But others come to us looking for concrete advice on developing their strategy, and we have a very practical approach.

The traditional approach to strategy is to complete some type of environmental scan, and then produce a strategy in response. Seems logical enough, but we believe it’s at the heart of why 80% of companies fail to actually execute their strategies.

Every industry is ruled by a set of drivers that ultimately determine success. In computer chip manufacturing, for example, innovation is a driver of success (along with other factors).

These drivers are not just influencing, but actually determining one company’s success over its competitors.



Actions your company takes very day are either favorably - or unfavorably - affecting your value drivers. Of course your company can be unaware of its value drivers, having never clearly defined and documented them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not driving your success. They’re a bit like gravity in that respect. You can step off a ledge without having never acknowledged gravity, but it will pull you down all the same.

Our practical approach to strategy puts the horse first, then the cart.

We help management first define what really drives success in the business (i.e., Innovation for computer chip manufactures for example). Typically this boils down to a half dozen to dozen Value Drivers.

Once we’ve debated and reached consensus on what those Value Drivers are, the next step is to determine the Critical Outcome Measures for each driver. For example, “Innovation” may be the Value Driver, and “The percent of sales coming from products introduced in the last two years” may be a Critical Outcome Measure.

Strategies can then be designed to move these Value Drivers in the right direction and achieve specific targets.

That’s what our clients have referred to as practical strategy. Not strategy for the sake of having a strategy, but strategy that’s designed to favorably influence what drives success in your business.

You can find more detail on this approach by visiting our Buttonwood VP section.