What do you do if you want to apply your newly acquired Strategy skills to your current job?

Stop and reflect on your situation - how urgent is the need to apply the newly learned strategy skills (models, methods..) - and why is it urgent? Is your urgency going to result in the imminent application of the new "stuff", and is it helping the client instantly as well? There might be many reasons for the urgency, e.g., looking for instant validation, shine, adding a new kick to the job, and hopefully adding value to the customer, too... If the skills you learned, regardless of their coolness, are to disturb the project, process, or work you are already proceeding with (assuming the overall alignment with business stakeholders has happened prior to your training), I would probably wait for the next opportunity to test these skills live.

To apply your new strategy skills in your current job, start by identifying areas where strategic thinking can make a difference. Propose data-driven solutions to current challenges and back them up with solid analysis. Volunteer for projects that align with your strategic skills to showcase your capabilities. Communicate your ideas clearly to stakeholders and demonstrate the potential impact. Seek feedback and continuously refine your approach. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to implement strategic initiatives and drive organizational growth.

Before initiating any strategic overhaul, it's imperative to assess your company's strategic needs thoroughly. Look across departments and functions to identify areas where improvements or adjustments could yield significant benefits. This could include outdated processes, underperforming product lines, untapped market opportunities, or areas where competitors excel. By pinpointing these areas, you can prioritize strategic initiatives that address pressing challenges or capitalize on emerging trends, ensuring that your efforts align closely with the organization's overarching goals and foster sustainable growth and competitiveness.

As a partner in strategic consulting, I've recently expanded my expertise into geopolitics, recognizing its critical influence on the semiconductor industry. Leveraging this new skill, I analyzed how shifting trade policies between the US and China could impact our global supply chains and client operations. By incorporating geopolitical strategy into our advisory services, we've guided our clients through potential risks and opportunities, enhancing their preparedness and strategic positioning in a volatile global market.

I think all organizations have strategic needs. So make sure that you actually identify the most important areas. The most important areas will be the ones that, if solved, will have the most impact to meeting the goals of the organization. That should be your starting point of identifying real opportunities for you to get involved and apply your skills.

Having identified areas requiring strategic intervention, it's crucial to set clear objectives to guide your efforts effectively. Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for each strategic initiative. These objectives should align closely with the identified needs and aim to address key challenges or capitalize on opportunities. By setting clear objectives, you provide a roadmap for action, facilitate alignment across the organization, and enable effective measurement of progress and success. This clarity enhances accountability, focus, and agility in executing strategic initiatives to drive desired outcomes.

Make sure that you understand the situation correctly so you can set the goals as well as the KPIs effectively. You need to define what success looks like otherwise other people will define that for you. You should also define the "book ends" or the scope of what you're going to accomplish. The only problem of other people defining your goals and scope is that you may end up doing a lot more than what you had expected and/or you run the risk of not being successful in the endeavor.

Set clear objectives for your strategy, making them SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. -> Ensure your goals are actionable and measurable for effective strategy implementation. Map out a systematic approach to leverage your strategy skills in achieving these objectives. -> Develop a strategic roadmap aligned with your SMART goals for successful execution.

With objectives in place, tactical planning involves breaking down strategic goals into smaller, actionable tasks. Analyze each objective to determine the specific steps needed to achieve it, considering resources, timelines, and dependencies. Create a detailed roadmap outlining these tasks, assigning responsibilities and setting milestones along the way. Breaking down goals into manageable tasks enhances clarity and accountability, enabling teams to focus on incremental progress while staying aligned with the overarching strategy. This tactical approach ensures that strategic objectives are translated into practical actions, facilitating efficient execution and measurable results.

In a sense, you need to define your "go to market plan" for this strategic initiative. Make sure that you identify what are going to be the milestones, what are going to be the resources/tools that you're going to need, what are going to be the deliverables and how are you going to measure success at each step of this process. It's likely that you will need resources so make sure that you socialize the plan in order to get the right resources for you to be successful in leading this strategic initiative.

Break down strategic goals into smaller tasks to create a tactical plan. -> Ensure each task contributes to achieving the larger objective for effective execution. Consider resources, personnel, and timelines when creating your tactical roadmap. -> Develop a detailed plan that translates strategic vision into actionable steps for success.

we go beyond creating strategic presentations. Unlike typical consultancies, we dive into the operational trenches with our clients in the semiconductor industry. This hands-on approach allows us to not only identify but also actively remove execution barriers. Our direct involvement ensures disciplined adherence to strategies while adapting to on-site challenges. By maintaining clear communication with stakeholders and making decisions swiftly, we bridge the gap between planning and real-world execution, turning strategic visions into tangible successes.

Any strategy that cannot be executed is worthless. In my experience, execution requires a very robust plan, where you have defined at a high level the key deliverables & resources, but it comes down to project management. You have to be very, very talented at project managing the activities or you need to make sure that you get the support from a professional project manager. Strategic initiatives can get very complicated very quickly. Especially once you start executing and you discover all the different issues that you had not considered in your plan.

Make sure that you take the time to measure your KPIs so that you can then reflect based on the data that you're seeing. It's important to reflect on how things are going, but you need qualitative and quantitative information to be successfully identify root cause and countermeasure activities.

Reflecting is the key in every strategy Steps: 1. Make sure you are measuring your plans in some way 2. Compare it against benchmarks 3. Check variance/reasons for failure 4. Evaluate or reflect using techniques like 5 whys

According to my understanding strategy formulation is interpreting the misrepresentation of facts, the industry's competitive dynamics, & organizational alignment. 2 Methods are old business execution and new venture creation/corporate development. I will evaluate the following mergers and acquisition strategic rationale and financial modeling as newly acquired skills (non-academic and non-monitored) - CJ Shah Group (Manufacturer) and Brenntag AG (distributor). Rationale - specialized services for the life sciences industry and deep expertise across pharmaceutical marketing, clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs, and health informatics, benefiting each other significantly.Vertical M & A with exhibits along the value chain

Understand the big picture first, Ensure that your work aligns with the broader goals and objectives of your organization. Then set clear objectives and leverage data to enhance performance during application phase. Remember that applying startegy works requires collaboration between teams or departments => Make sure stakeholders are informed about progress, challenges, and changes in strategy.