Strategy
Strategy is the foundation on which success and superior performance are built.
Strategic Planning - is it necessary?
If you don't have a documented, coherent, comprehensive plan to achieve the mission, then by default you have an undocumented, incoherent plan that won't achieve the mission. It's as simple as the old quote: "Failing to plan is planning to fail."
Strategy Formulation
Stanton Associates works with organizations to identify outstanding future possibilities, critically assess current capabilities, and develop the plan to achieve sustainable success. We bring rigorous analytical skills and innovative thinking to help determine what needs to be done (and what should not be done) to gain enduring competitive advantage and significantly increase shareholder value.
Selecting the right strategy requires management to analyze market forces and competitor actions, economic trends, technology developments, and internal operational, financial, and human resources and capabilities. Then decide how to act to turn the plan into delivered results.
We believe the Strategic Plan must be a detailed statement of how the company will achieve its Mission. It reconciles where the company intends to be in the future with the reality of its start-point today.(more)
Strategic Plan Development and Execution
This is where the rubber meets the road. Companies with brilliant strategies that are poorly executed will have their heads handed to them by companies with modest strategies that are acted upon with determination and discipline.
Stanton Associates works with management to develop a detailed, executable plan for the organization (whether that is at the corporate level or for an integrated SBU or a functional area). We believe the plan must integrate each identified strategic objective (in respect of markets/customers, operations, resources/people, and finance) so that the interdependencies are taken into account. There are several good approaches for doing this, including the famous “Balanced Scorecard” as written by Kaplan & Norton. Whatever the method, what is key is that the plan be detailed and actionable down to the operating and departmental level. And it needs to be clearly communicated, with passionate commitment from the CEO and executive management, to all levels of the organization. (more)
The “Strategic Lifestyle™”
To be successful, strategy should not be just a once a year intensive exercise. We all know that drill: lots of pre-reading on latest management fads, assemble at an offsite (we do agree it is important to get out of the office, however), lots of “white boarding” with a facilitator encouraging “out-of-the-box” thinking, and voila – the new strategy is birthed. Then it is back to the office on Monday morning only to be faced with the same demands and urgent issues, dealt with effectively but in the same way as before. So nothing really changes.
Stanton Associates will help ensure the Plan is integrated into day-to-day organizational life. The Plan document needs to feed into, and receive accurate, timely data from, enterprise information systems. There needs to be a continuous reward and punishment incentive comp structure that is driven by behaviors required to execute the strategy. And progress against plan needs to be reviewed frequently. The plan needs to be linked to the budget and to operations reporting; one of the traps to avoid is having a financial budget that is independent of the strategic plan. (more)
Values
Every organization has values. They may be identified, overtly expressed, and encouraged. Or they may be unspoken – people are “meant to know how to behave.” But one thing is sure: strategy (and its execution) that is not aligned with the true values of the organization is doomed. Stanton Associates will take the temperature on this issue, and if there is a misalignment between Mission and Values, we have the resources to help the company take corrective action.