Seeing the wood from the trees when you’re inside a transformation journey can be impossible. It’s not always easy to see what opportunities lie ahead to support future growth and help you stand out from competitors. A helpful exercise in this situation is taking the time to validate your assumptions and ensure you’re on the right track. Not all businesses are able to do this, however it is an important part of the jigsaw.
This missing piece can, at times, be costly to an organisation in the long run. Taking the time to consider the wider implications of a transformation or change helps to ensure you’re on track to meet your targets, you have identified all opportunities and verify you have a robust strategy. Our experts specialise in delivering tailored advisory engagements bespoke to your requirements, focusing on getting the value you need. They bring experience and knowledge that may shed light onto new direction for your transformation, help shape and apply structure to visions and even uncover opportunities within your strategy that were previously untapped.
We worked with an organisation on a very niche and specific use of our Advisory Practice team’s expertise. Find out how below.
The Challenge: A United Front
Our client realised its current ways of working needed optimising and recognised a necessity to implement a digital solution that was scalable and compliant with industry regulations to allow them to meet future growth ambitions and secure commercial opportunities. The business required support to put together a Strategic Advisory & Transformation Business Case, which was due to be presented to the board by the end of the quarter.
The entire engagement spanned roughly 6 weeks, meaning we had a limited amount of time to create a compelling case. A key element of this engagement was providing alignment amongst leadership on project vision and goals. With our help, the client was able to step back to reevaluate if vital areas of the business were aligned on strategic goals, objectives and KPIs, prioritise goals and objectives and openly discuss whether the strategy and direction they had chosen was truly what was best for them. Getting to this point required navigating some intrinsic challenges, that only an external provider could address:
Time constraints – Most of the stakeholders were time poor, meaning running a session of this style with the appropriate focus and depth required for it to be impactful would have taken a significant portion of their business as usual, leading to less productivity overall.
Mixed focuses – A hinderance when prioritisation is key for strategy is wanting to achieve too much. Having our experts come in and run the session allowed the stakeholders to focus, giving them space to evaluate priorities and not get too granular with the outcomes before they had even started.
Value of the exercise – Some key stakeholders viewed the strategy session as surplus to requirements. They knew what they wanted so why was it important to have a cohesive front? Bringing in an external facilitator gave the session gravitas, and our previous experience ensured that the attendees felt the value of the session.
Our Solution: Collaborative Strategic Review
Conscious of timelines and working with agility, we deployed consultants to run two bite-sized and tailored strategy workshops that ran across a couple of days. A significant amount of preparation was done prior to the workshops to ensure they were interactive, capturing pain points and challenges we had heard. The aim was to outline a single and clear vision allowing the organisation to present a unified front with the business case. This in turn unlocked a more in-depth approach and more cohesive conversation when it came to the client presenting the proposal to the board.
What Worked?
Structure and logical approach – Exploring the requirements with a fresh perspective.
Lightweight touch – The client’s team did not have to invest days of their time to get the strategy together.
Tried and tested – Utilising experience from other workshops and strategies to ensure the client was making the best choices.
Methodical approach – Ensuring no stones were left unturned and that each section of the strategy got equal attention.
Time capture and rigid structure – Leaving no room for time to be wasted or for conversation to get off topic.
Strong facilitation by the Lean Tree team – Coordinated and facilitated the workshop to bring outsider perspective and focus.
Key Activities and Outcomes of the Strategy Workshops Included:
Identification and prioritisation of strategic goals and objectives.
Discussion of business drivers, considerations, opportunities and risks.
Identification of KPIs.
Clarifying the scope of the IT solution.
The process was not long, overly complicated or costly for the client’s team and allowed them to effectively come together and have the powerful conversations required to align, provide clarity and direction on their strategy.
In turn this part of the engagement ensured that the technical and business assessment part of the business case were aligned, so the overarching recommendations provided were the most relevant to accelerate and realise business value.
Defining Your North Star
When you are in the middle of a transformation, it can be hard to put your head above water and evaluate your trajectory. This client was able progress a project with the help of the Lean Tree experts by developing a business case with much more cohesive results, ratified through assessment, than they would have done otherwise.
While some may view strategy and assessment as lengthy and costly processes with checkboxes that must be completed, we instead build bespoke solutions to fit your needs. We help organisations define clear digital visions, prioritise initiatives, and create plans that unite strategy, operations, and customer needs; driving transformation that delivers lasting value and measurable outcomes.
To find out more about the Advisory Practice and how we can support your business, visit our Strategy and Transformation page.
