How to Develop Your Strategy to Accelerate Business Results

In this guide, we’ll delve into three key areas: defining your strategy, executing it effectively, and ensuring it drives organizational structure and role clarity. From identifying decision-makers to developing long-term objectives and accountability plans, we’ll equip you with practical strategies to achieve your business goals over the next three years.

• A. Definition of Strategy: What will you do to achieve your agreed-upon 3-year ideal outcomes?
  (See Appendix l – SWOT Template and Appendix ll – Strategy Template)
• B. Definition of Strategy Execution: How will you achieve your agreed-upon 3-year ideal outcomes?
  (See Appendix lll – Execution Plan Template)
• C. Strategy Drives Structure and Role Clarity
  (See Appendix lV – CEO Accountability Plan)

A. How to Develop Your Strategy

1. Identify decision makers and clarify the decision-making process.
2. Involve the right people. Board, CEO, Leadership Team, High Potentials, Employees.
3. Complete a 3-year industry analysis. Buyers, Suppliers, Competition, Threat of Substitutes, Threat of New Entrants (Porter Analysis).
4. Complete a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis (SWOT) relative to your top 3 competitors. (See SWOT Analysis).
5. Develop your long-term vision.
6. Develop your company mission. What business are you in?
7. Develop your customer value proposition. Are you the Walmart, BMW or Apple of your industry?
8. Identify your 3-year ideal outcomes in all four areas of the balanced scorecard: financial, customers, operations, people. (see strategy template)
9. Develop strategies to achieve your 3-year ideal outcomes. Focus on what you will need to do to deliver results.
10. Identify the company values that will be required to execute your strategy.

B. How to Develop Your Strategy Execution Plan

1. Develop 1-year objectives.
2. For each objective, identify who is the lead person responsible and accountable for achieving the objective.
3. For each objective, identify who will be involved in achieving the objective.
4. Develop an execution plan for each strategy and set deadlines for each key milestone on the execution plan.
5. Review and update the execution plan on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for 2-year and 3-year objectives.

C. How to Ensure Strategy Drives Structure and Role Clarity

1. Based on the execution plan, each person on the senior leadership team must develop an accountability plan. See Sample CEO Accountability Plan below.
2. Hold a team meeting to review all accountability plans and to ensure everyone is set up for success with their stated accountabilities and interdependencies.
3. Develop an organization structure to accelerate strategy execution.
4. Meet weekly with each of your direct reports to coach, mentor and hold people accountable for results.

Adapted from the forthcoming book: The Talent Advantage by coauthors Dr. Alan Weiss and Dr. Nancy MacKay, published by Wiley.