The Strategic Lifestyle™
Strategy formulation, strategic plan development, and plan execution are not a series of events (or one big event). They need to be part of a continuous process of monitoring, assessment, recalibration, and improvement. While we would not expect that the overall strategy to need more than minor adjustments, even from year to year, in the absence of major shifts in the external environment (markets, economy, technology, competitive landscape, etc.), we do believe that there will be many “tweaks” required to strategy initiatives at the operating level as data is collected and analyzed and new systems are put in place to obtain data that had hitherto been missing.We recommend monthly reviews of the process with more in-depth reviews each quarter. It is more than possible that the strategy will force transformational change on the company and certainly on some of the functional areas and departments. Ongoing change management programs will need to be put in place. As operating processes change and strategic objectives are refined the links to financial reporting, budgeting (capital and operating), and compensation systems will need to be modified. Lastly, perhaps annually, there needs to be a formal revisit of the strategy formulation process. In other words, the process is one of continual monitoring, adjustment, reward, and punishment, and finally feedback of information to revisit the overall strategy itself. And this all happens throughout the organization, with clear and frequent communication of the results and their consequences.
Strategic living is a continuous process. It drives outcomes to gain competitive advantage both in the short term and consistent with superior performance over the long term to maximize shareholder value. It is hardly surprising that companies that do this well, as a result of enormous effort and commitment especially from the executive team, significantly outperform those that do not. When a company’s planning is based on such simplistic approaches as “let’s plan to grow sales 10% next year, improve gross margin 5%, and lower operating expenses by 5%” what chance can it really have to grow and prosper, let alone compete against a company that is strategic in thought, plan, and execution?
Why Stanton Associates is the right choice to help with Strategic Planning
Strategy is not easy. How could it be? If it were easy, every company would be successful. Getting it right requires blending thoughtful theory and analysis with practical, real world execution. The Partners and Principals of Stanton Associates are well grounded in business theory from our days with some of the global consulting firms, and we have practical real world experience sitting on the executive side of the desk having to live with the consequences of our decisions and their implementation.
We research the facts: analyze markets, competitors, and technology trends and give careful thought to their impacts on the company over the long term. We challenge business plans and their assumptions. We believe gathering data and analyzing it is always a good idea, but our significant business experience means we don’t have to study a subject to death either. Due to our executive backgrounds we are able to make business recommendations quickly. We help drive a rapid action process to achieve improved results consistent with the strategy.