Strategy Development

Building Organizations Ready for Unpredictable Futures

The Objective.

To build a clear, actionable strategy - grounded in current realities and flexible to a shifting environment.

To acknowledge the unknowable and lean into it. To suppress sunk-cost thinking and appreciate the opportunity cost of repeating old plans. To run scenarios that challenge assumptions about the organization and the environment in which it operates. To create a business model unencumbered by the past and blend it to the realities of the present. To build an optimal strategy that maximizes scarce resources.

And to complete the program knowing the team have sweated their combined minds to the fullest extent, welding together as a stronger unit during the process.

The Output.

The Strategy, with accompanying Initiative Guide.

Note: Not an operational plan or a financial plan (both often confused with strategy) - they follow later and should all be created in-house for maximum accuracy.

The core strategy covers the elements outline below, with the accompanying guide covering the priority initiatives necessary for the strategy’s execution.

The Flow.

  1. Qualitative interviews with key stakeholders - customers, employees, suppliers, investors/funders, executives, board members.

    • Focused on understanding the current state of the sector and the organization and underlying potential and risks.

  2. Quantitative digital feedback and ideation surveys.

    • Designed to break groupthink, providing anonymized, diverse assessments and assumption-challenging ideas.

  3. Offsite strategy retreat for 10-15 leaders (typically 1.5 days).

    • Combining scenario exercises, debates, and discussions to uncover potential alternative strategies, risks, and applied innovations.

  4. Strategy and Guide presented for executive and board final edit and approval.

    • Addressing each of the elements outlined below.

  5. Communication recommendations presented to leadership team.

    • Specific guidance on communicating the strategy to employees and external stakeholders.

The Elements.

Vision:

Mission:

The vision of the future that the organization is contributing to.

Not to be confused with mission. Most visions can’t be fulfilled by your organization alone.

The raison d’être, the purpose of the entity in contributing to the vision.

The attributes of the key customers against which products and services are designed, marketed, and delivered.

Key Customers:

  • The core range of products and services to be developed, marketed, and delivered.

  • Products and services to be withdrawn from the market to focus on new opportunities.

  • New product and service areas to be invested in.

  • The distribution channels to be exited, expanded, and invented.

Core Products & Services:

Organization Design:

The optimal design for the organization to meet the forward-looking mission, including:

  • A full review of “ideal state” of the organization if starting from scratch without legacy brand, technology, physical assets, people, and systems.

  • A gap analysis identifying steps and priorities to move from current state to ideal state.

Metrics and Goals:

Absolute clarity on the metrics of success.

Goals set appropriate to the mission, ranging from profitability and revenue growth, to customer ratings and social impact.

Organizational Culture:

The “how” of the organization’s delivery of the mission.

  • The symbols that will bind and the artifacts that will be reveered.

  • The rituals and behaviors that will be celebrated and those that will no longer be tolerated.

Key Initiatives:

Communications:

The key initiatives that will drive the execution of the strategy, ranging from organizational restructure, rebranding and marketing campaigns, to product development, or M&A.

The tone, distribution, and media through which the strategy will be communicated to internal and external stakeholders. How progress, changes and updates to the strategy will be communicated.

A Note on Envoy:

Our strengths lay in building trust and bringing out the best analysis and critical thinking of the client team. If you’re seeking a firm with particular industry, rather than discipline, expertise let us know and we’ll recommend great industry-specific firms.

For questions, comments or fee estimates, drop us a note.