BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION
Business transformation isn't a pretty slide presentation, but fundamental strategic change throughout every level of the business to define and realize a clear and compelling growth strategy. The ROI on a business transformation is unsurpassed given the improvement across the business from financial opportunities, focus, decision-making, problem solving, alignment, acceleration of execution, culture, and organizational agility and performance.
I personally guide the leadership team through every facet of the strategic planning process and then support the team and organization to drive the execution of the strategy. I often work with clients for a year or two to ensure the strategy is realized and the business is on a path of sustainable growth and agility. You can learn more about me here or continue to read below on how I do business transformations.
What is business transformation?
The first level of a business transformation is setting a compelling and enduring mission, vision, and values for the business. The next level of a business transformation is developing a holistic strategy covering every aspect of the business model to drive growth and competitive differentiation.
Once the long-term strategy is set, the company and functional goals and strategic plans are developed to create clarity on what needs to change at every level of the organization. The mission, vision, values, strategy, goals, and plans are then synthesized into strategic pillars and branded into a compelling format to communicate to the organization and external stakeholders. Next is the launch of the strategy involving the communication, reinforcement, and training of the strategy.
Once the strategy is "launched", working groups are formed to drive the execution and change management necessary to realize the vision and strategy. Strategy governance (i.e., leadership meetings, QBRs, OKRs, etc.) is also established to drive accountability, accelerate change, and situational problem solving.
During all of this, there is also a focus to create a high-performing leadership team that will be able to navigate and collaboratively problem-solve through the challenges and opportunities. In the end, the business is transformed on a path to growth, cultural excellence, agility, and competitive differentiation.
How does a business transformation happen?
In supporting many successful business transformations, the key ingredient is to coach, guide and train the leadership team and organization through each step. Strategy and execution are always better when the team is accountable for problem solving, developing, and executing the strategy. Luckily, I have the toolkit, skillset, experience, and collaborative style to guide and work together with leadership teams to transform a business.
In working with businesses and leadership teams, there are four main phases to a business transformation: business diagnostic, strategy development, transformation launch, and execution management.
Business Diagnostic
The first phase of a business transformation is a business diagnostic, where we assess the issues and opportunities of the business, understand and begin to structure the competitive and situational context, start to develop hypotheses about the business and initiatives, begin building relationships with the leadership team, and start to understand the mindsets and organizational and decision-making dynamics. The goal of the business diagnostic is a synthesis of the issues and opportunities of the business and leadership alignment on them.
My level of involvement is typically 10-20 hours a week for a few months as I conduct interviews, facilitate a series of business model and diagnostic workshops, and analyze the company, market, financials, competition, and customers. If needed, the leadership team and a select number of employees may also fill out a strategy survey to get people thinking about the business in a structured way and collect insights on the various perspectives and ideas about the business.
Strategy Development
The second phase of a business transformation is strategy development, where we collectively formulate the high-level growth and differentiation strategy for the business. This phase involves intensive leadership team strategy workshops and meetings, financial, org, budget, scenario analysis, and surveys, as needed.
The output is a new vision, mission, and values of the business. These will guide the various high-level strategies across the business model elements and prioritization of a portfolio of initiatives. The leadership team will begin sequencing a multi-year growth and differentiation strategy with ambitious goals, budgets, and resource needs.
The leadership team will also take strides in becoming a high-performing team as we focus on and improve the team's collaborative problem solving, structured decision-making, delegating action items, alignment, and accountability.
My involvement is typically 10-20 hours a week conducting workshops, one-on-ones, training, analysis, strategy development, and presentation work.
Transformation Launch
The third phase of a business transformation is the launch, where we first simplify and synthesize the strategy so we can easily communicate it to the entire team and external stakeholders. We organize the initiatives into strategic pillars and brand the strategy to increase the appeal. We work together to determine the ideal working groups and resource needs to accelerate the execution and drive accountability. We focus on executing quick wins for momentum and work on improving the leadership team dynamics and accountability. This is always a pivotal and energizing moment for the business as the strategy is launched and the wheels are placed in motion.
The launch phase is very busy and full of growth given all of the change management, launching of working groups, workshops, establishing strategic governance, coaching, and training needed to build execution momentum. It is important to get this phase right and plant deep roots across the organization to ensure healthy growth. There is also a big emphasis on enculturating the organization to the new mission, vision, and values, so everyone truly understands, embraces, and utilizes the new strategy.
Execution Management
Once the strategy is launched, the next phase is execution management. I help coach the working groups to drive action and accountability and work closely with the leadership team on their strategic governance and problem solving. The focus during execution management is to continuously accelerate the execution of the strategy while identifying and eliminating blockers to progress. This is the phase the entire organization grows in capabilities and experience as they begin to realize the fruit of the strategy and their efforts.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What makes you better than other options?
It comes down to holistic results. Typical management consulting firms (I know because I've worked at a few) work pretty much isolated in a room only interacting with people when they need something or when they need to present, and then, in the end, leave the business to "figure" it out when it comes to the recommendations. I'm the complete opposite, I coach your team to collaboratively figure out the answers, strategies, and plans. I teach your team the McKinsey toolkit of analytics, problem solving, strategy creation, and planning. We work together to ensure the strategies are executed efficiently and effectively. We not only create a path to growth, but we upgrade the capabilities and performance of your team. It is a holistic and impactful business transformation at every level of the organization.
What type of clients do you work with?
I'm pretty selective, given I only work with 3-4 companies at any time. I currently have one opening for business transformation. My sweet spot is clients between $10 million to $1-2 billion in revenue. I really enjoy helping companies focus, upskill, and grow. I've worked with clients in many different sectors from services to manufacturing to retail, and more. Happy to provide references as needed.
What are the fees for a Business Transformation?
For business transformation, I charge clients an hourly rate of $295 for the first 3-4 months, until we understand the level of effort, and then we typically switch to a retainer. For most business transformation clients, I spend 10-20 hours a week for the first few months, and then it typically declines to 5-10 hours, with fluctuations during important milestones or projects. It is the best value in business transformation since I coach you and your team through it versus having a full-time team create PowerPoint slides.
How do we get started?
If you want to see if I'm a good fit to support you and your team in transforming your business, email me at joe@stratechi.com and we'll collaborate on scoping out your strategy workshop.
Are sessions confidential?
Of course. I am bound to this confidentiality agreement with every paying Stratechi.com client.
How do clients pay for services?
For business transformation clients, I invoice you on a monthly basis with net 30-day terms.