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| Leadership Performance » Strategic Alignment » Strategic Thinking |
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Strategic Thinking Process |
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| Overview |
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Traditionally, Strategic Planning omits the step of innovative thinking that is so critical to business success, in particular, at the departmental level. Strategic Thinking is a more comprehensive planning model that covers innovation, strategic planning and operational planning. Strategy has never been more challenging, or more important, than in today's environment of global competition in which corporate strategies must transcend the borders of nations and markets. Too many organizations try to be everything to everyone, wasting resources in markets that may never provide a worthwhile return on investment.
Strategic Thinking is a planning process that applies innovation, strategic planning and operational planning to develop business strategies that have a greater chance for success.
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| Consulting Process |
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Business Improvement Architects focuses on the development of more creative and innovative strategies, ensuring that departmental strategies are linked to the overall corporate strategic plan. This includes understanding the voice of the customer, conducting benchmarking and identifying opportunities to engage employees throughout the strategic thinking process. A focus on developing, guiding and facilitating the strategic thinking skills of the leaders is made and these leaders will learn how to create an inclusive, strategic conversation throughout the strategic thinking process. The application of innovation to the development of key strategies is explored as well as how to ensure the strategies are successfully implemented.
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| Key Elements of the Strategic Thinking Consulting Process |
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Understanding the Voice of the Customer
- We start with a review of the voice of the customer process. This includes determining customer satisfaction levels by reviewing previously collected information (if it exists), informal customer feedback and/or formal customer feedback. If there is little customer feedback then we determine which data collection method to use including email or web-based surveys, telephone interviews, focus groups, observation and prototyping. If there is a large customer data based then we determine what customer sample size to ensure the "right" number of customers is included.
Employee Involvement
- Success in the execution of the strategies is very dependent upon the buy-in and acceptance of the employees. We ensure that the department gets employees involved in the development of innovation, strategy and operational effectiveness through feedback sessions before, during and after the strategic thinking process. Gaining employee understanding of how the work they perform links to the realization of the departmental strategies and the corporate strategic plan is critical to the successful implementation of the key strategies.
Benchmarking
- In order to bring into the department best practices we will engage the management team in an exploration of benchmarking. This will include ensuring that there is a clear understanding on how to benchmark against others to compare operational effectiveness. We will also review the difference between a competitive analysis and a benchmarking analysis. The inclusion and review of international quality awards is presented as another source of benchmarking.
Innovation
- The management team will then be taken through an innovation process in an effort to get them into the realm of creative thinking. This will ensure that they develop the best overall strategies, not just the obvious ones. The innovation process will guide the management team to create the ideal future, the plans needed to achieve them, the wisdom to see them through, and the team to develop them.
The Strategic Opportunities
- A review of the organizational strategic plan will help the management team understand how to link their planning and strategy development with the corporate vision. Management will gain an understanding on how the strategic thinking model will enable these leaders to cascade the corporate plan throughout their departments to ensure success in the realization of the strategic imperatives they're developing.
Operational Effectiveness
- The management will now be ready to develop an operational effectiveness plan which will ensure that their strategic plan is cascaded through their department. There will be discussions on how to ensure the involvement of all employees in the process. As well, measurements will be defined and established to ensure success. These will become the measurable standards against which to benchmark the successful implementation of the strategic thinking process.
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