Strategy Development Processes and Services

ATHENA CONSULTING’s Strategy Development Processes and Services are designed to help executives, senior teams, and/or leaders of key business functions develop strategies that will elevate the organization to a new level of proactive business planning and action. Through strategy working sessions or retreats, leaders are introduced to tools and processes that help them get highly focused on critical strategic targets and establish a common strategy framework and language. These active and focused sessions provide leaders with an opportunity to apply practical strategy skills and tools as they determine how to navigate strategic shifts and develop new sources of competitive advantage for the organization that have far-reaching implications.

Whatever situation your organization is in, ATHENA CONSULTING can work with you to address the specific strategy development needs and circumstances you have. Here are some examples of the types of situations we help our clients address using our strategy development processes and services:

• Full strategy formulation and development for organizations or functional areas in the early stage of their lifecycle.
• Refreshing and updating existing strategies with very mature organizations or functional areas.
• Developing or overhauling strategies for organizations or teams at a turning point or experiencing a disruption.
• Building customer-focused strategies.
• Creating product-focused strategies.

Our Approach

ATHENA CONSULTING has extensive experience in the strategy field. We regularly work with senior leadership teams to develop or improve strategy that will help them maintain their current competitive advantage, find new sources of competitive advantage, and sustain long-term growth.

Strategy does not need to be complicated, but it is important to discuss, debate, and create plans using a common framework. We always begin the strategy-development process with an assessment and thorough analysis of the organization so that we understand the client’s background and challenges, as well as the key factors that have led to their success to this point in time. This process also helps us discover the dominant thought patterns in the firm or functional areas and the assumptions people make about the following areas:

• The organization’s current direction
• The organization’s infrastructure
• The predominant point of view about the organization’s competitors and suppliers
• The level of risk and opportunities present in the external business environment
• The relationship with customers and what they think about the organization’s ability to meet their current and future needs

This foundation becomes the basis for building strategy that addresses the challenges and opportunities facing the organization or team using ATHENA CONSULTING’s proven processes and tools and with the guidance of a skilled facilitator.

The Strategy Development Steps

While each client’s strategy-development working session or retreat is unique, ATHENA CONSULTING’s process typically includes the following steps:

• Gather objective data to understand where the business is today: the business drivers, current business model, history of the organization, and dilemmas the organization faces.
• Understand the organization’s current strategy process and plan of action.
• Analyze current priorities, initiatives, and programs and assess how they can be utilized to maintain continuity in addition to developing an understanding of the changes that are needed to position the company for long-term success.
• Identify creative tools to be introduced at the strategy retreat that will enhance the strategy-formulation process.
• Design a customized strategy process or methodology that addresses the organization’s needs and meets its requirements. Formulate a practical agenda for the retreat that will enable the business to go forward with more strategic intent and shape the future.
• Prior to each retreat, attendees complete assignments, respond to questions, and read relevant articles or other materials to prepare for an intensely interactive and focused experience. The pre-work is organized and made available prior to the session in order to accelerate the strategy-development process and lay the foundation for a productive and rewarding experience at the retreat.
• Facilitate the strategy retreat in a way that enables the leadership team members to collaborate and build consensus on key decisions and solutions that address the organization’s challenges, as well as allow them to resolve issues and differences in a constructive and positive way.
• When the session or retreat is completed, we ensure that leadership team members have an ongoing role or responsibility for Strategic Opportunities for Improvement so the organization can be prepared to operationalize the strategy. We call them SOFI teams. These teams are responsible for achieving results and being accountable for progress. Because strategy is a process, we conduct a “Results Forum” after approximately six months to share updates and receive input and guidance from other accountability teams.

As a result of this process, ATHENA CONSULTING is able to help the organization’s leaders walk away with strategies and plans that are more aligned. They are also provided with the structure needed to cascade the strategies and plans down so that supporting strategies, accountability, and discipline can be established throughout the organization.

Contact ATHENA CONSULTING to learn more about how we can provide strategy development processes and services that are right for your organization and will put it on the pathway to long-term success.

The Need for Strategy Development

Understanding current competitive advantages, capabilities, and core competencies is critical to the planning process and serves as a springboard to the future. Before determining where the business will go and how to grow it, it is necessary to have an accurate assessment of the internal rate of change to ensure that the company has the capacity and agility to exceed the external rate of change. It is also essential to understand the organization’s current vision, goals, and aspirations (the “as-is”) so the vision, future goals, and aspirations that will guide the journey can be defined or refined.

Successfully developing strategy requires organizations to be clear about what winning or success means to them. They have to define the future outcomes they want to achieve and their key measures of effectiveness. A clearly defined structure and organized set of strategic disciplines that go along with the strategy gives people in the organization greater clarity about what is expected of them, as well as how they fit and why they matter. Ultimately, businesses exist to create value for owners, customers, and stakeholders, so they too must understand the context of the strategy, dilemmas and issues, objectives, and opportunities that will help the organization transform and get to a better place, or a better position in the future.