related case studies

Business design training Change management Product planning

Strategic planning is by its nature longitudinal. Strategy links actions and operations to the stated goals of a corporation, company or organization. Because most strategic planning takes place over a fairly long period of time with varying levels of organizational and personal commitment, it can be painful, time consuming and ineffective, with virtually no mechanism for evaluating its actual impact. Or it can be conducted with the Concept System, like this:

The Challenge:
A traditional corporation which produces heavy machinery has embarked on a corporate wide goal setting process. In order to meet the shared goals, the corporation needs to develop strategic and operational plans in all divisions. The two main offices are separated by distance, interests and responsibilities, and creating a common strategic approach is a challenge.

The Solution:
Representatives from all divisions (retail, production, personnel, executive, marketing, and so on) met to discuss specific things the company should do or address in order to meet its stated goals. Ideas ranged from specific employee-related issues to competitive positioning. The group rated the resulting ideas on importance to them, in their areas of work.

The Result:
The company's resulting Concept Maps provided a priority-scaled roadmap to the strategic plan implementation. Areas of most importance were reviewed by subcategories of the group, using the demographics. Discussions about the relative importance of various parts of the map to different subgroups of participants yielded objective understanding of the participants' values and interests, leading to a more unified implementation plan.