Firstly, together with the Management board we agree on the broad strategic directions before we are going to put a lot of effort in the articulation and translation of strategic initiatives. A solid strategic direction articulates agreement on the 3 to 5 top imperatives for the organization for the coming 3-5 years.
When required we firstly evaluate the existing mission, vision and core values.
One of the main issues of strategy development is that the organization's abilities do not match with the ambition level, often resulting in disappointment and disengagement. Hence, we also act as a sounding board to cross-check the feasibility, complexity, and sequence of chosen initiatives.
We ensure that there will be a broad support for the plan, reaching from the board to key middle management and other professional stakeholders as it makes little sense the present strategies that are either not understood or accepted.
We ensure there is a process in place that provides for regular feedback loops at all levels of the organization.
Production of a business plan can be a very tough and challenging journey and it requires years of experience to develop a business plan that makes sense and is being used as a leading vehicle for strategic program management, tactics, projects, and personal tasks.
To ensure that the business plan is produced within the available time frame and at the right quality level, a number of steps need to be completed before the actual job begins.
Inventory of possible Business plan chapters and topics, and available internal resources to cover them.
Agreement on the BP template and chapters.
Scoping and distribution of tasks and activities and allocation of time-frames.
Timing and planning of project team coordination and steering committee review sessions.
Planning and timing of sponsor -and stakeholder interviews.
Planning and methodology of knowledge transformation.