Have a question about strategy execution? These four proved common amongst experts at OPEX Week Orlando 2019.
Written by: James Milsom, Head of Marketing
OPEX Week Orlando is the largest gathering of improvement, business transformation and strategy execution experts from across the globe. Every January, improvement professionals flock to the Sunshine State, eager for insights, tips and best practice to further enable their company’s success.
Orlando, FL may be home to Disneyland and Universal Studios, but strategic experts found their own thrill ride at OPEX Week Orlando's world summit. From hearing about riding the storm of digital change, to the power of technology to transform business strategies, there was plenty on offer for those attending.
With i-nexus as one of the global experts on hand, our speaker session with Nigel Richardson proved a popular success. Post-workshop, our face to face strategic advisors saw an upsurge in leaders eager to change the norm and learn new ways to drive through their strategic plateau.
These are the top 4 questions asked by the delegates visiting our booth:
1. How can I streamline my strategy?
Questions around strategic streamlining proved to be popular at OPEX Week Orlando, and they often revolved around resource.
Why resource? When organizations are unable to successfully reach/plan across all functional areas, this often results in competing and/or conflicting goals and initiatives that undermine the efficient use of resources, but most importantly, makes it more difficult if not impossible to accomplish top directive objectives.
So often strategies are defined, planned and executed in less than desirable platforms.
Most companies that visited us at OPEX Week Orlando were looking for a better way to execute. They shared how difficult it was to engage their workforce; as well as understand the performance of their plan across the organization.
We learned that most organizations we spoke to are using Excel or some glitzy dashboard with no relational foundation. These businesses recognized that they were at a disadvantage for achieving their goals by using products not designed specifically for Strategy Execution and which fail to maximize business value.
Solutions suited for strategy execution are those that bring your strategy to life, enabling you to link activity to strategic goals and monitor/manage performance.
A great strategy execution platform enables you in the event of any changes in your environment, say internal, market related and/or technological, to quickly pivot in a responsive manner.
Keep track of your strategy in real time. Don’t settle for anything else.
Learn how to bridge the strategy and execution air gap with our global Strategy Execution Briefings
2. What role can Hoshin Kanri play in my strategic goals?
Hoshin Kanri is a proven approach to achieving strategic goals when businesses understand its value, and how to unleash it.
Our strategic experts are passionate about Hoshin Kanri, and for good reason too.
Found at the heart of the strategy execution system of the world’s best performing organizations, it provides the foundation for corporations to outperform their competitors.
But how?
Hoshin Kanri strips away distractions from your strategy, helping you to home in on your organization’s breakthrough objectives, resulting in a well-defined, achievable three-five year plan.
When speaking with attendees, we highlighted the numbers that really stand out.
None-more telling is the 50% increase in execution outcomes that have been benchmarked by those organizations who utilize Hoshin Kanri as their preferred approach to executing strategy.
It’s all about results, and Hoshin organizations boast much more.
For example; reduction in non-value-added activities by 30%, increased confidence in the plan, 20% increase in project success and driving those excellent results is the greater ownership and faster course correction Hoshin Kanri embeds into the organization.
By finding strategy software which removes the obstacles from execution, you and your team are enabled to focus on your plan, bringing greater strategic direction, ownership and cultural change to support the achievement of your organizational goals.
3. I’m in Excel spreadsheet hell – is there a way out?
A slightly dramatic question, but, again, it’s one that we frequently heard at OPEX Week Orlando.
With this being the age of big data, it’s easy to see why Excel may be an attractive avenue when it comes to your strategy.
It’s free, and it’s part of basic computer literacy. But then come the downsides. We won’t list them all, but here are a few that popped up at the event:
- It took a great deal of effort and time to set up my tracking in Excel – but very few know how to use the formulas
- The spreadsheet keeps growing – it’s getting harder to keep on top
- Alignment of goals, initiative and metrics are proving impossible
- I’m really struggling to visualize our strategic progress
- I’m not sure where to look for what, we’re dropping balls left and right
No doubt about it, Excel has its place and has helped many organization get started with executing their strategy, but the time does come to move on.
When? If Excel stunts your organization from changing market trends, or your strategists are struggling for motivation because of the everyday realities of Excel’s administration burden trying to keep everything aligned and current.
The result is that more organizations are looking towards the power that strategic execution software can offer them.
With 93% of people finding Excel dissatisfying for planning, we’re proud to demonstrate the power of the i-nexus strategic software.
Our cloud-based strategic solutions enable your business to escape Excel hell, choosing a brighter future.
We help you with the ongoing performance management of your business; and managing change through the transformation, development and deployment of forward-looking strategic objectives.
Excel still has a place in your business, just not with the most important aspect of your organization; your StratPlan and the execution and monitoring of the plan.
Dumping the data for a pivot table in Excel is still good, but the times are a-changing.
4. How does your software help project and transformational leaders?
Strategic leaders are at the heart of i-nexus.
Our strategic software is designed to help project and transformational leaders change the fortunes of their plans.
That’s why we focus on ensuring each aspect of your strategy is improved:
a) Goal management – leaders are able to translate their top line strategy into well defined goals in a manner which encourages two way feedback, and the resulting insights to ensure KPIs are met.
b) Initiative management – with multiple programs/projects running, we help leaders to create, manage and review the performance of their projects, helping them to set success criteria, create detailed schedules and much more, all to ensure the strategy stays on track.
c) Performance management – we take leaders beyond measuring business performance by creating a feedback loop where operational improvement and strategy deployment mutually benefit from measurement, avoiding the trap of vanity reporting.
Side-stepping the pitfalls of Excel spreadsheets and strategic creep is not only at the core of our solution, but so too is the support that we offer organizations to ensure they meet their strategic challenges.
We walk side-by-side with project and transformational leaders, ensuring a hand in glove fit between our solution and your targets, helping you define success, support deployment and stay on-hand, ready to help whenever you need it.
Did your questions make the list?
And there you have it - those are the most common questions we heard from strategists throughout OPEX Week Orlando 2019. Did your questions make the list? If not, reach out to us on social media!
Didn't make it to OPEX Week Orlando?
If you missed the opportunity to attend our workshop, sign up to our series of webinars to access more thought provoking content from the team here at i-nexus.
Itching to learn more?
We have a wealth of resources freely available to digest, all designed to help you achieve your strategic goals. We've hand-picked the below to set you on the right track:
- How to get your strategy to play ball with the catchball process: Great strategies make use of the catchball process. Here's what that means and how you can integrate it.
About the author
James is i-nexus' Digital Marketing Manager. Bringing a passion for strategy from a marketing angle, you'll find he loves to intertwine sports and strategy. His background covers industries such as energy, broadband, education and employee benefits.
If you'd like to talk more about your strategic challenges, reach out to James on james.milsom@i-nexus.com or connect with James on LinkedIn for more strategic insights.
