Strategic

Management

Venture Planning Partners Strategic Management is at the center of our consulting core competencies.

At Venture Planning Partners our strategic management includes two broad based key components:

First A systematic process for all the critical steps of the strategic planning cycle and a wide range planning tools and best practices, then

Secondly A focus on the strategic management process. This is the Implementation Phase of your Strategic Plan which also includes the on-going assessment of results achieved.

At Venture Planning Partners we offer Strategic Planning & Implementation with professional and experienced planners and facilitators with a proven and structured planning process.

Now let's take a look at each of these Two Key Componets:

The First Key to Our Approach

Typically for most clients, the Strategic Planning process with Venture Planning Partners involves a step by step planning approach, as shown in the following graphic:

Our planning process is really a continuous circle which starts with a thorough a detailed Assessment of all strategic aspects and factors which have an impact on the organization. Typically our environmental scan for the organization will include:

Venture Planning Partners has developed a proven track record with a wide selection of clients in strategic planning, change management and organizational development, utilizing a broad range of best practices, including:

• Cross function learning and collaboration
• Team building and leadership development programs
• Effective communication best practices
• Relationship building and relationship management
• Change readiness assessment
• Issues and opportunities identification
• Balanced scorecard assessment and performance management
• Results based management outcomes/output/process indicator performance measurement
• Organizational processes mapping and modeling

At the heart of all successful change management projects or programmes are the best practices of strategic management and a balanced scorecard, which integrates the dynamic on-going pursuit of corporate vision/strategic initiatives(s) to an implementation and evaluation framework and a measurement system to assess progress towards the achievement of that vision.  A strategic management approach to change management also includes the development of integrated communications capabilities and tools to communicate that progress with all the organizations’ stakeholders.

Fundamental to best practices in strategic management and change management is the management approach of a Balanced Scorecard that enables organizations to operaionalize their vision and core values – in other words translate vision and values them into action and resutls.  A Balanced Scorecard approch to stragic and change management provides 360^o feedback around both the key frames of reference or perspectives for any organization and becomes the central means by which the organization assess performance and self identity.

The Balanced Scorecard approach to strategic management views the organization from four perspectives, and develops measurement sysiems to collect data both on process indicators and ouptupts/resutls and cross analyzses this infioramtion relative to each of these four perspectives:

1. The Stakeholder Perspective
2. The Core Competencies/Process Perspective
3. The Learning and Growth Perspective
4. The Outcomes Perspective

The following graphic demonstrates the Balanced Scorecard appraoch to strategic management:

There are a wide variety of planning and assessment techniques we use throughout this process and we customize these techniques to your organization’s specific competitive and environmental situation:

• SWOT assessment and Issues & Opportunities identification

• Opportunity / Threat Matrix

• The Industry Attractiveness - Business Position Matrix

• Identifying Attractive Markets Through a Framework for Assessing Market Attractiveness

• The Major Forces that Determine Industry Attractiveness

• Statistical Forecasting Models including Conditional Forecasting

• Market-Attractiveness / Competitive-Position Matrix for Evaluating Potential Target Markets

The following graphic shows an example of one of the many analytic tools we would typically use with a private sector business or a public sector NGO or a governmental department, called the Opportuntity Threat Matrix.

Another example of an analytical tool we may use is The Industry Attractiveness - Business Position Matrix as the following graphic outlines:

Central to the Strategic Management Planning Approach for all Canadian Government Departments is Results Based Management which clearly delineates strategic high level longer term Outcomes from annual or project specific Outputs or deliverables. The following graphic outlines this approach:

At Venture Planning Partners we have worked extensively with this planning approach and with many government departments. For a more detailed look at Results Based Management just email us and we will email you our PowerPoint overview of this planning approach.

Strategic Management at ALL Levels of the Organization

We use the same Strategic Management Planning approach at all levels of the organization, from the broad perspective of the total corporate entity, which also includes the key planning elements of:

• Mission

• Vision

• Core Values / Guiding Principles

to the Strategic Business Unit / Division to the Product or Service Group Level right down to the Brand / Product profit center level, as the following graphic shows:

During this intense planning process we will review the key Characteristics of Effective Corporate Mission Statements with you and identify your organization’s Alternative Corporate Growth Strategies, as shown below:

Typically we will use the methodology of Miles and Snow’s Four Business Strategies and examine a number of Generic Competitive Strategies, tailored for each specific environmental situation the organization faces, including:

• Marketing Strategies for New Market Entries

• Strategies for Growth Markets

• Strategies for Mature and Declining Markets

• Marketing Strategies for the New Economy

Another option that we generally use is the Four Generic Models or approaches to Strategic Planning, where we will examine:

Strategic Fit: Between resources and opportunities. This approach usually focuses on the problem of maintaining strategic fit by trimming ambitions to match available resources.

Generic Strategies: Low cost vs. differentiation vs. focus.

Strategy Hierarchy: Goals, strategies and tactics.

Strategic Intent: Envisions a desired leadership position and establishes the strategy the organization will employ and the criteria used to chart its progress. Strategic Intent is all about the problem of leveraging limited resources to reach seemingly unattainable goals.

Now the Second Key to Our Approach

Finally, the Second Key to success in our planning approach is our business case methodolgy and best practices for "hands on" follow-up with our clients during the Implementation Phase of their Strategic Plan. This is what Strategic Management is really ALL ABOUT and in the end all our know-how and experience tells us that Excellence in Strategic Implementation will be the determining factor in your organization's achievement of your strategic goals.

We have a number of proven tools and methods for achieving this, including our proprietary Access Data Base Implementation Tool which focuses on results and keeps your organization on track with your Implementaion.

All of this is to say that we Guarantee your Satisfaction with our Ability and Know-How to successfully Lead and Be your Organization's Strategic Planning Partner