27/10/2009 by Stephen Coe.

Strategies initiatives fail either through poor implementation or because they simply do not deliver timely results.

It is the latter that I will discuss here, as I advocate that strategy development should be handled in a process managed way.

It is far too easy for a strategy team to go off tangentally from their remit into areas that are way beyond the company’s area of competence. It is also the case that teams will get bogged down in the weeds, seeking ever greater levels of data and in doing so failing to see the big picture.

A sound project management approach controls and reduces these diversions, it keeps the team on track and delivers results in a timely fashion.

At Balmoral Strategy Development Limited we adopt an approach that is based upon Prince2 project management methodology.

Listed below are what we consider essential criteria

1.  Each project starts with the creation of a terms of reference, which clearly deliverables, expectations and contraints. This must be signed off by all interested parties.
2. All projects have a steering group , which reviews, assesses outputs and provides feedback throughout the process.
3. All teams potential members are subject to interview and personality profiling. Only when the right blend of experience and personality types are recruited does the project formally begin.
4. All projects are assigned a process/project manager, who is a process expert and experienced facilitator.

I would recommend you all to consider a managed process approach the next time your are considering a strategy develompent project.

As usual all comments welcome - Stephen Coe , Director Balmoral Strategy Development Limited

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01/10/2009 by Stephen Coe.

I have just returned from the Leicester Business Event 2009 held once again at the Walkers Stadium. I must say that I was impressed by the number of people who took the time to attend the event. The deepest days of the recession maybe behind us, but there are still hard times ahead for many. That is why it was refreshing to see so many people networking and to hear once again talk of growth. What was equally refreshing was the number of new faces in attendance, young SME’s and start-ups busily taking notes and absorbing the advice and information that was on offer.

All the people that I spoke to, recognised the need for a clear strategy, that addresses the changed world that we now live in. This is something that has become a recurring theme of mine for those of you who follow this blog. If you have not already begun the process we at Balmoral Strategy Development encourage you all to do so as soon as possible or run the risk of being left behind.

As usual all comments welcome - Stephen Coe, Director Balmoral Strategy Development Ltd

Posted in Competitive Advantage, Strategy Process, Trends, Business Strategy | Print | No Comments »

09/09/2009 by Stephen Coe.

So your company has weathered the storm and thoughts are once again turning towards growth. Even though we are told the worst of the recession is over, growth is likely to remain very slow for the next 18 months. This may make CEO’s look towards M&A as a way of growing the company and satisfying their brow beaten shareholders.

Acquisitions can provide a quick fix, but at Balmoral Strategy Development we would caution against knee jerk action. M&A seldom delivers the benefits claimed when the idea is first mooted.

At Balmoral Strategy Development , we argue that M&A is merely one option to deliver a previously developed long term strategy. Opportunistic M&A is fraught with danger, often the claimed increase in market share and internal efficiency can be gained in other far less risky ways.

A mistake many make is that they focus almost exclusively on balance sheet synergies and fail to pay the necessary attention to issues surrounding company culture. Culture merging is the most difficult to achieve and we believe that it is the single most important reason that a large number of M&A’s fail to deliver. 

In summary we firmly advocate that a validated strategy must come first and that M&A is considered as one of several ways of delivering that strategy.

As usual all comments welcome - Stephen Coe, Director, Balmoral Strategy Development Limited 

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28/08/2009 by Stephen Coe.

Competitive advantage is vested in a range of competencies which when combined provide a level of uniqueness. Sustainable competitive advantage requires maintenance of that level of uniqueness through continual development. Competencies themselves are a complex combination of; skills, processes, technologies and assets.

This is recognised by leading companies worldwide, which is why most have set up formalised competency development processes.

At Balmoral Strategy Development Limited we term this a competency development plan and it is a fundamental element of our strategy development work. 

We also believe that this overall process can be cascaded down to an individual level and have created a process whereby competency development plans can be created for all employees.

Synthesis of these plans then allows company needs to be matched with the aspirations of its employees in an holistic way, with obvious benefits to all.

As usual all comments welcome - Stephen Coe - Director Balmoral Strategy Development Limited 

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04/08/2009 by Stephen Coe.

Lack of real innovation causes stagnation and eventual decline. Real innovation fulfils a unmet need whether it be known or unarticulated. Innovation makes lives easier or richer. Innovation is not about a continual adding of features not offer little or no benefit. In the past decade we have seen sustained growth and consumers have been eager to lap up anything on offer.  It became to easy for companies to grow with little to no innovation.

Cast your minds back 5 years and how many new products and services have really made a significant difference to our lives?

Post recession we are likely to see a new class of customer. A consumer who is more thrifty with their cash, more product savvy and much more demanding.  Recycling and repackaging the same old value proposition will not be sustainable.

At Balmoral Strategy Development , we believe that innovation should be woven into the fabric of every company’s DNA. It is why we give it so much focus during our strategy development projects.

I urge you all to start thinking INNOVATION today.

As usual all comments welcome - Steve

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02/07/2009 by Stephen Coe.

As the world begins the slow march out of recession, it may be time to consider what has changed and how will doing business be different going forward. More importantly is to consider how as a company, you yourselves need to change to meet new challenges.

At Balmoral Strategy Development we believe that there is great potential and opportunity in challenging both internal company and external industry orthodoxies and there is no better time than now.

As usual all comment welcome - Stephen Coe, Director at Balmoral Strategy Development Ltd

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23/06/2009 by Stephen Coe.

Politicians, business leaders and commentators are now speaking of green shoots  and of being over the worst of the recession. Whether that is true is yet unclear, but what is certainly true is that time will wait for no one and delay in planning  for the future upturn, could well prove to be very costly in the long term.

Reluctance to commit to a new strategy at this time is understandable, many business leaders will feel that it is too soon and far too risky. At Balmoral Strategy Development we feel that that there is far greater risk in delay.

So how do we address the issue of risk? The Balmoral Strategy approach borrows from a process used in engineering called failure mode effects analysis or FMEA for short. This approach attempts to quantify risk in terms of impact and likelihood. Having determined the major risks mitigation plans can then be developed that minimise both the likelihood and impact.

As always , all comments are welcome - Stephen Coe , Director Balmoral Strategy Development Limited 

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03/04/2009 by Stephen Coe.

History provides indisputable evidence that companies with strong forward looking strategies emerge from a recession in a much better position than those that merely work to survive.

Yes times are tough, costs need to be cut. But at Balmoral Strategy Development we believe that companies with forward looking strategies have the potential to redefine their futures.

We urge everyone to cast aside the status quo and orthodoxy ,to be bold, ambitious and act now.

Posted in Economy, Orthodoxies, Business Strategy | Print | No Comments »

23/03/2009 by Stephen Coe.

OK simple question , what is the aim of your business strategy?

The prime reason for any business strategy should be to deliver profitable growth.  Unless you are into philanthropy or plan on going out of business soon, then if your strategy is not delivering, I suggest you ditch it now, because having a bad strategy is far worse than having no strategy.

As usual all comments welcome - Stephen Coe, Director Balmoral Strategy Development Liimted

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15/03/2009 by Stephen Coe.

While it is easy and convenient to blame the bankers for all our woes, we should remember that we have all benefitted to some degree from the cheap source of credit that they provided. The problem is that we have beocome addicted to living off of that credit and now that it has been taken away it hurts. We need to be weaned off, but the rapid contraction of credit has meant that for many it is a case of cold turkey.

The US and UK are the leading protagonists for pumping money into the system, but the G20 may be wise to listen to some of the more cautious. The tools being employed are blunt instruments and it is very likely that unless caution is exercised we will be facing inflation problems in 3 years time. They also do not tackle the fundamental problem of getting us, the general public back to a more Victorian mentality, kick the I want it now credit fix and to start living within our means.

Maybe cold turkey is the pain that we must go through to get there.

As usual all comments welcome - Stephen Coe, Director Balmoral strategy Development Limited

Posted in Economy, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »