Services - Strategy Development

Strategy development is too often a sterile, intellectual and analytical process. Frequently, many strategic planning processes are poorly conceptualized and poorly executed. The result... the strategic plan barely impacts the day-to-day decisions made in the organization.

These intense times of uncertainty and ambiguous threats require appropriate approaches to strategy development – whether traditional, scenario planning, effective forecasting or a combination – it is the process of self-examination, the confrontation of difficult choices, and the establishment of priorities that characterize successful strategic planning/thinking.

In fact, to avoid the reductive and ritualistic aspects of strategic ‘planning’, we use several characteristics of strategic ‘thinking’ -- expansive, inventive, inquisitive and synthesis are a few of its hallmarks. While organizations of all shapes and sizes use strategic planning to guide decision-making and plot strategy, the need to plan in a thoughtful way remains relevant as ever.

Our model of strategy development focuses on the process of planning, not solely on the plan that is produced - a flexible and collaborative process to get the work done, honoring time constraints, budgets and schedules while still providing ample opportunities for participation.

It offers a framework to support the gathering and surfacing of trends, issues, ideas, and priorities, and provides a structure for making choices and effective resolutions about which strategic direction makes the most sense.

The resulting ‘roadmap’/strategic framework communicates a longer-term direction, with clear priorities that help define and guide organizational decision making and act as a template against which decisions can be evaluated.