In their relentless pursuit of excellence, there is a valuable service that many corporates and governments use.

Indeed, so valuable is this service that organisations will gladly pay more than US $180,000 per week to access it. 

The service?  Strategy consulting.

As the term suggests, strategy consulting is where corporations receive expert strategy advice from qualified strategy consultants.  Global strategy consulting firms like McKinsey, Boston Consulting and Bain are in high demand, with McKinsey’s annual revenue exceeding US$10 billion a year.

Why the demand? Leaders understand the importance of strategy and go to great lengths to see that their strategy and execution is on point.

More evidence of the importance of strategy is the growth of an executive position that many leading companies have onboard.

That position?  The Chief Strategy Officer, or CSO.

As a senior strategist the CSO works closely with the CEO/MD, board and other leaders to facilitate all aspects of strategy.

The CSO position has evolved from the early 2000s and is now very much mainstream.  According to the 2023 Deloitte’s CSO survey, 74% of firm’s surveyed now have a dedicated strategy function headed by a CSO or strategy leader, and working under the direction of the CEO/MD.

The Complete Process of Strategy – And the Key to Making Strategy Work

The complete process of strategy is known as strategic management.  And as highlighted here, strategic management is the overarching leadership skill.

And a key to making strategy work?  It is having access to highly skilled and qualified strategists.

Strategy Consulting

Ben M. Bartlett offers several strategy consulting services to help you improve strategic performance – OnCall CSO and Strategy Projects.

OnCall CSO is our flagship strategy consulting and coaching service that gives you ongoing access to a master strategist.

And Strategy Projects is for one-off complex projects such as the design and development of intangible assets/IP, building strategy systems, and troubleshooting and turning around a dysfunctional team culture.

In terms of process, our consulting services apply the 4 phases of strategic management.

Phase One – Strategic Research/Analysis/Scorecarding

For the strategic research/analysis/scorecarding phase we take both a helicopter (top down) and microscopic (inside out) look at your business – or even a proposed investment business.  And, depending upon the scope of the assignment, we can review and audit areas such as:

• Values system and culture
• Intangible asset/IP portfolio and value
• Strategic positioning
• Leadership skill set and values
• Business/team brand 
• Product/service mix and brands
• Channel strategy
• Staff recruitment processes
• Back end revenue strategy and economics
• Margins and pricing
• Target markets and/or end users
• Sales processes
• Internal structures and processes
• Skill base/core competencies
• Personal goals, desires and ambitions
• Lead generation campaigns
• Sales force effectiveness
• Advertising effectiveness
• Customer retention
• Financial metrics

In reviewing financial performance we can go deeper than analyzing traditional metrics such as revenue growth, cashflow, COGS and EBITD.  We can also look at factors such as where the revenue has derived from, cost per lead, cost per acquisition, retention rate and other little known yet highly critical financial indicators.  This is important analytical information that even many accountants don’t know about.

Phase Two – Ideation, Problem Solving and Planning

Building upon the research findings and insights acquired in phase one, phase two involves using these insights to generate ideas and solve problems.

In phase two design thinking really comes to the fore, as this is the phase where the skills of creativity and innovation are heavily applied.

Ideas and solutions created in phase two can include:

• Re-building the Values System
• Re-positioning your business or products
• Adjusting your product portfolio
• Changing target markets
• Altering sales model and systems
• Changing pricing structure
• Re-branding ideas
• Amending business structure or systems
• Liquidating/selling off business units
• Implementing different marketing campaigns and approaches

Phase Three – Strategy Systems Development

Phase three is the strategy development phase and primarily involves the development of your strategic brands and other key assets.  Specific assets we look to develop in this phase are the intangible assets, which are:

• Human capital 
• Values System
• Economic Franchise Business model
• Strategic Brands
• Champion Team System
• Performance systems
• Integrated marketing system
• Strategic Relationships and Database
• Productised IA (intangible assets) and IP (intellectual property)

Part of the strategy development phase may include the design of a OnePager Plan or business model canvas, which highlights your entire strategy on an A0-A1 page.  The OnePager can include the following elements:

1. Strategic vision and position
2. Economic franchise concept and strategy
3. Strategic objectives
4. Philosophy (Values system)
5. Leadership group 
6. Strategic brand portfolio (Business/team, products and services, personal)
7. Integrated marketing system (Lead follow up, conversion, brand development, cost management, team performance and asset growth)

Phase Four – Execution Prep/Strategy Execution

Phase four is the execution prep and strategy execution phase which involves generating brand awareness and monetising your assets.

If you’re considering investing in another business, our strategic consulting services can help you there as well. Post-analysis reporting will highlight strengths and weaknesses of that business, and then offer recommendations based on the results of the analysis.

The cost? Start with a free strategy briefing

When you consider that corporate and government strategy consultants charge as much as US$180,000 week for their services, it makes our strategy services insanely cheap by comparison, with fees starting as low as $20,000 for Strategy Projects.

To learn more about strategy consulting, request a free strategy briefing.

To organise your briefing – which may be attended by up to 10 members of your executive team – email ben (at) benmbartlett.com.

Also, if you haven’t yet done so, complete the form below to get your subscription to the Strategic Lessons newsletter, our free e-newsletter on strategic performance.