Developing and refining your strategy is a vital process for any organization that wants to achieve its goals and stay ahead of the competition. But how do you go about it? Here are some steps and tips to help you create and improve your strategy in the context of strategy and organizational design.
The first step is to understand where you are now and what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) that affect your organization. You can use various tools and methods to conduct a SWOT analysis, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, benchmarking, and data analysis. The aim is to identify the key issues, challenges, and gaps that you need to address in your strategy.
L’’écoute de son environnement et des signaux faibles sont le prè-requis des bases d’une stratégie efficace et efficiente. A mon sens la stratégie doit reposer sur une veille stratégique et de son environnement Sans veille, pas d’opportunité.
Part 1. In the world of business, there exists a true view of strategy. This traditional paradigm revolves around defining clear objectives, gathering and analyzing pertinent data, formulating the strategy, implementing it across the organization, monitoring its progress, evaluating its effectiveness, and finally refining it based on observed results. This structured approach is the backbone of strategic thinking in boardrooms worldwide. At its core, strategy is about making choices, and in today's agile business environment, is there room to challenge this norm?
The next step is to clarify what you want to achieve and why you exist as an organization. Your vision is your long-term aspiration, your mission is your purpose and value proposition, and your values are your guiding principles and beliefs. You can use a vision statement, a mission statement, and a values statement to communicate these elements to your stakeholders and align them with your strategy.
Part 2 Not to undermine its value, but to probably complement it, ensuring businesses are not just making choices, but making the right ones for an agile landscape. -Reject Clear-Cut Fixed Objectives Rather than establishing fixed objectives, maintain adaptability, welcome the unknown. -Distrust Gathered Data In an ever-changing world, past data might not foretell future accomplishments. Prioritize intuitive decision-making over strictly data-driven choices. -Foster Chaos & Creativity Eschew traditionally structured analyses to cultivate an environment of innovation and spontaneity, allowing for unexpected insights.
The third step is to translate your vision and mission into specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals and objectives. Your goals are the broad outcomes that you want to accomplish, and your objectives are the concrete actions that you will take to reach them. You can use a framework such as the balanced scorecard, the OKR (objectives and key results), or the OGSM (objectives, goals, strategies, and measures) to define and track your goals and objectives.
Part 3 -Be Everything, Everywhere Disregard conventional differentiation-cost leadership strategies. Strive to span diverse sectors and blur boundaries. -Implement Strategy Organically Move away from top-down strategy directives. Empower individual teams to outline their strategic path. -Be ready to fail and learn. -Disrupt Yourself Don't anticipate only external disruptions; reassess your own prevailing business models routinely.
The fourth step is to decide how you will achieve your goals and objectives, and what resources and capabilities you will need. Your strategies are the general approaches and directions that you will follow, and your tactics are the specific activities and tasks that you will implement. You can use a tool such as the SWOT matrix, the Ansoff matrix, or the Porter's generic strategies to select and evaluate your strategies and tactics.
The fifth step is to ensure that your organization and culture support and enable your strategy. Your organization is the structure, systems, processes, and roles that you have in place to execute your strategy, and your culture is the shared values, norms, behaviors, and beliefs that shape how you work together. You can use a model such as the McKinsey 7S, the Burke-Litwin, or the Nadler-Tushman to analyze and align your organization and culture.
When the strategy has to be changed due to unexpected events or because the review of the outcomes indicates that changes are necessary, it is necessary to determine whether People, Processes, Systems, Organizational Structure, and some aspects of culture align with those changes in the strategy. A case of adaptation without changing the strategy is the scaling up of a startup and/or an organization with rapid growth, where the achieved new level may require changes in the organizational structure and culture.
The final step is to measure and evaluate your strategy performance and outcomes, and make adjustments as needed. You can use a tool such as the strategic dashboard, the strategy map, or the balanced scorecard to monitor and review your strategy indicators and results. You can also use a process such as the PDCA (plan-do-check-act) cycle, the OODA (observe-orient-decide-act) loop, or the agile methodology to refine and improve your strategy.
I'd add: It's important to factor/consider measurement. Continuously track the progress of your strategy. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success and identify areas that require improvement. Regarding refinement - This could involve making minor adjustments or even pivoting to a different approach if the initial strategy isn't yielding the desired results.
And finally: 1. Learning and iteration - Treat your strategy as a learning process. Use the outcomes, whether successful or not, to inform future strategies. Apply lessons learned to future endeavors. 2. Resource allocation is key! Allocate the necessary resources—financial, human, technological, etc.—to support the execution of your strategy. Ensure that you have the means to implement your plans effectively.