Many organizations find it challenging to commit time and resources to think strategically about the future when short-term metrics and fire-fighting are the operating norms. Ensuring that today’s actions are tightly linked to longer-term business goals and objectives is a significant challenge, especially when the company lacks a well-articulated growth and innovation strategy.
Most “visioning” exercises produce a description of a desired end-state, coupled with an action plan based on a “gap analysis.” While the vision may be bold, the specific opportunities, business models, and supporting strategies are often high-level, making short-term action planning and measures of success elusive. While you may have a desired end state and an activity list, a structured yet flexible strategic framework for moving forward is often missing.
Breakthroughs occur when we push boundaries – our own, our team’s and our organization’s. And there are a number of ways to do this:
- Bust organizational silos
- Create radical team diversity
- Develop customer empathy
- Find inspiration from nature and biology
- Look for analogs from other industries
- Explore converging technologies
- Seek out adjacent and non-adjacent markets
- Infuse fresh perspectives by engaging with external “thought leaders”
Because every organization is different, we apply our tools and processes that push boundaries by customizing them to your specific needs. The goal, however, is always the same: disrupt your current mindset in order to identify opportunities to disrupt your market, or create new ones.
Our Strategic Growth Initiatives establish a living strategic framework for aligning action to vision. We help you identify growth opportunities, assess strategic options, clarify your most compelling future, and clearly define the path forward. At the heart of your strategic roadmap lies the value that you will deliver to your customers over time, supported by the strategies, capabilities, technologies, partnerships, and business models required for success in the short-, mid- and longer-term. And because we know the future is fluid, we infuse a mindset and tools for remaining flexible and adaptive as things change.
Just as important as these market-driven opportunities is the organizational alignment necessary to quickly galvanize people to committed action. Unlike many consulting firms that leave you with a report and set of recommendations, our experience is that real breakthroughs require passionate change leadership to drive them forward.
Our approach explicitly addresses the alignment of senior leadership and other key internal and external stakeholders – including employees, business partners, customers, suppliers, etc. – throughout the strategic process. Engaging the organization lays the groundwork for accelerated decision-making and rapid implementation.