A Business Strategy Workshop is a process that identifies value improvement opportunities within a business or business division. A Business Strategy Workshop is essential input to the planning process and as such should be conducted at the same frequency. Other events such as problems, market or acquisition opportunities, ownership or senior management changes can also trigger a Business Strategy Workshop.
A Business Strategy Workshop should be conducted in an objective manner. It should be purely fact-driven, focussing on important business fundamentals without being distracted by day-to-day operational issues. It is for these reasons, that most businesses use external facilitators who can keep focus on strategic issues.
The Business Strategy Workshop is conducted for individual businesses.
The benefits of a Strategic Workshop
When completed, the workshop should reveal a set of clear strategic recommendations for improving performance and growth, serving to effectively inform the planning process to ensure future outcomes.
The strategic workshop will deliver benefits in one or all of the following areas:
Business strategy
How the business secures advantage in the market
Delivering sustained competitive differentiation
Finances
Improvements to profitability and cash flow
Greater returns on capital and resources employed
Operations
Organisational structure designed to deliver outcomes
Processes, procedures and practises for delivering higher efficiency, shorter lead times and improved competitive advantage
Human Resources
Improved team performance, productivity and alignment with business goals
More effective management practises
Ownership
Reduced input and effort from owners
Better alignment between owners and management
How does it work?
Before the workshop, there are two activities that need to be undertaken:
A detailed strategic inventory is taken by the business’s owners and/or management. This will identify obvious issues, deficiencies or dysfunctions ahead of time.
Define the workshop outcomes. This is done through online teleconference.
The workshop itself will take the participants through a range of exercises aimed at delivering the workshop outcomes as defined.
Typically, the workshop will address issues such as:
Issues and Outputs
Area
Issues
Outputs
Operations
How effective are the core processes
Core process performance and efficiency review
Are the business’s operational processes scalable
Business process design and implementation
Is the organisational structure aligned with growth objectives
Organisational structure review
Financial
What are the financial drivers of growth
Business growth equation
What are the future capital requirements
Financial forecast
How can the business gain further financial leverage
Financial structure review
Depending on your circumstances and future objectives, in many cases it could be very prudent to run a Scenario Planning Workshop before a Business Strategy Workshop. This will take longer ranging and broader uncertainties into account. Your resulting strategy is more flexible and your business will be more resilient against socio-economic uncertainties.
What you can expect to get from running a Business Strategy Workshop for your business?
Clarity on the key drivers of your business success
Fresh thinking on the best way to maximise your outcomes within a 3-5 year period
Strategic positioning for sustainable, ongoing competitive advantage
Critical attention areas and applicable initiatives required
In addition, the strategic workshop will
align business stakeholders and management, helping to develop a high performance culture
improved clarity in relation to the future development of the business
identify many tactical opportunities and initiatives for immediate attention and action
What to do next?
Get in touch and we will quickly establish whether a Business Strategic Workshop is right and timely for your business.
