WHAT'S A STRATEGY ANYWAY?

We Want Strategies That Work.

The best strategies are directly linked to purpose. They deliver the endeavours and motivation of the entire business. They know precisely what they intend to achieve, how that should be done and why that matters.

You know you have a good strategy when:

• Everyone in the organisation is buzzed and fully invested in its success -you feel it in your gut and the hearts and minds of your people

• There is sufficient appreciation of what’s required for it to be realized - vision, mission, actions objectives - results.

• The teams are fully empowered - given the capacity and resource to do the work - there's a feeling of making and achieving

• You recognise (in close to real-time) when you are achieving the right results and the feedback is welcomed and adds value for improvement

• Your direction of travel feels right - you can see that's what's ahead is doable - your plan still feels distinctive and is on a trajectory that reflects the most significant developments of the day

CREATING THE RIGHT CONDITIONS

Great strategies are dependent on a few needs

You need a strong sense of identity as an organisation - one that everyone ‘gets’ and feels connected to.

You need your vision to come alive for everyone in the organisation - it has to be believed and that takes the right dialogue

You need to be sure you have the right capabilities for the work - skills and talent is the biggest discriminator between success and failure

You need to equip people for success and make it easy for them to contribute

You need to set clear targets and then measure the right things - results come from putting in the right effort

You need to be very aware of what is going on around you and make those dynamics work to your advantage.

You need to be able to respond appropriately to the inevitable changes and diversions

Helping teams respond is what drives us at Group Partners.

We know how much these things take to get right. We know the demands of an organisation and the consequences of failing in any one of these areas. We have seen so many great starts and good intentions fall by the wayside, or fail to maximise potential, because it simply wasn’t possible to sustain the energy for an endeavour.

STRATEGIC TRUTHS

They are truths because over time they’ve become increasingly hard to argue with:

• Sustained success requires the wholehearted commitment of those placed in leadership roles - to do whatever is required to deliver on the vision

• Working within departmental silos will inevitably lead to fragmented approaches - only by seeing and respecting the interconnections across a business can we hope to deliver coherent solutions

• Utilising the knowledge and expertise within the business - if done effectively - will deliver better outcomes than outsourcing the challenge to others

• The achievement of great outcomes requires continuous, sustained effort, there are no quick fixes for today’s complex challenges

• The nature of change in our world today calls for us to push our imagination and creativity to the limit

The result is our combination of structure, visualisation and critical thinking:

• Frameworks to drive focus, connect multiple dimensions and build context

• Powerful visual stimulus to stretch minds and encourage bold ideas

• High energy group discussions to share and combine multiple perspectives and create ownership

• Thoughtful use of data and information to increase awareness and unlock insight