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Joe Evans Articles

Written by: Joe Evans

How Well Do You Understand Your Organization’s Core Competencies? - Click To Read Article
What if you were to ask your key management team a simple question: “What do we do?” You might be surprised at the answers you would get: answers that lack consistency, focus, and clarity, with your key leaders offering slightly different responses to this seemingly simple and straight forward question. While it may sound somewhat juvenile to suggest that organizations expend effort to solicit feedback on what they do, there are some very compelling reasons to do so. And, in the end, you may find that this simplistic exercise is the root of many organizational troubles.

The Truth About Why So Many Strategic Plans Don’t Get Executed - Click To Read Article
Last week I was asked the question by a client prospect, “so how many retreats will we be doing as part of the strategic planning process?”. That got me to thinking about just how many of these retreats are probably happening in hotels across the U.S. this fall. Strategic planning retreats are a joke in terms of producing meaningful strategic plans, yet every year companies go through this ritualistic planning process. The problem is, virtually all of these so called strategy retreats provide very little value in terms of desired strategic planning outcomes.

The Changing Role of Board Involvement in Corporate Strategy - Click To Read Article
Up until the early-2000‘s, corporate boards might have rubber-stamped their approval of the CEOs strategic plan without the need for much involvement in its formulation. They were largely content with rewarding profitability or handing out consequences for losses - all based on the rear-view mirror perspective of financial performance. In the United States, that changed with the arrival of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which required board members to pay far more attention than before to the goings on within their organizations. At that point, the stakes were raised in regard to board responsibly for managing the CEOs job performance, overseeing financial reporting and supervising risk management. Their legal liability to shareholders increased significantly.

Lining Up The Pillars Of Your Strategy: Syncing Strategy With Operations - Click To Read Article
Is your organization’s strategy embodied in your business operations? How confident are you, as the champion of your strategy, that it is on track within the layers of your business operations? Strategy alignment is the synchronization of strategic goals with operations and execution tactics. Strategy “misalignment” occurs when operational initiatives are not in sync with the defined strategic goals of the organization. Most organizations inherently suffer from some amount of immaturity and unsophistication in their planning process, and this directly leads the the misalignment issue you want to avoid.

Customer Value Creation In A Down Economy: Avoiding Near-sighted Strategy Mistakes - Click To Read Article
A slow economy provides many challenges for business leaders, but that does not mean we throw out the baby with the bathwater. Despite the challenges, long-term viability of our businesses relies on keeping our strategy focused beyond the horizon-line. Chief executives must own the responsibility to stay the course on value-creation, championing the cause to maintain enthusiasm for innovation within the business organization.

Plan Governance: Without it, you have a bag of strategy & a box of plans - Click To Read Article
Strategic plans without follow-through will collect dust and never be executed as intended. Plan governance is the essential “follow-through ingredient” to set the wheels in motion for strategy execution.

Would Your Strategic Planning Process Survive Reality TV? - Click To Read Article
If your strategic planning process was put in front of a panel of experts, would it be ridiculed and sent home, or would it be given a ticket straight to Hollywood? If it’s like the more than 85% of strategic plans that fail to deliver the intended results, its chances are not great. It takes a very good process to result in a strategic plan that is realistic and can be executed. Too many plans end up full of content that is cerebral and fluff, adding little or no value to the organization. So before you send it into the limelight, ask yourself these questions to objectively evaluate your planning process and identify potential issues and risks that may exist in your organization's current planning world. Considering these questions now can avoid potentially devastating results later.

Five Ways Strategic Planning Builds Capacity And Capability - Click To Read Article
By September 2011, Borders Books will close their doors forever. The company will liquidate all of its assets and deliver pink slips to approximately 11,000 employees. Meanwhile, as a result of smarter strategies that recognized and accounted for changing dynamics in their marketplace, competitors like Barnes & Noble have fared much better. How can two such similar book store giants end up on such divergent paths? Examination of the downfall of Borders Books reveals strategic errors that arguably led to its demise. Such is often the result of ill-conceived strategies that failed to zig when the market zagged.

What Is Your Organizational Value? - Click To Read Article
The latest data shows that the U.S. economy grew at just under a 2% annualized rate in the first half of 2011. Interestingly, statistics also bear out that the productivity of current workers is rising at about 2 percent a year. That means that a company can produce 2 percent more goods and/or services a year than the year before, even if it doesn't increase the number of people it employs. Perhaps it is because we have yet to see an economic recovery stick, but the pressure to increase productivity continues to grow. This phenomenon is really about losing entitled employees and keeping those that add value. You can see it happening at all levels of organizations, but what does this dynamic tell us about our changing work environments?

Breaking Out Of The Box - Click To Read Article
Human behavior and organizational behavior have at least two major points in common. Both gravitate towards traveling in the same well-worn paths, favoring the feeling of safety that repetition brings over the feelings of anxiety and fear that often accompany change. A second point of commonality is that both humans and organizations can be steered in the wrong direction by subscribing too heavily into “groupthink” (described by psychologist Irving Janis as, “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.”). Both behaviors can lead to flawed logic and / or incorrect underlying assumptions becoming institutionalized into our way of thinking.

Corporate Culture: Pressing The Reset Button - Click To Read Article
It is well accepted among organizational theorists that companies with strong cultures outperform those without such ingredients. Organizational culture usually starts with the style of leadership adopted from founders or senior executives of the organization. Clearly, culture is a critical component to the organization that, if not properly understood, can dramatically impact the success of the business.

Organizational Development: Examining Business Wellness Ahead of Problems Occurring - Click To Read Article
Businesses, like other living organisms, can get sick. The afflictions come in a variety of forms, affecting culture, core values, productivity, profitability and sometimes business viability. Sometimes the ailment is more or less the equivalent of having a cold, and sometimes it is much more dangerous and threatening. The symptoms that you notice may not get you too worried, but those you are not aware of should.

Can We Remove Risk From Our Strategy? - Click To Read Article
If you could, wouldn’t you choose to test your organization’s strategy before gambling your business and your career on the assumption that the strategy is right? This article contains a short list of tactics to help remove some of the risk from your strategy.

Bringing Passion Back to Corporate Planning - Click To Read Article
Many well-meaning managers and leaders assume that because members of the organization are “active” that they are also “effective.” In reality, activity does not equal effectiveness; and it’s not representative of indispensability. To accomplish strategic goals, energy must be focused on productive activity related to the accomplishment of sub-tasks that lead to the ultimate realization of strategic outcomes as well as those business essential tasks that are part of the employee’s job description. That takes dedication, commitment and drive.

10 Operational Planning Steps That 85% of Corporations Wish They Knew - Click To Read Article
Data suggests that most organizations would certainly benefit from adopting a more formalized approach to strategic planning and that many companies have routinely failed to successfully and fully implement their strategic goals due to poor operational planning. What can be done to correct the problem?

The “Not So Dirty” Five-letter Word: The Use of Power In Change Management - Click To Read Article
It turns out that power, when applied appropriately, is exactly what it takes to promote action and make transformation happen. But it needs to be the right type of power. In this article on change management, we review the types of power available to organizations, referred to as "Power Centers" and discuss how to best leverage them. Potential change agents tend to possess power, but some “power types” are better than others when it comes to selecting change agents.

Are We There Yet? - Click To Read Article
Successful business executive’s possess a vision for their organization’s developmental journey. They are tuned into the business strategy and know what milestones they expect to see; holding predictions related to how long each should likely take to be reached. But what if the top executive’s vision for the journey was more widely disseminated and fully understood?

The M&A Market Is Hot, But The Results Are Not - How Strategic Planning Can Help - Click To Read Article
2010 saw the first worldwide annual gain in merger and acquisition deal-making since the financial crisis, according to the New York Times’ DealBook, and 2011 was called the “year of M&A” by Forbes. With all the attention on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of late, there’s a good chance your organization has been faced with the prospects of attempting or at least considering one for itself. If so, read on.

Why Should I Trust You As My Leader? - Click To Read Article
It happens all the time. We “require” the employees of our organization to blindly trust in the changes we implement, although we haven’t fully explained the transformation and the reasons behind it. Quite often the change and the reasons behind it might seem quite obvious to those who have the inside information and are part of the management inner circle. To employees outside of the circle, however, the change causes impact, discomfort and anxiety. As executives of our organization, should we expect compliance and blind trust, or is the responsibility on our shoulders to communicate and lead?

To Improve Your Corporate Strategic Planning Efforts, Take Clues from NBA Coaches - Click To Read Article
It’s playoff season in the NBA so there’s no better time for an analogy between NBA coaching and corporate strategic planning. Reflecting on the season and the final games, it begs the question; what if NBA teams were run like many businesses are?

Selecting A Management Consulting Firm - Click To Read Article
Our success hinges on the inherit understanding that every organization is unique in some way and must be approached with solutions tailored to their distinctive needs and designed to achieve their desired business key outcomes.

Does This Business Strategy Make Me Look Fat? - Click To Read Article
“Innovate or die.” A widely-accepted rule of business states that if a company fails to continuously innovate it will fall behind and eventually die. From this, common wisdom says that organizations must gear their business strategy toward continually increasing customer value.

Is “Groupthink” Damaging Your Organization? - Click To Read Article
Strategies that fail to deliver on their promises are often built upon flawed logic and / or incorrect underlying assumptions. It is strikingly apparent that flawed strategies can be the result of groupthink. So what is groupthink and what can be done to reverse it?

Strategy, Business Decisions and Saber-toothed Tigers - Click To Read Article
In business, all to often, decisions are made based on emotion and not on critical evaluation. Call it “being decisive” or call it having a talent for being able to act fast; because you have trust your instincts. Regardless, it can be reckless and costly in business. So how should we make strategically sound decisions?

Can We Trust Our People To Execute? - Click To Read Article
Our entire executive team is usually very involved in the creation of the strategic plan, so they most likely “get it”. Presumably, they are vested. But what about the levels below the execs?

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 12 of 12 - Click To Read Article
This week’s article is the final segment of this 12-part series. We will cover a few final questions to help you self-evaluate your own organization’s strategic planning effectiveness. If you are behind on reading previous segments, just skip to the bottom of this one and you can access any of the previous installments. So let us continue. How would you answer the following?

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 11 of 12 - Click To Read Article
In last week’s article, and in the prior week’s edition, we covered questions related to planning effectiveness. In the continuation of analysis this week, we will cover others. How would you answer the following questions about your own corporate strategic planning process?

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 10 of 12 - Click To Read Article
In last week’s article, we covered the first two questions related to planning effectiveness. In the continuation of analysis this week, and over the final two segments of this article series, we will cover others. These questions are intended to help you to objectively evaluate your planning process and identify potential issues and risks that may exist in your organization’s current planning world. How would you answer the following?

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 9 of 12 - Click To Read Article
How do you assess your process for strategic planning and know if it is on track or as optimized as it might be? The analysis this week, and over the next three segments article series, should help you to objectively evaluate your planning process and identify potential issues and risks that may exist in your organization's current planning world. How would you answer these questions?

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 8 of 12 - Click To Read Article
The spectrum of corporate strategic planning models and processes is broad, and the term has taken on many different connotations over recent decades. For organizations that are new to formal strategic planning, it can seem like a daunting task. It certainly does not have to be, and this article series is intended to help chief executives get on the right path to better corporate planning. Just compiling goals and timelines into a spreadsheet that gets sent along with a meaningless report in a binder doesn’t cut it. That becomes worthless data to all involved in the organization and will not accomplish the results strategic planning should accomplish. There is no “magic binder” of spreadsheets and PowerPoints that can perform miracles when it comes to strategy and the execution thereof.

Besting Your Plan’s Performance: The Time To Start 2012 Strategic Planning is Now - Click To Read Article
Corporate plan management is a day-to-day and week-by-week activity. The long-held belief that strategic plans are addressed once a year serves to obfuscate the ever-green nature of what plans really represent. They require a switch in our mindset away from treating strategic planning as if it were a project. Instead, it is an ongoing journey that requires us to recheck our position against the map frequently to avoid getting lost.

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 7 of 12 - Click To Read Article
In this week’s edition, part 7 of this 12 part article series on corporate strategic planning, we will continue the discussion on planning, but examine some other key attributes for consideration. As we all know, corporate strategies will never be perfect or foolproof, but you may not realize how much they can be systematically improved through process changes. Our corporate strategies are what determines the directional flow of our business, such as markets to be entered or exited, products to be enhanced through innovation programs and acquisitions that will solidify competitive price advantage through supply-chain integration. As such, it must be holistic in interpreting and leveraging our business enterprise to be truly effective. That leads us to the next topic to discuss - factors that can help or, in some cases, impede execution

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 6 of 12 - Click To Read Article
The article series was prompted by the ongoing quest business executives endure trying to improve their company's performance by laying out a better business plan and strategy. Over the past five weeks, we have been exploring the critical components to good strategic planning. In last week’s article, we left off on the sub-topics of change management and communication. Change management and communication sub-strategies are far too often underestimated in terms of their importance and impact to strategy implementation. 

We continue the series this week with more discussion on those topics.

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 5 of 12 - Click To Read Article
The article series began with recognition of the ongoing quest business executives endure trying to improve their company's performance by laying out a better business plan and strategy. This segment is part five of an series that describes the components of a comprehensive business strategic plan and provides a checklist for evaluating strategic planning process effectiveness. Last week’s post (part 4 of this article series) began a continued exploration of the layers of the strategic planning model ecosystem analysis. This model (shown again below for your convenience) was introduced several weeks ago and depicts a graphical representation of the key elements of strategic planning. In this week’s edition, we will continue examining those layers of the graphical model relating to the “business ecosystem”.

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 4 of 12 - Click To Read Article
Last week’s post (part 3 of this article series) began going into the layers of the strategic planning model in the context of of the business ecosystem analysis. This model was introduced two articles ago and depicted as a graphical representation of the key elements of strategic planning. In this week’s edition of the strategic planning series, we will continue walking through the layers of the graphical model relating to the “business ecosystem”.

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 3 of 12 - Click To Read Article
The previous edition of this article series (part 2) went into an overview of what a strategic plan should address - at a minimum. In that same edition, a graphical depiction of the elements of strategic planning was introduced. In this edition of the series, we will begin walking through the layers of the graphical model, relating to the “business ecosystem”.

Corporate Strategy and the Elephant in the Room - Click To Read Article
Recession weary executives have a new challenge to face. Times have changed and businesses must re-evaluate their pre-recession strategies. The elephant in the room is in full view, but organizational leaders do not like to talk about it or even think about it. Yes, the elephant in the room, that no one likes to address, is outdated strategy and the need for new and improved strategic thinking. Making change to the way we have operated in the past in difficult. A starting point for change is to correct the self-inflicted organizational dysfunction that occurs during strategy development.

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 2 of 12 - Click To Read Article
In part one of this article series, we acknowledged the ongoing quest of business executives wanting to improve their company's performance by laying out a better business plan and strategy. We began the journey by examining the benefits strategic planning brings to business organizations, then explored a number of common factors that can get in the way of a strategy ever coming to life when it is time to execute. In this article segment, we will delve into the elements of a successful strategic plan.

Strategic Planning - Business Executive Essentials - Part 1 of 12 - Click To Read Article
Business executives are always wanting to improve their company's performance by laying out a better business plan and strategy. Many ask the question “where can I find a decent business plan template for the new year?” * Have you given much consideration to the possibility that your strategic and operational plans may be far less effective than they could be? - Do you know what your strategic plan should accomplish? - How would you begin to measure the effectiveness of your current strategic planning process? - Does your own planning process consistently define meaningful goals that get achieved as expected when the plan is followed? This article is part one of a series that describes the components of a comprehensive business strategic plan and provides a checklist for evaluating strategic planning process effectiven

The Small Business Owner’s Conundrum - Click To Read Article
In the current economic climate, small business owners understand that under-performing is not an option. Not if they want to survive, that is. They constantly face situations that call for skills or experience they may not possess on their own. Add to this the fact that small business owners often wear far too many hats and face a unique set of pressures that only they can fully appreciate.

The 2011 Strategic Planning Checklist: Evaluate Your Strategic Planning Process and Strategy Effectiveness - Click To Read Article
One of our most popular articles last year dealt with a simple checklist for evaluating strategic planning process effectiveness. Having ushered in the new year and a fresh decade, we decided it would be a worthwhile exercise to revisit the list and analysis done last year and submit an updated, more fitting set of evaluation criteria for 2011. There are new criteria added in this year’s evaluation, and many that have carried over from last year but have enhanced analysis.

The Change Management Process: Accomplishing Change and Making it Stick - Click To Read Article
There are times when an organization must go through serious transformation. By this we mean the type of game-changing metamorphosis that requires corporate leaders to devise a new vision which must then be adopted by staff members and ultimately put into action. Transformational change is only possible with a legitimate sense of urgency and effective change management that is orchestrated with a change management strategy. This article, based on the Method Frameworks Plan4SM process and adapted from John Kotter’s 8-step change model and book on change management best practices, “Leading Change” (Harvard Business School Press, 1996), examines methods for managing corporate change and accomplishing successful outcomes.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Understanding the Essentials of Strategy and Execution in the M&A Ecosystem: Part 1 of 4 - Click To Read Article
It’s hard to name many business transactions that are as risky and complex as mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Over 85% of M&A deals fail, according to a recent study on M&A outcomes by KPMG. Another study, by A.T. Kearney, found that the total return to shareholders on 115 global M&A transactions was negative 58%. These astounding numbers are enough to make any organization think twice. Despite the grim statistics, there are many compelling reasons to attempt an M&A transaction, but they must be done with and understanding of the risks and challenges involved. In this first installment of a four part series, we will begin by building some M&A foundations and define the ecosystem of an M&A transaction.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Understanding the Essentials of Strategy and Execution in the M&A Ecosystem - Part 2 of 4 - Click To Read Article
In part one of this four article series, we explored the landscape of the Merger & Acquisition (M&A) ecosystem and how M&A activity is generally driven by strategic objectives that must form a match between both parties - the buyer and the seller. As discussed in Part 1 of this series, mergers and acquisitions, in some cases, may be required by one or both organizations in order to survive. In other cases, the M&A move be seen as a strategic action that will lead to a leaner, more profitable company once the transaction is completed - one that is better positioned for growth. Given the need to acquire or merge will always be present in the business world, how can it be done successfully? In this installment, we delve further into the points of commonality between mergers and acquisitions, examining the buy and sell-side perspectives.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Understanding the Essentials of Strategy and Execution in the M&A Ecosystem - Part 3 of 4 - Click To Read Article
In this third installment of the M&A series, we will examine domestic versus international M&A transactions, then explore the analysis behind selecting another company worth merging or acquiring and discuss how due diligence should actually be performed.

Management vs. Leadership: What Do You Turn To For Transformational Change? - Click To Read Article
When a company seeks to make transformational change – the type of change that is defined as an organization-wide cultural shift that takes place over time as the result of a change in the organization’s underlying strategy and processes.

Change Agents: The Power Behind Effective Change Management - Click To Read Article
Change-agents are those within our organization who help facilitate strategic transformation. We need change agents on our side to clear the path, especially when it comes to making “game-changing” change. But how do we enlist the type of change agents to make critical changes possible?

Strategic Planning Begins with a Clear Picture of What You Do - Click To Read Article
Many of our consulting engagements begin with a simple question intended to help us understand the basics of the organization we’re dealing with. “What do you do?” You might be surprised at the answers we get: answers that lack consistency, focus, and clarity, with key leaders offering slightly different responses to this seemingly simple and straight forward question. While it may sound somewhat juvenile to suggest that organizations expend effort during the strategic planning process to define what they do, there are some very compelling reasons to do so. And, in the end, you may find that this simplistic exercise is the root of many organizational troubles.

The Critical Step of Current-state Analysis & Review in Strategic Planning - Click To Read Article
What is the definition of success and how can you get there if you don’t know where you are starting from? Obviously it makes sense that you need to know your point of origin to determine the optimal route to your desired destination. If that is the case in our day-to-day lives, then why do so many forget to apply that simple concept in business – and in this case – in our business planning? This article focuses on a major step of critical importance in your planning process – a review and analysis of your organization’s current-state. Learn how to do it and what information you will need in the analysis.

Qualities of an Effective Corporate Strategic Planning Process - Click To Read Article
Corporate strategic planning is intended to provide both the direction (strategy) and the actions (execution) needed to achieve strategic goals. The combination of smart strategy and successful execution is the hallmark of a great planning process. Does your planning process have the qualities to translate strategy into successful business execution?

The Top Three Things CIOs Must Do in 2010 - Click To Read Article
Many IT executives considered 2009 to be the “lost year”. Forward momentum slowed to a crawl where Information Technology (IT) spending was concerned. Businesses went into a holding pattern and focused on reducing overhead and hoping for flat growth in revenue at best. Enter 2010, a new year and decade full of exciting business opportunities for companies, but also coming with guarantees of fresh challenges for technology and business leaders alike. The CIO, now more than ever, must be focused on the revenue-producing activities of the business enterprise in order to add value and be viewed as a major producer within the organization. But what can we do as the CIO to stay one step ahead of the business and keep the CEO happy? This article discussed three goals CIOs should focus on during 2010.

The 2010 Twelve-step Checklist to Help You Evaluate Your Strategic Business Planning Process - Click To Read Article
Have you given much consideration to the possibility that your strategic and operational plans may be far less effective than they could be? How would you begin to measure the effectiveness of your current plan? This article should help you to objectively evaluate your own process and self-diagnosis potential issues that may exist in your organization’s current planning world. As you read this article, answer along as we ask the questions to help you honestly evaluate your current business planning process. Let’s start with the checklist. Scan through the list and do your best to give a first impression “yes” or “no” answer to each question.

Think You’re Ready to Hire a Corporate Consulting Firm? - Click To Read Article
Here are 5 ways to know for sure. Organizations typically seek the help of outside corporate consultants to provide strategic advice or solve complex problems that cannot be sufficiently handled internally. Usually, the process of hiring a consultant is surrounded by excitement and anticipation of what the consultant will do for the organization. At the same time, an outsider can bring out a mix of fear, doubt, and uncertainty that, if left unchecked, will act as roadblocks to an otherwise successful process. Too often, leaders call on consultants without understanding the attributes necessary to work effectively with an outside firm.

Why Do We Need More “Whys” in Corporate Strategic Planning? - Click To Read Article
A simple question, yet powerfully thought-provoking, “Why?” is too often missing from our decision-making vocabulary. Why, what if, and other forms of critical evaluation contribute to a more effective decision-making process by promoting debate and discussion that is necessary to achieve the best possible outcome.

Symptoms of Corporate Strategy Misalignment - Click To Read Article
Strategy misalignment is subtle and sometimes difficult to spot. Yet without a properly aligned corporate strategy, you are likely to introduce a serious dose of chaos into the organizational environment. Corporate strategy is the blend of strategic goals that support the mission and vision of an organization. When a corporate strategy is aligned, the key outcomes (strategic goals) of the organization are united with operations and execution tactics. In other words, all parts of the organization’s eco-system (the sum of internal and external functions of an organization’s environment) are moving in the same well-defined direction. When strategy is misaligned operational initiatives are out of sync with the strategic goals of the organization, mission drift occurs within the operations of the business,

Enterprise Myopia: Is Customer Value Being Overlooked? - Click To Read Article
Is your organization’s strategy overlooking the most important stakeholder – your customers? With some simple but elegant changes to the strategic planning process, businesses can avoid committing this cardinal sin. By refocusing business strategy on value creation for the end-customers, organizations can avoid business myopia and blind spots that mask the slow erosion of competitive advantage they may have enjoyed in the past. This article addresses the key challenge of keeping the customer in mind when setting strategic and operational goals and offers concrete approaches to accomplishing customer-centric planning from the business and technology leader’s perspective.

In Corporate Strategic Planning, Be Ready to Prioritize and Justify - Click To Read Article
So much has been written about the importance of setting priorities. Whether in time management or corporate strategic planning, the point remains: We must know our priorities and focus on the projects and opportunities that represent our highest priorities. The saying, “Do your best and forget the rest” is applicable in more than one way. Focus your resources and energy on your best opportunities and set the others aside. The question is: How do you determine your priorities? And in the face of competing corporate agendas, how do you justify your choices? Both prioritization and justification are important steps in an effective corporate planning process.

Opportunity Valuation Gives Direction to Strategic Planning - Click To Read Article
n corporate strategic planning and, let’s face it, in life itself we have to choose our battles. As much as we try to stretch our limited resources, the fact remains that they’re still limited. In our strategic planning approach, we call the process of choosing our battles “opportunity valuation.” And by the way, choosing our battles isn’t a negative; it merely refers to the fact that we must select the opportunities (targeted outcomes) that will earn our limited energy and resources. In our proprietary planning process, known as Plan4, opportunity valuation combats the behavior of many organizations that bite off more than they can chew and suffer for it. Opportunity valuation provides a structure for measuring the relative value of potential outcomes so the organization can move forward with confidence and realism.

How to Align your Corporate Strategy - Click To Read Article
A recent article covered the symptoms of corporate strategy misalignment and 3 common causes of strategy misalignment. Take a look back at those articles to understand what happens when corporate strategy becomes misaligned and what causes it to go out of whack in the first place. When corporate strategy is aligned throughout the entire organization, operational initiatives are working in sync with strategic goals and desired outcomes are much more likely to result. Thus, understanding corporate strategy misalignment is critical for any business leader and knowing how to correct a misalignment is essential.

In Corporate Strategic Planning, Leave Your Perfectionism at the Door - Click To Read Article
The pace of change and uncertainty in today’s economic and business environments require that business leaders define and evolve their plans while the organization is in full motion. Leaders must be able to react to risks and opportunities as they appear, while making choices that support a consistent corporate strategy. And while it’s tempting for organizations to strive for perfection in every strategic plan, this approach can result in serious missed opportunities and lost market share. Embrace the imperfection that is inherent in any corporate strategic plan. After all, without clairvoyant powers nobody has perfect information upon which to plan and act -- and that’s okay.

Align Your Strategy and Operational Plans to Core Competencies - Click To Read Article
Core competencies are the underpinnings of an organization’s skills and the cornerstone of successful strategic execution. Core competencies represent the fundamental knowledge, abilities, and expertise of an organization. They are what make individuals and organizations unique. Furthermore, your ability to understand and measure organizational core competencies is a critical factor in reaching your desired goals.

Align Culture and Communication for Better Strategic Planning Results - Click To Read Article
It is well accepted among organizational theorists that companies with strong cultures and well devised communications plans outperform those without such ingredients. Communication motivates employees and unites them toward a common goal. As such, in our strategic and operational planning engagements, communication is a vital component.

3 Common Causes of Corporate Strategy Misalignment - Click To Read Article
A recent artcile on corporate strategy covered the symptoms of corporate strategy misalignment. As discussed, a properly aligned corporate strategy will align strategic goals with the operations and execution tactics necessary to fulfill the organization’s desired outcomes. With a well-aligned corporate strategy, the entire organization – both internally and externally – will move in the same clearly-defined direction. Left to its own devices, a strategy that is misaligned will result in operational initiatives that are out of sync with strategic goals, missions that drift operationally off course, and chaos that compounds into serious consequences. Now it’s time to consider the causes of corporate strategy misalignment.

Does Your Strategic Planning Process Suffer From ADD? - Click To Read Article
n the psychological world, ADD (attention deficit disorder) is diagnosed when an individual meets certain criteria for hyperactivity, impulsivity, or inattention. Likewise, in the corporate world, organizations can exhibit ADD-like behavior when they mistake activity for effectiveness; when they lose focus on established objectives; and when they respond haphazardly to environmental changes.

8 Steps to Boost the ROI of Your Strategic Planning Efforts - Click To Read Article
Studies suggest that 90% of all corporate strategic planning efforts fail to deliver the intended result. In fact, the average ROI on most strategic planning initiatives is 34% or less. What’s more, one-third of companies that are now at the top of their fields will no longer hold that position three years from now. What’s wrong with this picture? How can so many smart CEOs deliver strategies that fail?

The Case for Bringing Outside Planning Consultants In - Click To Read Article
Internal strategic planners clearly have their place in the corporate planning process. The deep insight and internal understanding of the inside strategists are hard to replace. Yet, with inside knowledge comes the side effects of political swaying, less objectivity, and “planning as usual.” Many of today’s successful organizations effectively combine an internal view with an external view to bring about a holistic approach to planning.

Today’s Definition of Strategic Planning - Click To Read Article
A quick Google search for definitions of strategic planning will yield numerous variations. Often these definitions point to the blatant misunderstanding of what strategic planning truly is. At other times the term is flat out misused. In the end, we find that strategic planning lacks a widely accepted definition. It seems everyone in the field of planning has a different view on the exact definition. Yet, the definitions we most embrace, convey in one form or fashion, that the idea of strategic planning is to build and sustain competitive advantage by defining desired outcomes and creating some sort of go-forward plan to achieve those outcomes. This article offers a modern definition of corporate strategic planning.

Is strategic planning for small businesses, or only the “Fortune-ate”? - Click To Read Article
We often find that small business leaders are intimidated by management consulting firms and others who offer strategy planning services. Whether they believe it’s too expensive or that they’re too small to benefit, or simply that they lack the time and energy to focus on strategy planning, it is certain that companies of all sizes can benefit from a structured strategy planning process.

A Lesson in the History of Strategic Planning - Click To Read Article
When today’s business leaders think of strategic planning they are likely think of the planned strategic and organizational actions and innovations that will be used to maintain and build competitive advantage. In fact, an entire industry is built around strategic planning services and consulting to support these efforts to build advantage over ones business competitors. But strategic planning wasn’t always thought of this way. So how much do you know about the history of strategic planning?

7 Ways to Test Your Strategic Planning Approach - Click To Read Article
Evaluate your corporate strategic planning approach using these 7 tests to determine if yours is as good as it should be.

5 Secrets to Successful Corporate Strategy Implementation - Click To Read Article
A well crafted strategy provides essential vision, direction, and goals for the organization. Yet what happens when many organizations attempt to realize the outcomes of those meaningful strategies? This article explores 5 secrets to successful corporate strategy implementation.

Do You Really Want to Build a Faster Strategic Plan? - Click To Read Article
How long should the process take to create your corporate strategic plan and get the job done right? Even if the plan is created in a week’s time (and it won’t be), is the job really done? Has everything that needs to be done to support the strategy roll-out been addressed?

How Long Should It Take To Complete A Strategic Plan? - Click To Read Article
Given the opportunity to better leverage the art and science of strategic planning, organizational leadership should strive to better understand strategic planning and unlock the competitive advantages it can bring them. This article examines the process of strategic planning In the corporate world and explores the required effort the process takes to accomplish the organization’s go-forward plan for the future and accompanying desired outcomes.

A Fresh Approach to Obtaining Global Perspectives on Corporate Strategic Planning - Click To Read Article
Now more than ever, executives should rely upon bodies of knowledge assembled around topical domains that can help them be better leaders. Social media and the Internet in general have made this possible, on a scale unimagined until recent years.

The Golden Thread: Linking Strategy to Execution - Click To Read Article
Detailed operational planning has to relate corporate strategy with the operations of the enterprise at the initiative level and below that at the project level. This Method Frameworks article describes ways to inject operational planning into the strategic planning process and string the “golden thread” through all of the execution loop-holes.

The Role of the Internal versus the External Strategist - Click To Read Article
Can an external strategist be an asset to an established corporate strategic planning team? There is clearly no substitute for the value provided by the internal strategist and the homegrown planning processes that fits the organization like an old well-worn baseball glove. But can this value be enhanced by an outsider’s involvement?

Your Strategic Plan in 7 Days? - Click To Read Article
Is it possible to create a corporate strategic plan in a week? The answer depends from where you are starting. Are you starting from the most current plan? What results are wanted out of the process this time around? What are the definitions you want to attach to “strategic plan”, and to “done”?

What's Wrong With Your Corporate Planning Process? - Click To Read Article
Does your corporate strategic planning process consistently deliver the outcomes you expect or has strategic planning been devalued (literally or figuratively) within your organization due to its declining efficacy? Corporate planning in today’s rapidly-changing and uncertain business environment requires a strategic planning process that empowers organizations to achieve operational excellence on a day-to-day basis while also planning for the future. If your corporate planning process has lost its luster, consider what may be wrong.

Why You Should Not Hire a Management Consulting Firm...at least not yet. - Click To Read Article
There are many strategic management consulting companies in the United States and around the world. For organizations that are looking for strategic consulting help in their business, there are so many options available to them that making a decision on the right consulting firm becomes daunting. Even with all of the available expertise, many companies never seek the outside help. Maybe that is the best for all concerned. Bringing in outside consulting help is not for everyone. When consulting companies come in to help with strategy or to solve complex business challenges, it is often an exercise that forces executives to check their egos at the door and confront their own organization’s issues and baggage. Not all companies are up for that. Are you ready?

Strategy Misalignment: The Symptoms, Dangers and Treatment - Click To Read Article
Strategic misalignment is insidious. It creeps into organizations silently, tenaciously takes root and over time begins to undermine successful organizations. There are tell-tale symptoms to watch out for and many dangerous implications when it goes untreated. This article reviews the symptoms to watch for; evaluates the damage that occurs over time if left unchecked and reveals methods to correct the ailment and reverse the damage that occurred.

Mapping Out Strategic Execution: Part 2 of “Why We Fail at Strategic Implementation“ - Click To Read Article
Are you completely satisfied with your organization’s ability to execute on strategy? If your answer was “yes”, you and your organization are obviously doing the right things right and should be commended. Even so, this article may provide some additional thoughts you can incorporate into your strategic planning and execution process, so we hope you’ll read on. If you are one of the tortured masses who answered “no” to this question, you are in good company with most organizational leaders. We hope you will definitely continue to read on.

“Don’t We Have People For That?”: Operational Planning & Strategy Execution - Click To Read Article
No business likes to admit it, but most are lacking in the know-how, competencies (skills, knowledge, experience) and discipline to carry off precise execution of strategic goals. This article addresses just how critical operational planning is to having good execution and offers help to those organizations who struggle with why and how to do it.

Where Did "Why" Go?: The Role of Critical Evaluation in Strategic Planning - Click To Read Article
This article explores the importance of critical evaluation in strategy planning and asking, “Why?”.

The Definition of Strategic Planning: A White Paper - Click To Read Article
This White Paper aims to more definitively define the term, “Strategic Planning” in its corporate context and explores the basic components of what should be done in the planning process to make it worthwhile - delivering value, profits and securing competitive advantage.

Strategy Execution: Why We Fail At Strategic Implementation - Click To Read Article
Why do so many organizations fail at strategic implementation? The quality of an organization’s strategic plan is not the primary determinant of success in goal achievement. No, the primary factor is that success hinges on execution. This article is part 1 of a two part series and examines some of the most common root causes of organizations and their leaders to miss the mark on strategic implementation. In part 2 of the series we map out an approach for successful strategic execution.

Prioritizing Organizational Wants Versus Needs - How To Tell The Difference - Click To Read Article
In strategic planning, we must learn to separate wants from actual needs. We are forced to make tough decisions that open one door and close another. Weighty strategic decisions can be made easier if we apply a decision “triage” to help structure the cognitive process we must complete. But how do we separate requirements from “desirements” in the business world fairly and consistently? Sometimes budgetary constraints drive us to adopt a strategy of eliminating options that are not actually requirements for our business, at least not at this time. For that first round of elimination, we need a litmus test of sorts. More to the point, what we need is a decision process to help us filter the wants from the needs. This article provides a system for making such an evaluation within our strategic planning process.

The Double-Win: Six Factors For Achieving Sustained Growth in the Top-line and Profitability - Click To Read Article
Achieving and then sustaining top-line growth requires sound strategy and a lot of hard work. Quarter-over-quarter revenue growth is strong evidence of an organization with a well-conceived strategy that has achieved operational excellence in areas like new customer acquisition, existing customer retention and innovation in product/service value creation. But what about achieving sustained profitability when growing the top line? That can be more challenging. This article explores six important factors needed for positioning your organization for the double-win of sustained growth and profitability.

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