Management Consulting
Our consulting services are focused in four main areas:
- Strategic Planning
- Performance Measurement
- Implementing Strategy
- Managing Diversification
We cater for the needs of organisations in all sectors - private, public and not-for-profit.
Contact Strategic Factors for further details and a quotation.
Strategic Planning
Management Teams and Boards
Our services for management teams and boards in strategic planning take two forms:
Assisting Clients to Develop Their Strategic Plans. We're specialists in this area and apply a process which ensures that ownership of all output remains with any management team or board. In facilitating this process we provide:
- A proven strategic planning framework - the Strategic Factor System
- A carefully designed series of steps for teams to follow.
- Initial instruction to a group on the methods employed.
- Our throughly tested Strategic Planning Manual.
- Our unique Strategic Planning Template, in software and hardcopy.
- A follow-up service during the plan's implementation.
In-house Strategic Planning Workshop. We also assist clients in their development by conducting a one-day, in-house workshop on strategic planning. This is a customised version of our public seminar called Strategic Planning.
Professional Associations
The highly successful seminar called "Strategic Planning for Governance Professionals" has been conducted across Australia for the Chartered Secretaries Australia. This three-and-half-hour session can also be customised and conducted for other professional groups such as consulting engineers, accountants, etc.
Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
SMEs require special services and different attention to that given to larger organisations. As a result, we have established the following for SMEs:
Boosting Business Success Workshop. This three-and-half-hour workshop is run for individuals from a variety of organisations and industries. It is concerned with achieving competitive advantage and is conducted in an easy-to-understand way. The workshop comes with its own manual and each attendee receives a copy of Graham Kenny's easy-to-read book, Sure-Fire Steps to Small Business Success.
Sure-Fire Steps Program. This two-day program is run for business teams with several non-competing businesses in the room at the same time. During the workshop each team completes our proven Strategic Plan Template for its business. This workshop also comes with its own manual.
Performance Measurement
Management Teams and Boards
Our services for management teams and boards in performance measurement take two forms:
Assisting Clients to Develop Their Scoredcards of Key Performance Indicators. We are specialists in this area and apply a process which ensures that ownership of all output remains with a management team and board. We provide:
- A proven performance measurement framework.
- A carefully designed series of steps for teams to follow.
- Initial instruction to a group on the methods employed.
- Our throughly tested Performance Measurement Manual.
- Our unique Strategy Scorecard software for use in all workshops.
- A follow-up service during the scorecard's implementation.
In-house Performance Measurement Workshop. We also assist clients in their development by conducting a one-day, in-house workshop on performance measurement. This is a customised version of our public seminar called Key Performance Indicators.
Professional Associations
The highly successful seminar called "Performance Measurement for Governance Professionals" has been conducted across Australia for the Chartered Secretaries Australia. This three-and-half-hour session can also be customised and conducted for other professional groups such as consulting engineers, accountants, etc.
Implementing Strategy
Louis Gerstner, who was CEO of IBM from 1993 to 2002 during its major and life-saving turnaround, is quite definite: "Execution is really the critical part of successful strategy... All of the great companies in the world out-execute their competitors day in and day out in the marketplace." In our view, successful strategy implementation is one of the features that distinguishes the great from the also-ran organisations. From the work we undertake with organizations, we see many unimplemented strategic plans - some not fully implemented some not executed at all. This represents a major loss of opportunity for these clients. Poor implementation is commonplace and is one of the great failings of management teams and boards.
Management Teams and Boards
Our services for management teams and boards in implementation take two forms:
Assisting Clients to Implement Their Strategic Plans Fully and Effectively. This involves reviewing the effectiveness of a client's implementation practices and scoring its implementation success. We then assist the management team to implement the proven practices of successful implementers. To achieve this we lead the team through a carefully designed series of reviews and provide a follow-up service during the roll-out phase.
In-house Implementation Workshop. This three-and-half hour workshop reviews the obstacles to effective strategy implementation and considers the methods to overcome them. We take your management team, and board if required, through a series of steps that identifies what you need to do to see your strategic plan fully implemented. The workshop covers:
- Identifying underperformance issues caused by poor implementation.
- Impact of the drivers of poor implementation at different organization levels.
- Implementation techniques.
- Designing an implementation schedule.
The workshop is tailored to meet individual client needs and comes with a detailed manual, Strategy Implementation Toolkit. This contains templates for completion by workshop participants and produces an action-plan schedule.
Managing Diversification
Diversification, far from being the exception which people often think it is, is commonplace in business. Think of your local real estate agent - already in two businesses, property sales and property management. Diversification is also the norm in the public and not-for-profit sectors. Managing diversification brings together our unique set of skills in strategic planning and performance measurement with our special knowledge of how successful diversifiers operate.
Management Teams and Boards
Our services for management teams and boards in diversification take two forms:
Assisting Clients to Manage Diverse Operations Effectively. This involves enabling clients to implement the proven practices of successful diversifiers. To achieve this we lead management teams and boards through a carefully designed series of steps and provide a follow-up service during the implementation phase.
In-house Diversification Workshop. This three-and-half hour session is designed to meet client's specific needs in the area of diversification strategy and best-practice diversification management. Among the Diversification Workshop's outcomes are that it shows how to:
- Apply the features of successful diversifiers.
- Obtain the right balance in decentralisation of decision-making.
- Achieve business-unit competitive advantage.
- Establish an effective organisation-wide culture.
- Lift performance by diversifying effectively.
The workshop provides the latest developments in diversification practice and is accompanied by manuals and books. Each 42-page Diversification Toolkit manual contains check lists and templates that participants complete during the workshop. Each participant is also provided with Graham Kenny's critically acclaimed book, Diversification Blueprint.