Whether it is the corporate strategy process or the one for the business unit, there are some areas, where many companies set themselves up to already fail on execution even before the operational plan is initiated. While most will do a good job of analysing their environment and outlining a clear strategy, they will often miss critical process steps which will create a gap between the strategic intent and the final plan, these include.
- A formal step to identify, align, and debate the key issues. In mid to large organisations this should be conducted with senior managers as a pre-requisite to the business plan.
- Going deep to determine and test the assumptions (ideally linked to the lead measures) that ladder up to budget commitments.
- Value Proposition/messaging is tested for resonance with the customer segment.
- The targeted customer segment is
- Well-defined so is easy to identify.
- It is actionable i.e., there are channels which can be used to effectively reach them
- That it is of sufficient size to hit the forecasts
- The target segment has a need for the benefit for the product or service
- The value proposition has meaningful differentiation versus the competition
Finally, and critically in mid to large-sized companies time is invested to communicate the Strategy to all employees and gain buy-in. One effective idea, used by Bill McDermott while transforming SAP, is that all heads of function should be accountable for verbally and without notes articulating the strategy and customer segment that is being targeted to their teams.
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