Drawing the future

There are a lot of organisations who offer strategy consulting or even sustainability strategy - so what can I offer you?

I have led strategy processes in 15 different industries and in over 20 countries, including global strategies for civil society networks, manufacturing and media organisations. There is always a lot riding on getting the right strategy and so there are many organisations who will sell you end-to-end strategy consulting packages.  I don’t disagree with their offer but there are risks with outsourcing too much.

I have learnt

1. The journey is the change: The main risk is that the right strategy only works if it has the right support and implementation.  The world is full of good ideas that have failed in delivery.  So, the strategy leader needs to bring ‘doers’ on the intellectual journey so that they own the strategy plan.   Time spent with the implementers in shared diagnosis and shared visioning will inspire and sustain a shared plan.
   

2. Keeping one eye on the big picture:  It is easy to get lost in the swamp of complex change including, what to do, where to go, how to deliver and effect the change. It is important for strategy leaders to keep pulling back to the big picture.  Step back, pause and take stock, then find the next question to lead out of the swamp.  Some degree of intellectual struggle is desirable for an implementation team to own their breakthroughs. 
   

3. Landing sustainability: Coming to terms with sustainability - by which I mean, materiality, innovation, consumer choices and behaviours, investment changes, policy and legislation change, competitors, and disruptions to supply chains - is no mean feat. Working out what will land, and the steps for getting there, requires years of experience.  I have been working at this interface for over two decades. I can bring this wealth of experience to support your strategic decisions.

There are lots of management tools in strategy work that are all useful, but it is easy to keep adding details and not really moving forward.  At its core, strategy is about answering three top level questions:

1 Where are we now?

2. Where do we want to be?

3. How do we get there?    

Keeping these three questions front of mind together with your senior leaders, and then using  strategy tools to help develop decent answers will deliver a robust strategy.

I do not offer end-to-end strategy process management.  I offer strategic advice to you and your senior leadership team as they go through their strategy process, specifically, keeping focused on the three questions, help with the diagnosis, the visioning, and offering an external perspective on the relevance of sustainability trends. 

One final thought, in either diagnosis, or visioning, never underestimate the power of a shared picture.  I have been fortunate to revisit former strategies, and the diagnosis or visioning picture we created is still there, many years later.  If you can draw it – you can usually build it. I will help you draw these pictures.