SSI™: Strategy – Systems - Implementation

SSI™: Strategy – Systems - Implementation

How to boost your company’s growth

Overview • In the following slides, we’ll show why: • A company needs a clear strategy, • Systems to implement that strategy

• Without close coordination between these three elements, there will be friction, and that leads to lost profits

Strategy

Systems

Implementation

Oct-14

© Growth Options Consulting

2

Why does a company need a clear strategy? • Whether going for a walk or running a company, if you don’t know where you’re going, then you’ll drift aimlessly • You need to set objectives, a “destination” you want your company to reach, e.g.: • Sales of £50m within 5 years, • and/or Return on Sales of 15% within 3 years

• You then need to determine a “path”, measures to achieve your objective; this is your strategy: • In walking, it may be “go west 5 miles, then travel 2 miles due north”, • In business, it may be “produce innovative products that customers love more than the competition’s”, or “drive costs down in order to undercut competitors on price”

Oct-14

© Growth Options Consulting

3

How do you devise a strategy? • First, assess your company: what resources does it have, what expertise, what culture? How does this affect what it can and can’t do? • Then understand your customers: why do they buy from you? What need is your product / service fulfilling? • You must understand your competition: are they taking share from you, and why? • Finally, how does the wider business environment, e.g. regulations, technical developments, changing social attitudes affect your company? • Once you have this information, it’s easier to plan a “path”, a strategy, to achieve your objectives given the threats and opportunities above

Oct-14

© Growth Options Consulting

4

Why do you need systems to implement strategy? • Systems convert your strategy into tactics, e.g. to “produce innovative products” the company needs to: • Allocate an R&D budget • Decide how to spend it (e.g. by crowdsourcing ideas from customers)

• Systems help you to measure your progress, like a milestone on a walk, and warn of deviations • Systems alert you to changes in the wider business environment, e.g. by monitoring new products from competitors, or new government legislation • All this helps you to establish whether your strategy is working, and if not, gives you the opportunity to adjust it

Oct-14

© Growth Options Consulting

5

Strategy and Systems improve implementation • Implementing strategy is hard; less than 10% of companies’ strategic plans are carried out effectively (source: HBR, Oct.2014) • The business environment is a dynamic one with an everfaster rate of change, therefore strategies need to be monitored and adjusted over time • In many cases, management fails to put systems in place that allow it to see whether the strategy is on-track to deliver its objectives • Consequently, when the strategy is not progressing as it should, the necessary corrective action (caused, for example, by the emergence of a new competitor) is not taken

Oct-14

© Growth Options Consulting

6

We have worked with over a hundred highgrowth companies to help them boost their growth

Simon Robbins, Managing Director

Did you know that you could qualify for government support to help review your growth strategy? Contact us for more details

Email: [email protected]

Oct-14

Phone: 020 3397 7901

Web: www.growthoptions.co.uk

© Growth Options Consulting

7