Strategem

Strategic planning development & management service

 

Overview

 

Unfortunately, it is a common perception in the business world that strategic plans are often overhyped and glorified management tools that achieve little in the way of real results.

 

However, research has repeatedly shown that the organisations that consistently perform above and beyond their competitors have a meaningful strategic plan in place and foster an understanding of the business strategy throughout the entire organisation.

 

More importantly, over the lifetime of a strategic plan, both the organisation and the business conditions will change, and the businesses most able to respond and adapt to the changing circumstances are that survive and thrive, regardless of whether it is a bull or a bear market.

 

About Strategem

 

Strategem is one of our core strategic planning services and is a simple, yet powerful, strategic planning methodology designed to help your business:

 

  1. Develop a simple and effective strategic plan that can be readily communicated to your team
  2. Prioritise the resources of your business towards your business strategy appropriately
  3. Monitor and manage your performance against the strategic plan
  4. Incorporate learnings into the strategic plan
  5. Take decisive remedial action if business conditions change or strategic issues occur

 

Strategem is very easy to use and will assist you to focus your resources, increase performance, and realise the potential and value of your business. 

 

Key Benefits of Strategem

 

  • Simple and Easy to Use - No special skills or education required
  • Easy to Communicate - Create a unifying purpose for your organisation
  • Regular Strategem Reviews - Actively monitor the performance of your business against your strategic plan
  • Economical - Access strategic planning expertise without the overhead of dedicated resources 

 

Detailed Description

 

The Strategem methodology consists of two key activities:

 

  1.  Initial development of your strategic plan
  2.  Quarterly Strategem Reviews to monitor and manage your strategic plan

 

Strategem Process Figure 1: Strategem Process

 

The initial development of your strategic plan will usually involve the engagement and consultation with you and your team to tailor and develop a simple, yet powerful, strategic plan that will help to set the long term goals and direction for your business and be motivator and unifying purpose for your team.

 

The subsequent Strategem Reviews, which are usually sessions of 2-3 hours in duration once a quarter, provide an opportunity for you and your team to:

 

  1. Review progress and achievements to date
  2. Identify outstanding issues or potential risks
  3. Incorporate learnings back into strategic plan
  4. Benchmark and realign your strategy against any changes in the market environment
  5. Plan your priorities for the next quarter

 

The review and realignment of your progress against your strategic plan, as well as the market environment, is a crucial difference of the Strategem methodology versus traditional “Set and Forget” strategic plans. Due to the long term nature of strategic plans, it is inevitable that circumstances will change, and deviations will occur as a natural part of the process. Unfortunately, this means that, by the end of the strategic plan timeline, the actual results of the business may have deviated so far from the desired state, or the market may have shifted so significantly, that the final results are already outdated and irrelevant.

 

Strategem Comparison Figure 2: Strategem versus "Set and Forget" Comparison

 

A very public example of this is the case of Microsoft and its misreading of the potential and importance of the (then) immature Internet, and its subsequent overshadowing by Google. The subsequent loss of market and costs incurred by Microsoft since to try to regain a foothold highlights the incredible costs that can be associated with a failure in the basic planning of an organisation.

 

By incorporating the Strategem Reviews, we can help you and your team to realign your progress and strategy against changing environments, ensuring that your business is always responsive to the current business conditions, and the mechanisms are in place to allow you to manage your business no matter what the circumstances are.

 

Suitability

 

Businesses seeking long term planning and growth

 

Related Services

 

 

To find out more about how Strategem can help with your strategic planning needs, please contact us.