How do you identify and manage strategic risks and uncertainties?

A strategic review is a vital process to evaluate an organization's strategies, performance, and alignment with its goals. Its crucial to have data-driven insights into the effectiveness of current strategies, identifying potential risks and opportunities in the external environment, and guide us in better decision-making. Its efficiency depends on fostering adaptability, clear communication, and adapting culture of continuous improvement.

Running offsite meetings with executives is a great opportunity to align on the strategic direction, get together and collaborate on tackling business problems, refining short/ long term goals, and ultimately, review the company overall strategy. The purpose is to spark new ideas by bringing the team together to focus on strategic challenges and make strategic planning without the interruptions.

As long as defined strategy is helping meet the defined business outcomes, its serving its purpose. Its imperative to do a regular review of strategy to ensure it is "fit for purpose". To remove any human bias, any review of strategy should be based on a set of 'MECE' parameters, appropriately weighted. Two critical considerations: 1. All parameters at primary, secondary, ..., nth level need to be at correct level of hierarchy, else it will incorrectly skew the outcome. 2. Its important to quantify intended business benefits instead of keeping it subjective. In case of unknown variables, assumptions and T-shirt sizing can help.

Winston Churchill said, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Strategic plan = focus on inputs. Strategy = focus on outputs.

Any Strategy is only as good as the intended results it helps to achieve. The only way to determine the efficacy of any strategy is to be keep checking the actual progress against the intended outcome. Strategic Reviews provide the formal touch points where this can be evaluated and adapted. From a time when there were 5 year strategic roadmaps, 3 year roadmap and annual plans - we are now in a VUCA world where the market, industry, competition and target customers are all getting refined in months if not weeks. Hence it is important to keep these reviews regularly (monthly preferred)

The Strategic Reviews when done at periodic and regular intervals provide the reality check on the relevance and applicability of the Strategy. While completing changing or overhauling the Strategy may not be recommended or even needed, what is still needed is a regular evaluation of the progress made along with the accuracy of the assumptions put in pace. Strategic Renewal gives that opportunity to tweak the premise and detailing of your Strategic plan to suit the renewed understanding of the business, market, industry and competition.

Strategic renewal is the process of updating, modifying, or replacing your existing strategy based on the findings of your strategic review. It involves refreshing or replacing attributes of an organization that have the potential to substantially affect its long-term prospects. This process encompasses both incremental and discontinuous transformations, and its outcome can vary in terms of success. Strategic renewal is critical for sustained success and can involve changes in competition, firm resources and capabilities, organizational structure, and cognition, among other dimensions.

The most important factor in conducting a Strategic Review is the level of objectiveness used. Often times getting an external expert such as a Consultant is the quickest way to perform such as review. He/they would help to perform a thorough and objective assessment of the overall vision and roadmap for the organization. They bring with them a host of knowledge about the industry and its best practices. With the relevant frameworks and approach, they are able to work with the various groups and teams in your organization to gather all the relevant data. Their ability to clean, analyze and use this data enables to find patterns. This also results in finding the biggest opportunity for improvement on the desired paths.

To conduct a strategic review, define the scope and objectives, including criteria and indicators of success. Review your strategic plan, assessing progress, challenges, and alignment with your vision, mission, and values. Evaluate objectives, measures, and initiatives, asking if they remain relevant and effective. Identify areas for improvement and opportunities for innovation. Ensure that all stakeholders are aligned and that the review process drives meaningful dialogue and action.

Strategic Renewal is one of the most complex Change Management initiative that could be implemented in any organization. The first and most important step is to capture and communicate the delta in strategy. It is extremely critical to capture the 'Why' behind this strategic renewal. Once this Why is communicated, it is easier to generate the extensive buy-in that is needed for the implementation of this change. Like any change management initiative, the renewal will be tactical plans which are monitored as workstreams. these workstreams are managed by designated leads who talk to each other. Often these complex renewals are also driven by specialized program management experts who bring in the rigor and discipline needed.

Strategic renewal turns your strategic review findings into action. It involves crafting a roadmap that addresses weaknesses and leverages opportunities. Expect to define clear goals, allocate resources, and establish timelines for initiatives that might include process improvements, product innovation, or even market expansion. This data-driven approach ensures your organization stays relevant and competitive.

Risk Management remains to be one of the most crucial elements of a Strategic Renewal initiative. Yet it is also the one that is least understood or implemented one. An effective Risk Management approach would be treat this as a non-negotiable workstream in your roadmap. A well structured Risk Register will help you to document, track and close the risks associated. For each risk entry identified, it is important to perform a thorough analysis and capture details like probability, impact, remediation approach, owner, due dates etc. These risks must be regularly inspected to find inter-dependencies with each other, else they could go unnoticed and result in dominos effect in no time.

A critical process to avoid strategic failure is to place more emphasis on feasibility studies I have discovered that many businesses do not perform proper due diligence and the result is high failure rates

No meu ponto de vista identificar e gerenciar riscos é essencial para o sucesso organizacional. Comece analisando o ambiente externo com ferramentas como PESTEL e a análise de mercado. Internamente, use SWOT e mapeamento de processos para detectar vulnerabilidades. Classifique os riscos com base em probabilidade e impacto, e desenvolva estratégias de mitiga??o, como evitar, reduzir ou transferir riscos. Monitore continuamente e ajuste suas estratégias para garantir uma gest?o eficaz e resiliência organizacional.

Risks are an integral part of any Strategic Plans. You can only ignore the possibilities of their occurrence or the impact when they do occur to your peril. Hence it becomes non-negotiable to keep the eyes towards these potential risks to your business. Risk Management must be considered a critical workstream just like any other workstreams involved in your strategic plan.

As innovation facilitator of 100+ projects I like to share how you can MITIGATE PROJECT RISKS in 10 WAYS 1. Market Research: Understand your target audience and their needs. 2. Prototyping: Build and test prototypes to identify flaws. 3. Cross-functional Teams: Bring together experts from various disciplines. 4. Iterative Development: Break the process into phases. 5. User Feedback: Involve users to gather insights and validate. 6. Risk Analysis: Identify potential risks and their impact. 7. Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Launch an MVP. 8. Agile Method: Embrace agile practices to adapt. 9. Quality Assurance: Implement robust testing procedures to catch bugs. 10. Communication: Maintain clear communication within your team.

Adopt Risk management approach as part of your organization Goverance policy. Ensure the culture of Risk management across all value streams. Impart appropriate skill set on Risk management to your teams. Conduct an ongoing Risk assessments as part of your functional process. This is the only way you can easily identify the risks, its level of impact on the business(if it occurs), strategies needed to address those risks and mitigation plans. Please note that this is not an one time exercise. Its an ongoing exercise need to be performed by each function with in the organization.

Identify and Assess Strategic Risks and Uncertainties: 1. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats: Evaluate internal strengths and weaknesses along with external opportunities and threats. 2. Scenario Planning: - Develop alternative scenarios to understand potential futures and their impact on the organization. 3. Risk Matrix: - Use a risk matrix to assess the likelihood and impact of each identified risk. Implement and Monitor Risk Management: 1. Embed risk management into decision-making processes and strategic initiatives. 2. Monitor and review the risk landscape regularly, updating risk assessments as needed. 3. Communicate risks and mitigation efforts transparently to stakeholders.

In my experience, here are some steps you can follow: 1. Identify Risks: Monitor environments, use SWOT, scenario planning, and stakeholder input. 2. Assess Risks: Prioritize by likelihood and impact, use both quantitative and qualitative methods. 3. Manage Risks: Mitigate, transfer, accept, or avoid risks. 4. Implement & Monitor: Execute action plans, track effectiveness, and adjust as needed. 5. Communicate: Report transparently and gather feedback. By following these steps, organizations can better anticipate and manage strategic risks and uncertainties, helping to safeguard their long-term objectives and enhance their strategic agility.