Use these simple resources to help your team level-up your strategy planning, innovation processes, and profitability.
At Gaussian, across our clients, subsidiaries and portfolios, we get asked a lot of questions about strategy, growth, org structure, innovation, profitability, financing, and more, such as "How does a strategy tie to the major goals of an organization?" or "Is strategy planning applicable to small businesses?". See what the Gaussian experts say.
A new, weekly series of videos about strategy best practices and how to quickly start and structure your organization's strategy planning process.
It's often hard to know how effective a strategy is until years later. In this video, we give an overview of the key elements of "good strategy", focusing on 3 categories: being outcome-oriented, being holistic, and being buy-in driven.
Strategy planning is often vaguely defined and even more vaguely followed. In this video, we'll explore the 6 steps for strategy planning that organizations must follow, implicitly or explicitly.
In this video, we explore the first step in successful Strategy Planning: defining outcomes. These outcomes are why we do "strategy" in the first place. Outcomes must match the needs of shareholders, owners and/or the board, and must adhere not to a strict timeline, but a rough time horizon.
In this video, we explore the second step in successful Strategy Planning: research and diagnosis. This research must cover opportunities and challenges both internal and external to the organization. A simplistic example is a "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats" analysis - aka SWOT.
In this video, we explore the third step in successful Strategy Planning: ideating strategic opportunities. Ideation must be separated from prioritization or selection of opportunities. The ideation step is creative and unrestrained - the purpose is to cast the net wide and uncover potential ways to achieve the Outcomes.
In this video, we explore the fourth step in successful Strategy Planning: prioritizing ideas for strategic opportunities. Each idea should be scored, for instance by Impact versus Feasibility, to give a sense of which ideas are the highest return-on-investment.
In this video, we explore the fifth step in successful Strategy Planning: vetting and approving the prioritized strategy. Buy-in is critical for an effective strategic plan. A Strategic Statement can help provide a succinct soundbite for getting buy-in and approval.
Often, strategy plans are intellectual exercises. In this video, we explore the final step in successful Strategy Planning: accountable execution.
Continual internal discovery is key to a strong strategy planning process, and executive feedback about the maturity of the organization is a critical internal signal.
Fill out these quick questions to get a maturity assessment from Gaussian Consulting, along with a simple recommendation. Executives, founders, and other leaders use this tool to assess their organization's maturity at a high-level.
Our services focus on clients' most pressing opportunities and challenges, no matter the industry, spanning both strategy and technology consulting.
Gaussian clients have accelerated significantly in their growth strategy, new products, accountability, and nimble experimentation—embodying the principles of "profitable innovation."
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