Board Matters International. Your Strategic Success, Our Capability

We work with clients to help them identify, clarify and refine their strategy and are passionate about our clients achieving their defined strategy.

We don’t confuse goals with strategy as organisations need a successful strategy to achieve their goals.

Strategy Theory

Appointing a consultant to help you is one thing. Many firms can competently put a document together. However, that is where most firms stop and leave the execution to you. According to research, 67% of strategic plans fail. There are many reasons for this, but the lack of experienced practitioners to assist you through the entire cycle, including implementation, is a key one.

A lot of research papers are available on the web from respected academic institutions. Indeed, the study and research of strategy and associated change programmes is ongoing for more than 40 years. In truth, it is virtually impossible to know how many strategic plans are indeed successful, as that would imply perfect knowledge of every one that exists, the context under which the plans are developed; moreover, the people charged with their execution, the structure of the organisation and the competitive landscape each organisation faces.

There is a lot in that last paragraph to unpack. Let’s start with people. According to one author published in the Harvard Business Review, Executives fail to Execute Strategy because they are too internally focused. The article refers to a statistic that 61% of surveyed Executives indicated that they were not prepared for the strategic challenges they faced upon being appointed to senior leadership roles. Further, it points out that 70% of leaders measured in another study spent one day per month reviewing strategy and even worse, 85% of another set of respondents spent less than 1 hour per month discussing strategy.

Are your Executives equipped for task and are they surrounded by the right people? Is the Board sufficiently supportive, acting as a critical friend would?

Strategy Implementation

Successfully implementing strategy requires a comparison to the organisational structure – is that fit for purpose and well positioned to embrace successful execution? Similarly, how have you planned for change; is it entirely top down driven or have you catered for allowing change to take hold from the roots up? For more on our approach to implementing change, read here.

When looking at your strategy, do you know what your customers actually want? Further, do you understand the competitive landscape; future developments, regulatory application and broader world developments that will impact upon you?

We are only scratching the surface here, however, what we do know is that leadership is indeed a lonely place. The value of wise, unbiased counsel from people who have been there, done that is significant. In fact, we believe it is essential.

So make sure your strategy is exactly that; not just a statement of goals that, on the balance of probability, will fail.

Our Partners are more than just consultants. With extensive international experience gained in top C-Suite roles, they have a wealth of experience to draw upon. With truly global market coverage, they understand the bigger picture and through their connectedness can provide valuable insight to inform your strategic thinking.

We will force you to think – no one hour per month effort.

Leadership is hard.

Strategy is not easy; no one has a crystal ball, however, with the right people around you and a broad appreciation of all of the appropriate levers that influence your thinking, success chances are much greater.

A Winning Strategy is Everything

As Directors the buck stops with you. Responsible for successfully stewarding your company, you are responsible for ensuring it has a great strategy and that it has in place a first class ability to execute this.

Appointing a firm to coach and facilitate quality strategy formulation is good for you, particularly the Non Executive Directors who do not have a day to day execution remit.

At Board Matters International, our people know the challenges facing board and C-Level executives. We also see that boards need solutions and true lifecycle help that marry best practice to the grounded reality of business.

WHY BOARD MATTERS INTERNATIONAL?

• Our firm comprises experienced Directors who serve boards. Our advisory is bespoke, tailored and delivered by those with real experience
• As practitioners, we ground everything in real experience and advise you as such
• Board Matters International will get to the point and be honest. Selling a non-required service is not what we do
• Our partners and associates have a track record of both advising and performance.
• As with all our services, we are a discreet firm and operate accordingly with you.

For a confidential discussion of your requirements, contact us today