STRATEGY FORMULATION AND TRANSFORMATION ARE CRITICAL TO SUSTAINED SUCCESS.
Success begins with a sound strategy. CGS assists leaders:
- Envision the disruptive potential of shifts in the environment.
- Formulate corporate, business, and functional strategies.
- Assess the organization’s current and needed capabilities to execute these strategies.
- Establish a transformation approach and plan.
- Accelerate the transformation journey by removing inertia.
WE HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE: CASE STUDIES & QUALIFICATIONS.
Strategy challenges can be found at all levels of an organization. Typically, CGS Advisors supports executives (i.e., CEOs, Chief Strategy Offices, etc.), business unit leaders (i.e., presidents, etc.), and functional leaders (i.e., vice presidents, directors, etc.) in solving problems and answering critical questions that are aligned to corporate, business, and functional level strategies. Some example engagements include:
Partnered with a CEO and members of the executive leadership team to develop a new strategic vision for the organization and to assess the organization’s capabilities, resources, and management preferences against the vision to identify alignment, gaps, and key strategic decisions.
Led a digital journey mapping program to identify key touchpoints, experiences, journeys, and personas that helped advise on the next steps for a customer-facing technology platform that was a key driver of the company’s digital strategy.
Worked with a Chief Strategy Officer to design and implement a formal strategy office and developed a strategy program to execute newly defined strategies and govern the execution activities.
Sparred with a regional president on current digital strategies aligned to the broader corporate strategy and supported the development of a new digital vision that would help the region stand out and position itself as a “test market” for new digital innovations inside of the company.
Led a rigorous corporate and business strategy formulation program through the development of an investment memo meant for executives and company boards that aimed to: define the core strategies, highlight key implementation activities, identify potential funding sources, and make a formal ask for resources needed to execute on the defined strategies.
OUR SERVICES SPAN ACROSS SEVERAL CRITICAL STRATEGY CAPABILITIES.
To support the maturity of strategy formulation and transformation activities inside organizations, CGS Advisors has developed a framework made up of several core strategy elements that assess an organization’s strategic capabilities and guide the activities of a formal strategy function. These elements have been identified and shaped through our collective experience working with clients and supporting the execution of the activities defined below. The “CGS strategy wheel”:
OUR SPECIALITIES – MATURING STRATEGY CAPABILITIES
When formulating corporate and business strategies, your company must understand the existence, magnitude, and impact of external market trends that may influence your success.
In addition to understanding the external market influences on your business, your company must also analyze the strategic capabilities required to support its strategy, including how differentiated your company is in the market and how you will deliver on your vision.
Strategy formulation is the process of creating a new strategy, or adjusting a legacy strategy, to reconcile tensions that exist between what the market says you “must do”, what you as an organization “can do” based on your resources and capabilities, and what your leadership team “wants to do”.
The purpose of the Strategic Transformation Concept is to utilize the set of recommendations formulated in the Strategy Formulation phase, that was created around the capabilities of your business, and begin outlining the steps it will take to implement the Strategic Transformation.
Once the strategy has been formulated and the key gaps assessed, your company is now ready to plan and execute its strategic transformation. This requires the development of a strategic transformation plan, resources matched to the plan to execute the defined actions, and consistent check-ins to ensure proper communication of the transformation and alignment between the new strategy and the transformation activities.
At CGS we believe there is a critical linkage between a company’s innovation capability and its ability to execute on strategy. Strategic innovation ensures that there is a consistent application of new and unique ideas that support the company’s future strategies and puts a structure in place to formulate, test, and launch new ideas that are aligned with the future strategy of an organization.
The purpose of Strategy Governance & Communication is to create processes and documentation that will facilitate maintaining and communicating a corporation’s well-thought-out strategy. Strategy Governance & Communication is extremely important, as it ensures focus on strategic goals when other priorities try to distract you.