“The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew” (Robert Burns, “To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough”, 1785) If poet Robert Burns were a CEO in today’s operating environment, we expect he’d use that line…often. In fact, is there a better way to manage expectations for a strategic plan with leaders …
Too often a gap occurs between formulating and executing strategy. In a disrupted environment this can be a fatal error driving unwanted costs, lost opportunities and, ultimately, failure to execute. And when failure at execution occurs, the losses are significant regardless of sector. According to the 2017 PMI Pulse of the Profession report, which surveyed 3,234 professionals globally researchers, in …
We all know the routine. A leadership team comes together to formulate strategy, then armed with the best of intentions, assign business unit and functional teams to execute the initiatives they’ve chosen. Mission accomplished! Not so fast, often a gap between understanding and performance is experienced by those charged with implementing the initiatives flowing from the strategy. This gap invariably …
Dubai was such a great experience for LBL last May that we had to go back! This time we sent our President, Randall Rollinson, to train a new batch of strategy professionals. Equipped with our new and improved Mastering Strategy Boot Camp program, Randall and 16 professionals from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Uganda spent five days learning together …
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a popular topic in the realm of business. From predicting IT failures to which new song will become a hit, AI presents many exciting opportunities. This begs the question: how is AI affecting the most critical element of any business — its strategy? MIT Sloan Management Review recently partnered with The Boston Consulting Group to …
At Agile Strategies, we apply the lessons of both Agile software development and organizational learning to the whole enterprise, particularly the process of formulating and deploying strategy. Here are the guiding principles we work with: #1: Sense and respond An agile organization senses and responds to disruption and opportunity in real time. This is the only way to address the high levels of …
As a chief strategy officer or someone involved in business performance management, you know firsthand the struggles associated with getting your team (or more broadly, your organization) to execute on strategy. There are so many obstacles to overcome, including those associated with using Excel or PowerPoint as your performance management system. Fortunately, there is a way to save a tremendous …
We use the term “strategic management” often, but what exactly does it mean? To some, it might seem obvious, but the reality is that the term has a lot underneath the surface that is worth unpacking. To understand what strategic management is from a base level, let’s turn to our friends at the Association of Strategic Planning (ASP) who define …
Gene Kranz helped build NASA from the ground up in the late 1950s, developed the space program through Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, and he was the flight director for missions including Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. He’s the guy that ran mission control, one of the key players in achieving the goal of “landing a man on the moon and …
Strategic planning is all about the unknown. What will my business look like in six months? What will happen if I make this decision? How can I improve as a strategic planner? The list of questions is endless, but fortunately, there have been many individuals to go before you who can provide answers. It’s rare to find yourself in a …
