Strategy and Implementation
The call for more strategic clarity is just as widespread in companies as the call for more transparency and communication. All too often, strategy is just a pretty sheet of paper on which attractive wishes are written or social demands are reflected (sustainability, AI, CSR).
Strategy is a matter for the boss. Not so easy when everyone wants to have a say.
The real strategic, entrepreneurial bet must be made by the entrepreneur. When strategic goals are more like negotiated compromises, they will almost never be successfully implemented.
How good is the best strategy if no one joins in?
Far too seldom is the self-imposed strategy a real guide to action in operational activities. There is often a lack of consistent investment, structural changes, decisions and permanent adjustments to what is happening on the market. Strategy as a paper tiger.
Every company always follows a strategy.
Just not always the one on paper.
Strategy is what employees actually use to make decisions and thus change company results in one way or another. In order to identify the strategy practiced, it is worth taking a close look at what employees base their actions on. In some companies, decisions are largely based on the wishes of individual customers, in others more on the customer base as a whole. Some proactively help to shape their market, others consciously react only to what is happening in the market. In some companies the standard rules, in others it is the exception.
Strategy is not a project.
Strategy is not a project, but a never-ending process of development, implementation, reflection and adaptation. The focus is on the current content, which is brought to life through structural and financial consistency.
We are happy to accompany you through every step of this strategy process, work with you to determine the strategic scope for action, derive the necessary adjustments in your organization and support the communication process. Together, we will transfer your strategy to all relevant areas so that it makes a real difference for all employees in their day-to-day operational decisions and actions. And thus become a success story.
Manager-Tool
StrategyChecker – look at your strategy with a broader perspective!
(Download German Version. Please contact us for an English one.)
Do you have questions?
»I’m especially happy that our strategy did not end up in the drawer but has remained relevant and useful and became the subject of further discussion. Of course, in the end, that meant burying our previous business plans completely, albeit with a good conscience. They would only have frayed our nerves more and wasted precious time.«
Paul Rösberg, Owner & CEO
Rösberg Engineering Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH für Automation
What we wanted was to have our whole business fine-tuned, to steer the focus toward our individual business areas and still retain a solid metalevel as the bracket that holds everything together. Also, we wanted to move away from these rigid, polished business plans that seem to always end up in the drawer.
Together with the Organeers, we then envisioned a rather simple target with checkpoints that could be adapted dynamically. For me, this sort of strategy development seemed extremely pragmatic and easy to handle – and refreshing.
An important aspect of the new strategy was the question: What do we throw out, what is superfluous? At the beginning, that was not an easy task, though in our everyday business it proved helpful to have options to dispense with. It sharpened our focus. Also, the strategic and metalevel principles we ended up agreeing on collaboratively could be productively applied everywhere and guided our subsequent actions.
I’m especially happy that our strategy did not end up in the drawer but has remained relevant and useful and became the subject of further discussion. Of course, in the end, that meant burying our previous business plans completely, albeit with a good conscience. They would only have frayed our nerves more and wasted precious time.
»The whole new strategic framework resulted in spreading the responsibility and betting on independent work throughout the entire company, which can be felt down to the very last team. Thanks again to the Organeers for their fantastic efforts on our behalf!«
Andreas Jonderko, Owner & CEO
gastronovi GmbH
At first, I had trouble understanding that we indeed had a strategy problem, and that our people were missing something. Up to that point, we had always thought in terms of milestones; that seemed to be working fine. Together with the Organeers, we proceeded to attack three things: What is our “polar star” in the sense of an attainable and sustainable situation – our why, our be-all and end-all – something that would once again show us our original motivation and our most important strategic guardrails. Such a comprehensive approach was new to me at the time but has proved to be sensible and sustainable.
The basis was the decisive matter of “why?” I thought about this for myself: “Why am I doing this?” And, in the end, my answer was: “Because I want the restaurant business to be fun again.” And I mean that to be motivating for me personally and for my team, to be felt by everyone. That helped us tremendously to define our polar star and to decide on the necessary strategic efforts we had to take.
Today, our polar star has been accepted by everyone and has become an integral part of our daily life, guiding us, for example, when we choose new projects. It is characterized by the equality of all our customer relations, which for some in the team who came from the service-oriented food industry was a true challenge as well as a great relief.
A further strategic cornerstone now lies in focusing on our target market, which generated an upheaval at gastronovi. We started to address a completely new group of customers and got much better leads that could then be quickly processed by our marketing people. Why? Because they fit our company better, not the least because of their high IT affinity.
This process of going after a smaller target group was tough on us since from the beginning gastronovi had seen itself as a company that delivered “everything for everybody.” But now, thanks to the support of Organeers, we’ve matured. Before the situation was: “Whoever comes and whatever they want, we’ll do it for them – even if it means bending the whole company to achieve it.” Now we have made our choice of customers fit our system and vice versa.
The whole new strategic framework resulted in spreading the responsibility and betting on independent work throughout the entire company, which can be felt down to the very last team. Thanks again to the Organeers for their fantastic efforts on our behalf!
