strategic planning use cases | meeting facilitation | sme strategy

CASE STUDIES 2016 BUSINESS STRATEGY SOLUTIONS

ABOUT SME STRATEGY

Anthony C Taylor is the principal and lead strategic planning facilitator at SME Strategy. He holds a degree in business administration (BBA) as well as his Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) from the Project Management Institute.

SME Strategy was founded in 2011 by Anthony C Taylor, a Vancouver based entrepreneur, after a business partner had embezzled money from a previous venture. SME Strategy was originally founded to help business owners of small and medium enterprises (SME's) with things they didn't plan for, or expect.

SME Strategy still fulfills its original purpose, but now in 2016, it works with organizations to guide them through their strategic planning process to help them make better decisions, get better alignment, and successfully execute on their strategic plans.

Case Studies 2016 | SME - Strategy Management Consulting | i

CONTENTS

1 TO GROW OR NOT TO GROW? 1

2 WE ARE NOT MEETING MILESTONES – LET’S REGROUP 3

3 WHAT IS THE FUTURE AND HOW DO WE GET THERE? 5

4 A FORK IN THE ROAD 7

5 HOW DO WE SHARE BEST PRACTICES AND IMPROVE WHAT WE DO WELL? 9

6 TAKING A WIDE LENS TO SMALL ISSUES 11

Case Studies 2016 | SME - Strategy Management Consulting | 1

1 To Grow or Not to Grow?


THE SITUATION An organization with 200 employees recently separated from a strategic partner and was just settling into their new organizational structure. The company was profitable, and took on "the right amount" of growth by bidding on projects each year.

Their industry showed many possible opportunities over the next few years that they wanted to consider. As an owner-run business, with a five-person management team, they had questions about their future:

SHOULD WE GROW? WHY OR WHY NOT? WHAT PROJECTS WILL BRING THE MOST BENEFIT TO THE COMPANY IN THE FUTURE? WHICH AREAS SHOULD WE FOCUS ON? WHAT DO WE NEED TO CHANGE FROM AN ORGANIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE IF WE WANT TO GROW AND TAKE ON MORE PROJECTS?

THE SESSION Through two days of facilitated discussions, the team was able to identify areas in the organization that were acting as bottlenecks and slowing efficiency. For example, one of the key people was «silently» suffering because part of her job was under-resourced. The lack of resources, although minor, was having an effect on the whole supply chain. Once identified, this challenge (among others) could be addressed so that the team could determine action plans to work towards their desired future.

THE RESULTS At the end of the two and a half day session, the team had decided that it was in their best interest to grow; not because it would mean more money, but because it would challenge the management team and keep them engaged in their work. They were also able to forecast their future projects both existing and prospective so they could allocate resources appropriately.

At the end of the session, the team had action steps and priorities to increase their focus on. They identified challenges, made plans to address them, and most importantly created team alignment, which would propel them in the direction, they wanted to take over the next three years.


2 We are Not Meeting Milestones – Let’s Regroup


THE SITUATION An investor in a multi-million dollar international resource extraction project had encountered a financial pitfall. The organization’s investments, while proven to be profitable, had become encumbered by challenges from the previous management team and staff to the point where the company (that is not currently in a favourable pricing market) was financially in trouble.

Another round of investment would potentially be a viable option. However, they wanted to be sure that the new management team, leading a bare-bones staff, could make the necessary changes to ensure that when the pricing environment rebounded, the project would be prepared to produce results.

Why are we not meeting milestones? What do we need to do to keep this project going? What changes do we have to make internally to remove the toxic culture of the past?

THE SESSION SME Strategy met with the eight-person board of directors and the new CEO to determine what the future held for the company; what was needed of the CEO and the team to keep the project alive; and how to begin change management efforts. The outcome of this effort would support management and staff in their ability to meet milestones, which ultimately would regain investor confidence in the organization in a challenging financial market.

We worked with the directors to establish:

§ A unified vision of where the company wanted to be in the next 12-24 months based on different scenarios of the markets.

§ The roadblocks and risks inside the organization that had to be overcome before being able to achieve that future.

§ The reason milestones weren’t being met, steps to address the values and culture, and how to report progress more accurately.

§ The most valuable action steps for the CEO to undertake so that the project continues to make progress (despite being in a less than ideal funding situation).

THE RESULTS Taking the time to regain focus on strategic results and a more supportive culture demonstrated that the business was on track, which increased investor satisfaction. They have also attracted additional investment to continue with their value-added projects.

The business continues to make progress on their culture changes to remove negative behaviours that were part of the old culture.


3 What is the Future and How Do We Get There?


THE SITUATION A non-profit organization was formed to support other non-profits to accomplish their missions. Six years later the organization was successful on all accounts, but needed to figure out next steps to keep their organization moving forward.

An advisory board meeting was set to determine a vision for the future and what needed to be done to get there.

As a non-profit organization with limited funding they needed to decide:

Is our original mission/purpose still the same? Should we grow and what does that growth look like? What model to adopt? What does success look like in the future and how do we measure it? Who are the core customers and stakeholders and what do we do for them?

THE SESSION A half-day facilitated session with the board to discuss possible business models and alternative versions of the future, how they would create the most impact, and which steps were required to grow, scale and improve their financial sustainability.

Part of the process was to take their five-year vision and brake it down into action steps for year one and year two. Included in the first year was a five-month plan to implement and achieve key milestones.

THE RESULTS The board was able to agree upon the direction forward with clear action steps. Six months into their execution phase they had hit many of their key milestones for the year, and were well positioned to implement their plans for the following year.

SME Strategy will continue to work with them to monitor their progress against the plan and provide guidance towards next steps as they move into their next stage in their planning and implementation process.

Anthony facilitated a strategy session with the Project Management Volunteers PAG (Program Advisory Group) and did a great job. He was conscientious in his research in advance of the session, kept the discussion moving, ensured all parties contributed, and provided timely notes following the session. We hope to engage him again next year.

S. Hawkins Executive Director- PM-Volunteers


4 A Fork in the Road


THE SITUATION A small graphic design company was facing challenges in reaching alignment with their leadership team.

They recruited SME Strategy to facilitate a conversation that would help gain consensus about the direction of the company and to remedy the three divergent directions of leadership. This divergence was significantly impacting morale and the ability to finish projects in a timely and profitable manner:

How do we grow the company in line with our vision? What needs to change to make this happen? What are our priorities for the coming year? Are we ALL in agreement with our way forward?

THE SESSION During a half-day session, we worked with the team to clearly communicate the expectations and desired direction of the company from each of the individual director’s perspective. The discussion centered on pre-answered questions regarding priorities, performance, and desired vision. Each partner was able to share their thoughts in a safe environment that supported effective communication about the direction of the business, rather than a personal attack on any of the parties.

THE RESULTS While two of the directors were able to reach an agreement in regards to direction, one was unwilling to cede her way of doing things and ended up leaving the company to pursue her own vision. This allowed the two remaining partners to work on their aligned vision.


5 How Do We Share Best Practices and Improve What We Do Well?


Extremely professional, always personable, I thoroughly enjoyed the

opportunity to work with the dynamic team at SME Strategy Consulting. It

takes great talent to command the attention of a room full of CEOs. With

flawless facilitation execution SME Strategy Consulting led a group of 150

senior leaders through a World Café exercise. Not only do I highly

recommend Anthony Taylor and Andrew Reid, I am excited to find

opportunities to work with them again J.Wilkinson

THE SITUATION A professional association recruited SME Strategy to help them create dialog between 120 CEOs on the subject of safety in the workplace.

As part of one their major summits, we facilitated two activities to take advantage of the collective experience in the room in a way that was engaging and educational; helping them take actionable steps that they could implement immediately.

Our senior consultants worked with this organization to create key questions that would allow these individual CEOs to reflect and analyze their respective businesses and share their best practices as well as organizational challenges.

How do we take advantage of the combined knowledge of our members? What are the best practices occurring in our members’ organizations?

THE SESSION Our team facilitated a World Café exercise so that these leaders could learn from their peers in small groups as well as the ones that were in groups around the room.

(The World Café is where a question is placed on poster board and several of these questions are placed around the room. Groups move from one question to another simultaneously providing their own responses while seeing those from the previous groups. This methodology lets all attendees participate – even the soft-spoken ones.)

After the World Café exercise, we asked each CEO to pick one issue that their organization currently faces, to imagine what their organization would look like if that issue were solved, and to provide the action steps to implement that change.

The organizing committee then designed an accountability group so that these organizations could support each other throughout this change.

THE RESULTS In just over three hours our team was able to solicit a 20-page report of best practices and shared organizational challenges. This report was shared with participating companies so that they could take the best practices and the roadblocks (along with their solutions) back to their respective teams and safety managers.

Although the participants were from different companies and organizations, they all appreciated the approach to learn best practices from one another and valued the open channels of communication.


6 Taking a Wide Lens to Small Issues


THE SITUATION The management team of a 15-person professional services company hired SME Strategy to facilitate their yearly meeting. Normally, their meeting spans one day and focuses on individual issues with the two owners and the office manager. This year, they decided to approach the summit with more of a strategic lens on their business to address issues that would affect the company’s longer-term success:

How can we do things differently to improve results? Are we aware of key issues in the company that are impacting our bottom line?

THE SESSION SME Strategy created the agenda for the two days and adapted it to include items from the company’s usual summit. We first surveyed their team to get insights about where they thought the future company was going. Initially, the management team was unsure about using a survey because they had “just” surveyed their employees during their annual reviews and thought they had most of the data they needed. However, our comprehensive survey ended up identifying some of the main issues that were affecting the company, giving them more insight into the minds of their employees.

Over the course of the two days, the team shared their visions for the company, discussed internal issues (now and in the future) and created operational goals that would help them achieve greater success in the future. This time was also used to identify current challenges and to work through the steps they would need to take to address and change them.

THE RESULTS At the end of the session the team was surprised with how effective they had been compared to other summits, and how much important work they had been able to accomplish. They had manageable action steps and attainable strategic priorities, despite having already “full workloads”.

A few short weeks after the session the organization was able to see noticeable differences in workload, efficiency and morale of the organization after implementing the strategic priorities derived from the: Aligned Strategy Development session.

SME Strategy looks forward to supporting them in their growth and continued success.

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strategic planning use cases | meeting facilitation | sme strategy

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