Latest "Strategic Planning" Posts
When looking at a resume, what do you find most significant?
In this series, we have polled HR experts in various fields to help determine what the Growth Strategies are in getting the right people for your organization. To see posts #1 and #2, go to www.corporatestrategy.com and click on blogs. Part #1 covered the question of the candidates technical fit for the job, part #2 covered the candidates cultural fit for the organization. In this, the 3rd part, we are asking the question: When looking at a resume, what do you find most significant?
Posted in Governance, Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on July 29, 2013.
Tags: growth, strategic planning
In the first post of this series, we answered the question what do you ask a prospective employee to determine if their technical expertise is a match for your organization? Go to our last blog to see the post on this question.
This week, the experts are responding to the question: What do you ask a prospective employee to determine if they will be a good fit into your organization’s culture? Since my expertise is in business development, increasing the value of a company and the corporate strategic planning side of a company’s growth strategy, I reached out to three experts to have them weigh in on the question.
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on July 18, 2013.
A dear friend and prominent lawyer brought today’s topic series to my attention. He says one of the keys to the success of his firm is getting the right mix of people. Over his career, he has seen many firms implode because the struggle to find and retain the right mix of personalities could not be overcome. Having a great corporate strategy, a written and well thought out strategic plan but the wrong mix of people will not get the best results. With over 20 years in the corporate consulting world, I can certainly attest that having the right mix of people will get better outcomes in almost every parameter you care to use. The corporate strategy, the strategic plan and the right mix of people are important to achieving the very highest outcome. I can’t name a single company that has employees that doesn’t struggle with the mix-of-people issue once in a while.
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on July 10, 2013.
Tags: corporate growth, corporate strategy, growth, organizational strategy, strategic planning, strategy, talent
By Dr. Sarah Layton
Step One – Get Healthy
Many companies that try to grow are not ready to handle the increased business. When we talk about growth, we are talking about significant growth, not just incremental growth. To handle significant growth, an organization needs to be operationally fit. We get organizations operationally fit through our Value Enhancement Audit Diagnostic. This is an intense evaluation of an organization’s operations that delves into up to 15 areas and calculates up to 120 ratios. We look at the organization from a growth standpoint, which is very different than the way your auditors and other consultants look at the finances. We do not replace, but work with your other professionals such as attorneys, CPA’s and consultants. These ratios, combined with the results of in-depth quantitative interviews and expert analysis results in an evaluation that identifies where your organization is weak and what exactly it is costing you. It then makes recommendations to correct these weaknesses and shows what it will save you in revenue and earnings.
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on May 21, 2013.
McKinsey Quarterly has an interesting article on the hidden flaws of corporate strategy. Here are the best reasons I have seen for why good executives support bad strategies. There are seven basic reasons. The authors relate these to a function of how our brains are wired. To read the complete article you can find it at the link below.
Flaw #1: Overconfidence. In our abilities; in our ability to make accurate estimates and other areas. To counter this overconfidence, test strategies under wider range of scenarios; add 20 – 25% to the most pessimistic scenario; and build more flexibility and options in to the corporate strategy.
Posted in Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on August 8, 2012.
Recently I was asked to comment on the question: Who is or should be responsible for Strategic Planning? Several people responded. Here is my response:
Of course I agree that the CEO is the ultimate decider of the final strategic plan. Strategy is the CEOs primary job and also one of the key areas of attention for the Board. While I agree with the philosophy of the other respondents, I don’t believe the responses take the issue of “who” to a deep enough level.
Posted in Governance, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on November 11, 2011.
Here is a good idea of Blue Ocean Strategy and how it can help. Look at our latest video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NkJjM9-bb8
Permanent link to this post (21 words, estimated 5 secs reading time)
Posted in Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on September 13, 2010.
OK, so now you have created your PMS map and are realizing most of your products are in a great big bloody Red Ocean where you are constantly fighting off the competition in a shrinking pool of revenue and profit. You have created your strategy canvas, and have tested the competitive factors so you know just what factors the market makes decisions. Now what?
Well, this is the fun part. Looking at your strategy canvas and the competitive factors, there are four things you can do with competitive factors. You can eliminate them, reduce your investment or level of offering in them, raise your investment or level of offering in them, or create new ones. It is these actions or strategic moves taken by the CEO that helps to formulate the new blue ocean strategy.
Posted in Blue Ocean Strategy, Growth, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on June 24, 2009.
Note: A few days ago I attended the ASTD conference in Washington, DC specifically to hear the keynote address given by Renee Mauborgne. Rene is co-researcher and co-author for the best selling book Blue Ocean Strategy: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant.
According to Tim Hill, President, Blackboard Learn Professional Education, Blackboard Inc, the training and development industry is a splintered industry with a lot of competition. “Very red”, he says, when putting it in the context of Blue Ocean Red Ocean terminology, where blue oceans are new market spaces with no competition, and red oceans are the current market spaces where all the competitors compete.
Posted in Blue Ocean Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on June 17, 2009.
Over the years, Corporate Strategy Institute has conducted regular CEO research to help us keep abreast of the major issues affecting our clients. It has never ceased to amaze us how many CEOs and Boards of Directors keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
Many CEOs and Boards do not know when to create a new strategy. Maybe asking yourself some critical questions will help. Answer the following questions True or False:
1. Is the growth on the top line insufficient with no reversal in sight?
2. Are your costs greater than the return on the investment?
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on October 13, 2008.
