Strategic Momentum

Every bookstore has dozens of titles on strategy. They all address pieces of the puzzle—theories that explain specific aspects of industry development, competitive positioning, or analysis. Many popular books, such as Blue Ocean Strategy, advocate a single solution. But, there is very little literature on the actual day-to-day practice of creating the right strategy that matches your strengths with the market’s needs.

Creating a continuous strategic improvement process for your company is critical in today’s fast-paced global economy. We call this process strategic momentum. To gain momentum, strategy must be developed by the people that will execute it and integrated into their daily business management. We see it as a three step process:

Information is the fuel that ignites and sustains strategic momentum. External information is critical in today’s fast-changing competitive global markets. Internal information provides important measurement of progress toward goals and surfaces important issues to address going forward. Both internal and external information should be balanced among a variety of sources and information types. It is important to put information into context through analysis and to communicate it in a relevant way.
Insight includes synthesis and planning, which are two very different activities, requiring very different skill sets. In fact, synthesis and planning should be clearly separated in your process. Insight is often the exclusive focus of strategic planning exercises. But, strategic planning alone does not solve problems—it must be based on fresh information and lead to follow-up action. Within a good framework, these activities can differentiate your company and lay the foundation for breakthrough results.
Action involves execution and measurement. Execution is an art requiring leadership, thinking on your feet, and continuous learning. Measuring the results of action and communicating new information learned in execution fuels a continuous improvement process of a company’s strategy and success. Measurement is an area where there is a lot of innovation today. Assessments, scorecards, and dashboards are increasing the quality of measurement and, in the process, teaching us more about the logic and feasibility of our strategies.

Trek does not stop with strategic planning; they oversee implementation and help us to make adjustments along the way. [Read more client testimonials]

Featured Case Study:

Engineering and Consulting Firm, Medical Device Industry - Significant customer concentration from a project that was wrapping up

Featured Publications:

“Strategic Momentum” - Executive Insights
“This Year, Why Not a Breakthrough Strategy?” - Management Consulting News
“Strategic Planning is a Must—Make it a Habit” – IndUS Business Journal