Leslie Carter Email and Phone Number

Are your people struggling to execute your strategy? Do they understand it, believe in it, and have integrated plans to execute it?Is your Board asking for a strategic plan, but you and your team don’t have the time or expertise to develop a plan that meets their expectations? Do you need to attract new investors to fund growth?If any of the above resonates with you I may be able to help. Creating a clear, actionable strategic plan is easy in theory and hard in practice. There are tons of academics and consultants with insightful models and frameworks for creating and executing strategy. The problem is most of these models and frameworks were designed for large businesses that have lots of data, insights, and resources to apply them properly. Most mid-size businesses don’t. As a result, mid-size companies often rely on the knowledge and opinions of a small group of executives to create a strategy. They spend a day or two in a strategy meeting or offsite using some model or framework to come up with some strategic goals and priorities. They communicate their vision, mission, and strategy at the next Town Hall meeting. They assume their strategy is sound and is understood by everyone. But then nothing changes. Why? Here are the most common reasons.❌The analysis of the market, competition, and company was limited and biased. They didn’t put in enough effort to understand how market trends and forces may present opportunities and threats. They didn’t seek external, third-party validation of their ideas, opinions, and assumptions. ❌Lack of employee involvement in the analysis of the market, competition, and company, and identification and evaluation of strategic options. This limits the insights and ideas upon which the strategy was based and increases the risk that employees won’t understand or agree with the strategy. ❌The strategic priorities are vague, with no definition and measurement of success. This results in a lack of alignment on how to execute the strategy and conflict over who is accountable for what.❌Lack of cross-functional strategic action plans to ensure the successful execution of the strategy. There is a better way. It’s called “Inclusive Strategy”. It uses many of the best strategy frameworks and models but applies them differently. It involves more employee involvement throughout the entire process, not just at the end. It involves more external validation of the strategy from customers and partners. It’s not expensive. It just takes a bit more time (and some patience).