Geoff R. Smith

This is the quintessential strategy problem. Where am I now? Where do I want to get to? In order to get there: What resources do I have in house? What resources do I need to acquire? Of the resources that I need to acquire, how will I acquire them? - through hiring? - through M&A? - through partnerships? - through outsourcing? Until you've figured out your strategy, you can't address how to allocate resources. One factor that might be helpful in making the allocation is to assess whether your resource needs are proprietary to you. It may not be wise to share your secret formula with someone outside your organization.

I will usually start with a Google search of the company. This will capture the website, news, and reviews of the company. On the website, I will focus on the leadership team, the mission, value, and vision of the business. These are the foundational documents that drive corporate strategy. If the company is public, I read the latest 10-K and 10-Q's. They discuss strategy, competitive environment, risks, acquisitions, and significant events. After thoroughly investigating the company, I research the industry - competitors, market trends, adjacencies, etc. These are all externally facing pieces of information. It's important to listen to the leadership team because how it is applied may be different than how it is written.

The solution depends on the situation. If the client has a structure and tools that the team is comfortable with, it makes sense to continue to use that tool. I've done strategy with teams that have a specified format for presentation to the parent company. In these situations, I use the tools that the team has in place (often Powerpoint). If the client does not have an engrained structure, I would choose the collaboration tools depending on the requirements of the team. If we were starting from scratch and had to gain consensus on multiple agenda items, I would use a collaboration tool like Mural to facilitate the conversation. If we were farther along the process, then using video conf. and sharing a document may be more efficient.

I've often been responsible for connecting leadership performance metrics with strategic goals. A strategic goal is not the responsibility of one person. Here is a really simple (and maybe cheesy) example of getting cross-functional engagement: In order to fund strategic growth, a business must manage their working capital. I put our collections targets across the top of my whiteboard and, whenever we reached our target, I drew a bottle of whisky. It didn't take long for the SLT to drop by my office to see what whisky I was getting that month. This did two things: 1. The team was invested in our success 2. It generated conversation about factors affecting cash flow 3. It demonstrated the impact of KPIs Keep it simple. Communicate often.

I think this may be semantics but, as a consultant, I don't develop a business strategy for my clients. That is a recipe for failure! I can facilitate the discussion with the client and guide them toward developing their own strategy. In order for the strategy to be successful, the client needs to own it. Having said that, I like Porter's 5 Forces to get a global view of the competitive environment. While I've used SWOT, I prefer to do a resources inventory. Out of that comes a discussion about how to acquire the missing resources (develop in-house, outsourcing, M&A). I like the Balanced Scorecard as an approach to tracking activities toward strategic goals.

An inventory of the firm's resources is important to a successful strategic plan. SWOT is not the only tool that can be used for performing this inventory, though it's the best known. A resources inventory will help you assess which resources you have in-house to achieve your long-term goals. An outcome of the strategic analysis should be an action plan to acquire the correct skills, processes, and intellectual property required to achieve the firm's goals.