Decisions must be driven by information, experiences, data - covering as wide a range of inputs as possible. Collection of this is called "research".
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.
Be sure to watch the overview of all 6 steps here.
Presented by Kut Akdogan, Partner at Gaussian Holdings.
Click here for the next video in this series.
A good strategy is an informed strategy. That's why the second step of a strategy planning process is research and diagnosis. For a strategy to be holistic, research and diagnosis must cast the net wide, covering internal strengths and weaknesses, for instance, from customer insights or organizational maturity assessments, and external trends, opportunities and threats. For instance, from competitive research, market reports or expert calls.
The purpose of research is to help identify ideas for new strategic opportunities and to understand how big or feasible they may be. For instance, if competitors have expanded to China and seen China sales make up 20% of their business, an idea for your organization is to do the same.
During this phase of strategy planning, leadership will both collect the insights and research conducted since the last strategy planning session and request any new research and diagnosis necessary. Research may be happening continuously (for instance, if there is a dedicated strategy or research function) or may happen solely during the strategy planning process. Research and diagnosis are critical to a good strategy.
In our next video, we'll look at the third step of strategy planning: Ideation.
For more resources or services for conducting continual high impact, low burden strategic research at your organization, contact us here or shoot us a note by email or on LinkedIn.
Many companies work with us to achieve the best practices and outcomes mentioned in this article. Our services focus on clients' most pressing opportunities and challenges, no matter the industry.
