strategy & the will to execute
DESCRIPTION
Desribes the entire process STG uses to assist CEOs to craft, execute and sustain a strategic directionTRANSCRIPT
The Role of the Chief Executive Officer 4
About Strategic Thinking Group 4
Selected Clients 6
Strategy & The Will To Execute™ 8
The Driving Forces of Achievement 10
Program Overview 12
What You Will Accomplish 13
Individual STG Service Offerings 28Think! “What will we sell, to whom, and where?” 30Measure! “Telling the story of your strategy” 31Lead! “No excuses” Leadership 31Attack! “Winning market share by beating customers’ expectations” 31Defend! “Outhinking, outmaneuvering and outperforming your competitors” 32
Observe! “What in the world is happening around us?” 32
Our Strategy Practitioners 34
CONTENTS
3
DREAM. THINK. BECOME...
three powerful words that describe the management role of a Chief
Executive Officer (CEO), as he or she pursues the creation, growth, and
preservation of wealth for his or her organization. Management in this sense, as
someone once observed, “...is truly the most creative of all arts, since the medium
is human talent itself ”.
Creating an organization in which the people have both the ability and the
bounded freedom to dream, think, and become greater than they thought
possible, is the hallmark of true leadership. In order to create this type of
organization, a CEO must have a range of characteristics and skills that he is
able to bring to the organization.
First, he always considers the future as an important dimension of
management time. He frequently reminds his people to think about that
future and the role of the organization within it.
Second, since the future is less than certain, the CEO is able to
operate with less than perfect information. He relies, as Joel Barker
tells us, on intuition — the ability to make a decision in the absence of
complete information.
THE ROLE OF THE
Chief Executive Officer
future oriented
intuitiveabstract thinker
aims at long term survival & growth
sees the ‘big picture’
able to tell a story
4
James B. Haybyrne
Chairman & CEO
Strategic Thinking Group
Strategic Thinking Group is an
international group of leading strategy
practitioners who assist the Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) of an organization to
create a customer by crafting, executing and
sustaining their strategic direction. Our business
is based on the belief that those organizations
whose CEO and executives have the ability
to think and act as if they were in the future
– who think strategically – will always have a
competitive advantage. The Group’s strength
lies in our ability to work in partnership with
CEOs to instill in their organizations a system
of thinking strategically which can be applied in
the real world of competition.
The Group was founded in 1991. We are one
of the few professional services firms in the
world which guarantees client satisfaction with
our professional services or we will return our
professional fees.
STRATEGIC THINKING GROUPThird, as the CEO looks into the future he or she
is able to see the “Big Picture” without being confused
by the various parts of that picture. All the variables that
influence the organization’s strategy are considered and
seen in relationship and in proportion, one to the other.
Fourth, the CEO has a capability to understand
and incorporate abstract ideas such as the values or basic
beliefs that drive the organization. He has the character
and strength to ask his organization to internalize those
values and use them as a beacon in turbulent times.
Fifth, the CEO is able to take all of these concepts
about the future and create a clear picture and “story”
that all the people can understand. He or she is an
excellent communicator and spends considerable time
thinking about the creation of a positive reputation for
the organization.
Sixth, the CEO has a drive to preserve the
organization. Therefore, he is willing to sacrifice short-
term gain for long term survival and growth. At the end
of his tenure, there will be something of immense value
to be passed to future generations of management.
Those characteristics are the foundation principles
that support our program “Strategy & The Will
To Execute™”. I welcome you as a CEO or senior
executive to review our program and to judge how it can
apply, in whole or in part, to your organization. This
strategy focused program has been used throughout the
world with organizations who seek an answer to the
question “what will we become?”. And the answer to
that question must come from you and your executive
leadership team ... not from an outside strategy
consultant nor investment banker. The journey to answer
that question is never easy... but, then again, that is
why we need a Chief Executive Officer who can lead an
organization to Dream. Think. Become.
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SELECTED CLIENTS
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In the last analysis management is practice… its only authority is performance.
P E T E R F . D R U C K E R
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STRATEGY & THE WILL TO EXECUTE™ Henry David Thoreau, noted Western writer and thinker,
was not a strategist CEO but he understood, long before Nike, that the fundamental essence of life rests not simply
in dreams but rather in doing something about those dreams. In a word, execution. Just do it. As he wrote: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” 8
Our experiences as CEOs in business, have taught
us the value of the execution of ideas; that without
execution those ideas are merely unformed intentions
held in check by fear. While we always talk about
doing something, we are simultaneously afraid of doing
something. The author Sidney J. Harris, wrote: “Our
own dilemma is that we hate to change yet love it at the
same time; what we really want is for things to remain
the same but get better.”
But we all know that things never seem to get better
unless we are willing to change and we have the
discipline and optimism to change: to execute our ideas.
We are certain that most of our CEO colleagues will agree
that the purpose of the execution of a business strategy
is to create and retain customers. Without customers
there will never be the “beloved” shareholder value.
And yet CEOs realize that success does not come about
just by thinking and talking about the changing needs
of customers. Rather success comes from the ability to
successfully execute the strategy and get things done
-- the ability to link strategy, leadership and performance
-- the three essential elements of strategy execution.
But success often eludes us. We struggle to communicate
our strategy and so often lack the discipline to prioritize
our efforts. Oftentimes our mindset or culture allows us
to drift away from achievement, fearing its demands. We
always have an excuse why we didn’t execute our dreams.
Over the years, we thought about the issue of strategy
execution and the difficulty people have in executing
their ideas. And as a result, we developed an approach
that we call Strategy & The Will To Execute™. It came
about simply because we found that too many people in
leadership positions had reasons or excuses as to why they
were never able to achieve their goals.
It’s no wonder that when Robert Kaplan of Harvard
business school studied strategy execution, he found the
following unsettling results:
95% of a typical workforce do not understand
their organization’s strategy.
85% of executives spend less than one hour per
month discussing strategy.
And a staggering 90% of organizations surveyed
failed to execute their strategy.
So why is it so difficult to execute and why all the
excuses? Two words come to mind: discipline and
optimism. The discipline side of business is simply the
ability of a senior executive team, the leaders of the
organization, to stay focused on the things that have the
greatest impact on the overall success of the organization,
to not lose interest as time goes by. The optimistic side of
business is the culture of the organization, a fundamental
belief that people can achieve what they have set out to
achieve. Without that sense of optimism it is difficult for
any organization to execute a strategy, even if they have
the discipline to do so.
Martin Seligman, a noted cognitive psychologist,
researched this dimension to organizational success.
In studies of achievement of individuals and
organizations he found that aptitude (I am able to do
it), coupled with motivation (I want to do it), does not
necessarily lead to sustainable success unless you have
the third dimension, optimism (I believe I will do it).
Individuals who scored lower in aptitude, yet very high
on optimism generally would outperform those with
higher aptitude but with less confidence in their own
ability to “make it happen”.
Furthermore, David McClellan in his landmark book,
“The Achieving Society”, found through research that
achievement oriented organizations are comprised
of achievement oriented individuals. And both the
organization and individuals within it followed 5 ideas or
principles of achievement:
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First, they had an extraordinary preoccupation
with excellence. Everything they did was driven by a
sense of being the best at what they did. No shortcuts.
Just excellence.
Second, they had a belief in cause and effect
thinking. They understood how their organization
worked and the relationship between individual
performance and organizational success. They made
decisions, not in isolation, but rather within a full
understanding of how their organization operated in
a business environment. They were able to “connect
the dots.”
Third, each individual believed that their effort
“counted” within the organization and they had the
control to set their own goals and possessed the ability to
achieve those goals.
Fourth, they were moderate risk takers. And
when they had taken that moderate risk and successfully
achieved their goals, they raised the bar higher, repeating
this process in a disciplined way that enabled them to
grow and sustain their business.
Fifth, they were always looking for feedback. Ed
Koch, former Mayor of New York would constantly ask
his fellow New Yorkers: “How am I doing?” And so
achievers had good performance measurement systems
both at the organizational level, such as the balanced
scorecard, and good, regularly reviewed individual
performance appraisal systems and culture measurements.
So when you review Robert Kaplan’s statistics and you
look at your own colleagues around the boardroom table
saying, “we have a strategy”, remember, that is only
part of the game. Ask yourself whether you have the
discipline and the optimism to seize the moment. If you
don’t, your great strategy may simply be the beginning
of a long rut. And a rut, as Alan Lampkin reminds us, is
simply a grave with no ends.
THE DRIVING FORCES OF
Achievement
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A pre-occupation with success
A belief in cause & effect
thinking
A belief that “My” effort counts and
I can set my own goals
A moderate level of risk taking
A desire for feedback
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5
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1. Crafting The Strategy 16
2. Capturing The Strategy 17
3. Measuring The Strategy 18
4. Assessing The Will To Execute 19
5. Organizing Strategy Execution 20
6. Leading Strategy Execution 21
7. Communicating The Strategy 22
8. Developing The Will To Execute 23
9. Cascading The Strategy 24
10. Tracking Execution 25
Lessons Learned 26
Time Chart 27
STRATEGY & THE WILL TO EXECUTE™ PROGRAM OVERVIEW
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WHAT YOU WILL ACCOMPLISH
A clear strategy to create and serve a customer in order to
make money
A Strategic Scorekeeping System to assist you in
managing the execution of the strategy
A constructive culture and the application of leadership
skills which empower people to deliver the results demanded by the strategy
Clear operational battle plans that focus your team’s energies on launching or relaunching
the products and services critical to the success your
strategy
Analysis of competitors’ moves in the market place and plans to counter attack
A strategic intelligence system in place that allows
you to monitor change
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If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.
Now put the foundations under them.T H O R E A U
ST R AT E G I C CA PA B I L I T I E S S U P P O RT CA PA B I L I T I E S AT TAC K CA PA B I L I T I E S F U T U R E PO S I T I O N S
COPYRIGHT © JAMES B. HAYBYRNE
ECONOMIC BATTLEFIELD
CRAFTING THE STRATEGY
We will craft the strategy and identify strategic offensive and defensive positions.
1
Strategic thinking principles and
techniques to craft an agreed strategy
Agree the strategic assessment pre-work
to be completed by participants
Create a clear future strategic end
position for the business: products/
services, customers, markets
Identify critical issues and clear
future priorities
Decide strategic offensive and
defensive positions
Plan Battles of the Strong and Battles
of the Weak to execute strategy
S T A G E I
STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT
S T A G E I I
CRAFT YOUR STRATEGY
S T A G E I I I
STRATEGIC POSITIONS
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2CAPTURING THE STRATEGY
We will capture our strategy in a clear, well written “story” of what we will look like when we have achieved our strategic positions. This story will build a common understanding of what needs to be executed and the direction, investment, and development of all markets.
The CEO will be interviewed by our journalist, and/or your public relations
advisor, who will then write a newspaper article, as if it were the end of the
strategic timeframe when his or her organization has successfully completed
its journey.
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MEASURING THE STRATEGY
3
Using our proven methodologies, the executive
team will design a Balanced Scorecard which
measures the organization’s performance
from 4 critical perspectives. This links business
performance measurement to strategy, showing
cause/effect relationships and gives the leadership
team a navigational tool to assess their progress on the
battlefield as they execute their strategy.
We will define key metrics that we will use to ensure that we are successfully executing our strategy.
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4ASSESSING THE WILL TO EXECUTE
Strategy execution cannot be successfully initiated unless it is
viewed as urgent, particularly by those at the top of the organization.
Sharing data with key internal stakeholders (top managers, the next
level of managers, and others who can directly impact the success of
strategy execution efforts) is important for a number of reasons:
It can enhance the breadth and clarity with which
execution problems are defined.
It can increase understanding of, support for,
and commitment to executing the strategy.
It also provides an opportunity to identify those
stakeholders who are willing to define
and lead strategy execution.
Do we have the will to execute? We will measure our desired culture and our current culture. We will analyze where are our biggest gaps, and how we will close them.
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ORGANIZING STRATEGY EXECUTION
Strategy execution can be achieved through improving existing structures,
systems, processes, behaviors, skills or conditions or by making fundamental
changes to the organization. Predetermination of how strategy execution will
be conducted and managed enables those responsible for the change process
to consider and obtain necessary resources and commitments.
5
We will select and bring together a coalition of key people, which includes our executive leadership team, who have great influence over key parts and levels of our organization. They will guide the execution of our strategy and we will give them the tools and authority to get on with the job.
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LEADING STRATEGY EXECUTION
6
Leadership impacts culture. Effective modeling is essential to building
trust and credibility, but requires that leaders have the courage to first
make changes in their own behavior that will communicate their personal
commitment to the strategy. Therefore, the current leadership impact on
the culture or mindset of the organization will be assessed. A debrief of the
leadership assessment results will be conducted for the executive team, from
which they will understand their leadership styles, and how others perceive
them in terms of these styles. These assessments improve professional
effectiveness in the areas of task accomplishment and relations with others:
two key dimensions of successful leaders.
We will assess, debrief and develop our new leadership skills at the senior executive level to execute our strategy.
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7COMMUNICATING THE STRATEGY We will develop and execute a communication plan which will ensure that key stakeholders understand our strategy as evidenced by the successful execution of priority issues.
One of the main purposes of communicating the strategy is to build widespread
understanding and support. In turn, building a consensus requires encouraging
feedback on the strategy. While some of the feedback may be negative
and suggest modifications, a revised strategy, accepted by a majority of the
organization’s members, will be more effective in producing desired changes than
one that is not supported.
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8DEVELOPING THE WILL TO EXECUTE
This stage of the program focuses on organizational change
as to better allow the efficient execution of the organization’s
strategy. The highly interactive 2 day program identifies
what factors drive the organization towards, or hold it back
from executing the strategy. The customized program aims
to promote and enhance forces that allow the strategy to be
executed in the most effective and efficient way, and decrease
detrimental forces, by creating a constructive culture.
The Cycle Of Success- Developing The Will To Execute: We will define and improve our group and individual thinking styles in order to better execute our strategy.
Which leads to more self confidence and higher
goal setting
A belief that I control my destiny
Leads to positive “self talk”
Leads to positive self image
Positive self imageleads to high levels of goal
settingCreating a sense of urgency to “solve”
how to achieve goals
Which leads to high levels achievement
Which leads to positive feedback
C YC L E O F S U CC E S S
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CASCADING THE STRATEGY
9
We will choose people based on defined selection criteria to become strategy
execution facilitators. They will undergo the 3-5 day STG program where
they will be coached on how to teach the Cycle of Success. They will
develop an organizational plan to roll out the strategy under the direction
of the coalition of key people. These strategy execution facilitators will
monitor the progress of the Cycle of Success program by holding quarterly
review sessions.
We will then cascade the Cycle of Success by developing strategy execution facilitators to guide the roll out of the strategy.
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10TRACKING EXECUTION
Monitoring the strategy execution and encouraging feedback provides the
basis for refining goals, strategies, and timetables. Feedback can also indicate
which unit-level strategies should be institutionalized and what additional
changes are needed for execution to be successful at the organizational level.
Feedback on the execution process will almost always suggest modifications or
refinements to the process or to the major themes or initiatives of the strategy.
Continually monitoring the progress made during the execution process
makes it possible to identify, recognize, and reward success.
In turn, visible recognition and rewards reinforce the strategy, communicate
quick wins, and help to build and maintain momentum.
We will have regular ‘Meetings of the Mind’ to track progress to plan, making the necessary changes to improve performance and transfer that knowledge to every level.
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LESSONS LEARNED
The execution of the strategy will be evaluated to ascertain whether it
produced the desired results and to document the lessons learned. The
things that the organization did right, as well as the things that could have
been done better, should be identified and documented to guide future
learning and adaptation.
Mechanisms will be established to maintain the gains realized from the
organizational change processes and to promote future learning and
adaptation. This puts the organization in a better position to successfully
meet the demands of its external environment. Since most external
environments change continually, so must organizations be able to continue
to change.
Based on the lessons learned, mechanisms should be established to
ensure that the organization continues to be responsive to changes in the
environment.
Has everything happened that we wanted to happen? What did we learn? How will we apply those lessons to our next phase of improving performance?
NOW THE JOURNEY BEGINS AGAIN...
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TIME CHART
STEPS DATE COMPLETE D
1 We will craft the strategy and identify strategic offensive and defensive positions. MONTHS 1-3
2We will capture our strategy in a clear, well written “story” of what we will look like when we have achieved our strategic positions. This story will build a common understanding of what needs to be executed and the direction, investment, and development of all markets.
MONTH 3
3 We will define key metrics that we will use to ensure that we are successfully executing our strategy. MONTH 4
4 Do we have the will to execute? We will measure our desired culture and our current culture. We will analyze where are our biggest gaps, and how we will close them.
MONTH 5
5We will select and bring together a coalition of key people, which includes our executive leadership team, who have great influence over key parts and levels of our organization. They will guide the execution of our strategy and we will give them the tools and authority to get on with the job.
MONTH 6
6 We will assess, debrief and develop our new leadership skills at the senior executive level to execute our strategy. MONTH 7
7 We will develop and execute a communication plan which will ensure that key stakeholders understand our strategy as evidenced by the successful execution of priority issues.
MONTH 8
8 The Cycle Of Success - Developing The Will To Execute: We will define and improve our group and individual thinking styles in order to better execute our strategy.
MONTH 10
9 We will then cascade the Cycle of Success by developing strategy execution facilitators to guide the roll out of the strategy. MONTH 12
10 We will have regular ‘Meetings of the Mind’ to track progress to plan, making the necessary changes to improve performance and transfer that knowledge to every level.
QUARTERLY FROM MONTH 6
Has everything happened that we wanted to happen? What did we learn? How will we apply those lessons to our next phase of improving performance?
MONTH 24
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INDIVIDUAL STG SERVICE OFFERINGS
We recognize that not all clients need our full “Strategy &
The Will to Execute™.” For example, you may already have
completed some key points of the journey to strategy execution
or you may wish to focus on a particular area. We can help.
Our services have been designed to be stand alone as well as be
a part of the whole Strategy & The Will to Execute™ program.
Please refer to the following individual programs for which we
will provide details including how the programs are organized
and conducted.
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COPYRIGHT © JAMES B. HAYBYRNE
7 STEPS TO A SUCCESSFULLY EXECUTED STRATEGY
CraftThink!Strategy Development ProcessBENEFIT TO YOUR BUSINESS:a competitive advantage!Strategic Thinking Group’s Strategy Development
Process empowers your company with a sustainable
strategy supported by “battlefield” operating principles to
execute the strategy. We provide the thinking roadmap,
you make the journey. Our strategic thinking process will
allow your company to:
Develop a clear strategy to create a customer
Achieve strategic positions: market share,
revenue, profitability
Execute critical organizational changes
Assign accountability for results
Obtain commitment for execution
Speak a common language about your
future business
®
“What will we sell,to whom, and where?”
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ExecuteMeasure!The Balanced ScorecardBENEFIT TO YOUR BUSINESS:a focus on future revenue!
You focus on creating value for your shareholders by
knowing how to create value for your customers
Your employees understand your strategy
You are able to identify sources of future revenues
Links strategy to tactics
Acts as the measurable basis for building and
leading a performance-based culture
Lead!“No Excuses!” LeadershipBENEFIT TO YOUR BUSINESS:your strategy executed by ordinary people achieving extraordinary results!
LEADERSHIP
Leadership styles are assessed
Leadership skills developed aimed at improving
individual and group leadership effectiveness
CULTURE
Your organization’s current culture and its readiness
to execute strategy is assessed and analyzed
The vision of your organization’s desired culture
(what it wants to be) is compared to the current
culture (what it is).
The levers for cultural change are identified
(structure, systems, technologies, skills)
Action plans are developed to manage the changes to
a more performance-based culture.
Attack!Product LaunchBENEFIT TO YOUR BUSINESS:a loyal customer!
Clarify product positioning
Define the market
Formulate a marketing strategy
Conduct competitor analysis
Execute development
Building operations/production plan
Perform financial projections
“Winning market share by beating customers’ expectations”
“Telling the story of your strategy”
“No excuses! Executing your strategy through a performance-based culture” 31
Defend!Competitor InsightBENEFIT YOUR BUSINESS:a surprised competitor!Protect your key product/customer/markets
by anticipating a competitor’s attack.
Prevent competitors from:
Stealing your customers!
Blocking your entry into new markets!
Surprising you with new
products/ideas!
Changing the rules of the game!
“Outthinking, outmaneuvering and outperforming your competitors”
“What in the world is happening around us?”
Observe!Strategic IntelligenceBENEFIT TO YOUR BUSINESS:an ability to anticipate the future!
Create a strategic intelligence system which
constantly monitors the world around you to track
changes which may affect your strategy.
Improve your ability to manage your response to
inevitable change
Identify threats and opportunities
Avoid surprises from the outside world
Gain competitive advantage by decreasing your
reaction time to events
Better understand your own company in relation
to changing competitive and industry forces and
industry forces
Sustain
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It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the
doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does
actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know
neither victory nor defeat.
T H E O D O R E R O O S E V E L T
2 3 J U N E 1 9 1 0
Which produces results
OUR STRATEGY PRACTITIONERS
Using a process that is a catalyst for enormous change
OUR DIRECTORS ARE:
Trusted Senior Advisors with formidable business experience
who assist CEOs to develop and execute a strategic direction
OUR DIRECTORS PROVIDE:Relationship-based
TrustworthyConsistent and confidential
strategic counsel
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