaping Strategy Demands that You ...

Understand and Align Needs and Interests of Stakeholder Groups
Develop Distinctive Strategies to Achieve Competitive Advantage
Translate Broad Strategies into Specific Objectives and Action Plans
Align the Organization to Support Strategic Priorities

... and Exhibit These Key Behaviors

Identify critical goals and success factors in different situations.

Involve appropriate group of stakeholders
Determine your critical success factors
Understand and identify core competencies
Understand the competitive playing field
Review your own capabilities and those of your team

Develop distinctive strategies to achieve and sustain competitive advantage.

Examine your corporate strategy
Use strategic models to help formulate strategy
Identify requirements for strategic advantage
Identify the stage of competition you are in and execute against those requirements
Spot opportunities in the value chain
Consolidate your strategy

Anticipate risks and devise contingency plans to manage them.

Anticipate the need to change
Outthink the competition
Anticipate competition for leadership

Translate broad strategies into clear objectives and practical action plans.

Identify linkage between broad organizational strategy and work unit strategy
Align goals, objectives and action plans with strategic direction
Use the appropriate individuals or teams for action planning
Communicate both vision and action to all important audiences

Focus the organization on efforts that add significant value.

Focus on priorities
Review the organization's product array for areas of improvement
Review structures and processes for hidden cost advantages

Align the organization and allocate resources according to strategic priorities.

Evaluate how strategies are executed
Conduct regular progress reviews and look for goal alignment
Examine the organization's critical structural components for adequacy of resources
Employ internal and external communications to keep the organization informed
Communicate the message, then test for support

From Successful Executive's Handbook (PDI, 1999)

We Can Help

If you are struggling with any of the key behaviors outlined above, you're not alone. The day-to-day pressures of leadership often force executives to "react to the urgent" instead of "planning for the important." If you're concerned that your present strategies are outdated, ineffectual or otherwise under-performing, please give us a call for a free telephone consultation regarding how we might be able to help. We certainly don't know more about your business or your industry than you do, but our associates do know how to facilitate the development and implementation of creative strategies that yield results.

You may also want to peruse our pre-packaged workshop and seminars; you may find just the tool you're looking for to help you shape your organization's new strategy.

Catalyst Consulting Partners LLC

The SPEED Challenge™ : Shaping Strategy is a Leader's Highest Priority

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