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We have had a year of pandemic and a new financial year has started in India. As a leadership team you would have probably gone through a strategic planning process and developed a strategy as well.
Does your strategy go beyond business planning for the year and look into your future? Well if you are unsure, check out if these elements are addressed (thanks Magnus Penker, your book is a classic on this topic)
Scope: Does the scope of your strategy include the following?
Core business: How do I exploit and optimize the existing business?
Growth Business: How do we expand the existing business and what should I be doing now to immediately build a new business?
Future Business: What should we be working on that will ensure we have a future business?
Strategy: What drives our growth
Market trends: Uncover market trends that should be addressed. What can we learn from competitor activities? What can we pursue based on the feedback from our customers of existing offers?
Customer needs: Uncover the hidden pain points of the customers. What are the utility levers for the customers and what jobs are they struggling to get done? What are the important needs that are underserved in the market?
Technology drivers: Uncover what technology development can deliver. What incremental and radical improvements can technology deliver in the existing and new markets? What new or emerging technologies that should be focused on to create new opportunities?
Leadership role: What leadership roles are required to execute the strategy?
Capabilities: What capabilities does the organization leverage to deliver the strategy? What are the capabilities on which the organization has no alignment or has very few resources? What are the capabilities that the organization is lacking and should be developed?
Metrics: Have you developed the metrics that reflect the strategy execution?
Apart from ensuring that strategy development addresses all the right elements, the process also needs to ensure that the organization has the recipe for successful execution of the strategy.
Organizations can do two things to enable successful execution
1. Remove blockages that are hindering your movement in the strategic direction. These typically occur as a result of lack of alignment or lack of capabilities needed for the strategy.
2. Amplify the strategic direction by initiating future projects that support initiatives that are more here and now focused.
Overall, when developing your strategy, be mindful of the fact that you can have different approaches that work for different organization cultures
Best fit approach is based on the current situation, without causing major changes. This is based on existing leadership style and strategies. This approach would typically require new competencies and capabilities to be acquired.
Best in class approach is based on what the best companies do. These require changes in current strategy, leadership style, culture, capabilities and competencies. This also involves significant change management efforts.
Resource-based approach is based on the current capabilities and competencies and what is realistically possible to achieve.
You can read more about the topic in the book Sustainable Growth and Profits by Magnus Penker, where he explains all this in detail
Do reach out to me for help in building a sustainable growth and innovation strategy.
Krishnan Naganathan
Krishnan is a leading innovation consultant and focuses on helping people and organizations innovate and build capabilities for innovation. He brings over 25 years of experience in the industry and consulting. You can reach him by phone / WhatsApp: +919791033967 or email: krishnan@thinkhorizonconsulting.com