The Craft of Strategy Formation: Translating Business Issues into Actionable Sstrategies

299 Pages·2007·2 MB·English

by  Eric Wiebs

The Craft of Strategy
Formation

The Craft of Strategy
Formation
Translating business issues into
actionable strategies
Eric Wiebes, Marc Baaij, Bas Keibek
and Pieter Witteveen
Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester,
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Translated from Dutch by Michelle Wilbraham
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Contents
Preface vii
Introduction xi
What is this book all about? xi
Introduction to the Allware case study xxv
Part I – The preparation phase 1
Introduction 3
1 Days 1 to 5 – We create a question out of
a concern 7
2 Days 6 and 7 – We set up a project organisation 27
3 Day 8 – We structure the question 39
4 Day 9 – We formulate hypotheses 51
5 Day 10 – We make a work plan 57
6 Allware: the fi rst two weeks 79
vi / CONTENTS
Part II – The analysis phase 89
Introduction 91
7 Days 11 and 12 – We develop the analyses further 95
8 Days 13 to 17 – We collect data 117
9 Days 18 to 42 – We carry out the analyses 135
10 Days 43 to 45 – We present the conclusions 149
11 Allware: on with the analysis 171
Part III – The decision-making phase 181
Introduction 183
12 Day 46 – We put forward a few business options 185
13 Day 47 – We set up scenarios 193
14 Days 48 to 57 – We model the results 199
15 Days 58 to 60 – We choose the strategic direction 209
16 Days 61 to 65 – We write the strategic plan 215
17 Allware: make a choice and carry on 221
Part IV – The implementation phase 225
Introduction 227
18 Set up an organisation to implement the strategy 231
19 Draw up the implementation plan 237
20 Direct progress 247
Afterword 259
Profi le of OC&C Strategy Consultants 263
Index 267
Preface
Insight into a modern craft
Few people have had the privilege, like the authors of this
book, to have worked for decades as professional strategy
consultants. The question is still asked, with some justifi -
cation, whether strategy consultancy really is a profession.
After all, anyone can call themselves a consultant and what
do these men and women actually do? In our case (the fi rm
OC&C Strategy Consultants) we take this profession very
seriously. Teams from our fi rm always work in close coopera-
tion with our clients to strengthen the position of their
company or institute and to create value for shareholders,
other interested parties or for society as a whole. It is inspiring
work; work that gives you a lot back when you put in a lot
of effort. Contact with clients, contact with young members
of staff and the kick that you get from providing new
solutions – all these factors together make the work an
inspiration.
viii / PREFACE
When Marc Baaij, Associate Professor of Strategic Manage-
ment at RSM Erasmus University in Rotterdam, approached
OC&C to ask whether we might like to write a book with
him about our profession and how we go about our work, we
had to ponder the matter for a while. Is it a sensible idea to
distil all our knowledge in a book? Our profession is losing
its mystique and wouldn’t we just be opening the door to
competitors, allowing them to take over aspects of our
philosophy and acquire some of our practical skills? Can we
describe our experience in such a way that the confi dentiality
of our relations with clients remains our top priority?
As the book before you shows, we gave a positive answer to
the question. We are convinced that strategy consultancy is
not only a fantastic profession, but also a craft that you can
only put into practice if your fi rm has excellent systems,
training and – most importantly – carefully selected and care-
fully developed staff. It is less easy to copy than it might seem.
What is more, if this book leads to more of our fellow fi rms
doing better work, then we don’t mind at all. The profession
does not always have an equally positive reputation and if
this book can help to improve that reputation – great! More
important, however, than the reasons given above is that we
want to make strategy formulation comprehensible to our
clients. It is often not necessary to work intensively with a
consultant. We fi nd it enjoyable, inspiring and we believe that
the company’s results improve signifi cantly, but in many
cases in-house teams can do the job. This book is aimed
precisely at those in-house teams. We offer them a helping
hand in dealing, in a creative but well-structured way, with
questions that determine the future of their company or
institution.
PREFACE / ix
It was a privilege for us to work on this book. Marc Baaij the
scientist was snowed under with material from enthusiastic
consultants who had put down on paper their everyday experi-
ence, their intellectual breakthroughs and the lessons they
had learnt. We hope that the book is suitable for a broad-based
target group, thanks to its combination of theoretical insights
and our practical approach. Top of the list, as we have already
said, are those who are actively involved in forming strategies:
leaders of large and medium-sized companies and insti-
tutions. At the same time the book offers a practical insight
to those who are engaged in a management study. Many
theoretical frameworks that deal with strategy have been
developed but up to now there has been no description of how
you can actually, concretely, put a strategy into practice.
Henry Mintzberg has tried to describe what managers do in
practice. Thus we have attempted to explain what strategy
makers do.
A fi nal word of thanks goes to all our colleagues in our global
network, who worked selfl essly on this book. They contrib-
uted examples, listed dos and don’ts, read, reread and edited
manuscripts. It became a real company exercise. The creation
of this book was in itself a strategic undertaking: before we
started we had a few structures in mind and putting these into
practice led us onto other paths. We hope that readers will
enjoy similar experiences and that their work will be the more
interesting for it!
Eric Wiebes, Marc Baaij, Bas Keibek and
Pieter Witteveen