THE PROBLEM

For many executives, their experience with strategic planning has been unfulfilling if not downright frustrating. Their frustrations include

    - Lots of discussion on “big things” but we never really got down to practical, actionable strategies for our organization;
    - Retained some high-powered (and expensive!) consultants, who came in and “told us” what our strategy should be
    – but missed the essence of who we are; - Incredibly drawn out and time-consuming; and/or
    - In hindsight, we ended up running a team-building session that sacrificed content on the altar of
      having a “feel good” session.

At the end of the strategic planning exercise, they all end up with a report/document that sits on a shelf somewhere, and a prevailing sentiment amongst the senior team that “thank goodness that’s over for another year or two...”

THE RESPONSE

Clearly, the objective of this exercise is to produce a compelling strategy – one that also has the commitment and buy-in from everyone on your team. Hence, to be effective your consultant must bring both process and content capability to your strategy table.

On the process side, I know that my clients are the experts on their industry and company. My job is to use my facilitation skills and simple yet powerful strategy tools to engage your entire team and bring out your best strategic thinking.

At the same time, having run my own businesses, I have some real experience that helps me listen to your content. I can recognize superficial and/or “conventional wisdom” thinking when I hear it, and I won’t let it slide by. I will challenge you to address the elephants in the room and/or dive deep enough to discover submerged hippopotami!