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Role of the Corporate Strategy Officer

Your company is thinking about creating a new role: strategy specialist. This person should support the entire strategy creation cycle and help produce a strategic plan with impact. But what exactly should be that person’s responsibilities? What uncommon value should they add?

For other past articles, see https://blog.fwconsulting.com

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit longtermstrategy.substack.com/subscribe

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What Role Does a Corporate Strategy Officer Play?

Your company is thinking about creating a new role: strategy specialist. This person should support the entire strategy creation cycle and help produce a strategic plan with impact. But what exactly should be that person’s responsibilities? What uncommon value should they add?

The challenge of filling this position is unique. Why? Strategy is the main job of the CEO or MD. They birth a new plan in a retreat or offsite, then ensure it gets implemented effectively. The effort is meant to define the future of the organization and accomplish outstanding results.

In many companies, the top executive is the only person who is consistently looking far ahead.

As such, strategy specialists are playing specific support roles. Here are some unique activities they should undertake.

  1. Manage and Change the Strategic Planning Process

The best practices for crafting a strategic plan are constantly in flux. For example, if you are still doing a SWOT analysis in your planning meetings in 2023, it’s a sign of outdated thinking.

The most qualified person to manage and update the strategic planning process in your company could be the strategy specialist. They can do the research needed to uncover improvements and test fresh technology. This keeps the process running efficiently, engaging participants along the way.

The truth is, it’s quite hard to create a great strategic plan with a bad process. Some may think it’s a matter of personality, but I differ. While a “strong” leader can make a difference, this is a group effort.

A strategy specialist recognizes this fact and knows that a top quality plan needs a wide range of employees to implement them. What holds them together is a well-defined process and skilled facilitation.

  1. Craft a Special Role During Implementation

When the planning cycle is over and implementation has begun, a strategy specialist needs to be wary of picking up the role of de facto project manager of “strategic initiatives.”

Instead, leave that role to the Project or Programme Management Office – PMO. This is, after all, their area of expertise. Alternately, focus on feeding the executive team with critical updates from outside. Here’s why it’s important.

Once a strategic plan has been completed, it’s not like adding another unit to a 1,000 home housing scheme. A carbon copy. Instead, it represents a compilation of brand new thinking.

As such, each strategic plan is built with a number of untested hypotheses, which themselves rest on a foundation of assumptions.

No-one can know for sure whether the hypotheses and assumptions are correct. But the strategy specialist must track whether they hold up as life unfolds.

In other words, long before an executive detects that there’s a huge threat to the current strategy, the specialist should have picked up early warning signs. In this sense, he/she is like a detective, scanning the horizon for bits of pertinent information which indicate a changing headwind.

It may be an industry trend. Or a fresh technology. Or a new government regulation. Perhaps a surprise competitor has emerged. These are all developments which threaten the foundations of the current strategy.

As such, they must be weighed and measured to determine if a revisit is necessary.

  1. Measure Implementation

At the same time specialists monitor the external world, they should ensure that the plan is taking root in the organization.

Most companies have past horror stories about strategic plans which were crafted, and sounded good on paper, but never reached implementation.

There are a number of pitfalls which can occur. Some have to do with a lack of accountability. There are difficult, feedback conversations which just don’t take place.

Part of the reason lies with a manager’s missing skills. But he/she also lacks data.

I recommend you use the Balanced Scorecard to measure how well your strategic plan is being implemented. It can also be used to test the assumptions and hypotheses within the plan.

In both cases, the company’s leaders can see at a glance whether implementation is actually taking place. But are they required to watch the numbers this closely?

Absolutely. Every single strategic plan is intended to move the needle in an organization. This change occurs at the expense of prior habits and priorities. The battle to make these changes is real.

The specialist ensures that this progress is being made. They also raise a flag when not enough is happening to ensure success.

In summary, the strategy specialist role is an unusual one that most organizations have not identified clearly. However, every serious organization must perform these functions. Even if they are all conducted by the CEO, they should never be allowed to fall through the cracks.

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Has Your Vision Statement Lost Its Punch?

You want to engage your staff around a bright, hopeful future. At some point in the past, a two-paragraph vision statement did the trick. But lately, it’s gone stagnant. What should you do to restore the inspiration it once provided? Should you change the words, or try something different?

You aren’t alone. Most companies have vague statements which sound a lot like each other. With phrases such as integrity and world-class being thrown around, you could probably swap your statement with another company’s without anyone raising a fuss.

The truth is that traditional vision statements have lost their potency, like a drug which has reached its expiry date. Today, there’s clickable inspiration available on Facebook, WhatsApp and TikTok, and your old statement just can’t compete.

But there’s a lesson here as well. In your next strategic planning retreat, you need to do more than build your vision of the future with a few flowery words. Here are some concrete steps to paint a vivid picture or end-vision employees find irresistible.

  1. Give Your End-Vision a Deadline

When you announce a traditional vision statement, if it has no year attached to it, folks in your audience do something interesting. Some believe it will be reached within a year, at most. Others assume 100 years. And if you leave this discrepancy in place, you force staff to eventually ignore it altogether. Why?

They see it as a farce. A con job.

And don’t complain that this wasn’t your intention. The world has changed and expectations have risen. Now, a vision statement needs a year attached to bring the kind of accountability which makes people sit up and pay attention.

If you already have a statement, but it’s “timeless”, launch a new effort. Don’t simply tag on a cool deadline. The way you picture the future must keep up with modern norms if you want it to be noticed.

  1. A Vision Needs to Be Both Quantitative and Qualitative

Executives often make the mistake of believing that staff are motivated by financial results the way they are. Why? Most leaders’ rise up the ranks is a function of their ability to impact the bottom-line. Consequently, when they join the C-Suite, they are fluent in a certain language: the drivers of shareholder value.

However, employees aren’t interested as much.

Instead, a vision must be described in terms that do more than benefit the wealthiest 1%. Today, staff want to make a difference in the work they do and smart leaders develop empathy for this fact.

As such, the best executives describe holistic “visions” in detail. What do they look like? For a particular target year far off in the future, both quantitative and qualitative terms are used. They include as many as 20-40 descriptors and metrics. Together, these paint a rich picture of an end-game that pulls everyone in.

  1. A Vision Must Include ESG Goals

At the moment, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goal-setting is in its infancy. For most companies, it’s a response to investors’ complaints.

As such, organizations are adding a layer of ESG tactics on top of their profit motives.

But most of these efforts are reactive and will miss the boat completely. Why? The ESG movement is actually a revolt against short-termism.

How did it come about? By focusing only on 5-year results, corporate leaders forced organizations to be profit-driven only. As such, other factors and impacts were overlooked.

It’s an easy error to make. For example, many international companies doing business in Jamaica have ignored their surrounding communities. That is until their executives have to be airlifted and escorted from the compound in the middle of a violent strike.

But there’s a solution. Take your company through the process of developing a 15-30 year vision along with a strategy to accomplish it. This will return the balance. Why? When you plan far into the future, you are forced to consider all salient factors.

However, if you try to squeeze ESG concerns into your five-year plan, prepare for your staff to decry its stupidity. They may not complain openly. But their reaction will be to seek inspiration elsewhere, where they can find some authenticity, e.g. church or social media.

Not that this is easy. Big picture, long-term engagement is not taught in business schools.

But it can be learned and coached into existence. And it can be programmed into your business by following a sound long-term strategic planning process.

The world is approaching a time when only holistic visions, which are big, realistic and balanced, will gain respect. Investors have begun to notice and so have employees. Don’t let short-termism ruin your leadership.

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What Happens When Vision Statements Lose Their Potency

You want to engage your staff around a bright, hopeful future. At some point in the past, a two-paragraph vision statement did the trick. But lately, it’s gone stagnant. What should you do to restore the inspiration it once provided? Should you change the words, or try something different?

To read prior columns visit https://blog.fwconsulting.com

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit longtermstrategy.substack.com/subscribe

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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How to create and dominate business categories

In your company’s strategic planning activities, you hope to make more than incremental improvements. Instead, your team dreams of brilliant decisions and breakthrough results. But are these a matter of luck? While fortune plays a role, Digicel’s introduction to the mobile telephony market is an example of a new competency: “category design.”

Christopher Lochhead would be proud of Digicel. He belongs to a cohort of content creators who call themselves the “Category Pirates.”

For past columns, visit https://blog.fwconsulting.com

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit longtermstrategy.substack.com/subscribe

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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How to create and dominate business categories

In your company’s strategic planning activities, you hope to make more than incremental improvements. Instead, your team dreams of brilliant decisions and breakthrough results. But are these a matter of luck? While fortune plays a role, Digicel’s introduction to the mobile telephony market is an example of a new competency: “category design.”

Christopher Lochhead would be proud of Digicel. He belongs to a cohort of content creators who call themselves the “Category Pirates.”

Responsible for several best-selling books, they argue that companies should not compete with other firms in existing categories. Instead, they should create and dominate brand new ones.

While this is far easier said than done, consider the example of Digicel.

Back in early 2001, cell phones in Jamaica were reserved for the privileged few. One would drop off a handset at a Cable and Wireless office for a few days, weeks, or months. The duration was unpredictable, and you needed to visit the building to see if the job was done.

You couldn’t help but notice employees who appeared annoyed at the intrusion. To the company, this was a minor operation…a nuisance. Many believed the local demand for this service was tiny. As a result, cell-phone signals were sporadic, perhaps offered in just enough locations to keep customers from complaining too much.

Looking back, it may seem that Digicel’s subsequent capture of 70% market share showed the power of competition. However, the company was actually doing something else your organization should consider: crafting a new category of service where no competitor existed. Here’s how they did it in spite of considerable risk.

1) New Technology

If Digicel were just another adversary, it would have used the same TDMA/CDMA technology C&W was using. Instead, it made a big bet on an approach Jamaicans had never seen: SIM-based, GSM.

To sign up, people would not only have to buy a phone but also a chip. Consequently, there were more moving parts. With the island’s low literacy rate, some believed people could not manage the sequence of actions required.

2) Island-Wide Coverage

If Digicel were merely competing with C&W, it would have fought to steal away high-value corporate and individual accounts in Upper St. Andrew. After all, they were existing users who could afford another monthly bill.

Instead, Digicel defined a new market. It offered service to some 75%+ of Jamaicans, only excluding the handful in the most remote locations.

This was a revolutionary strategy, and there was no guarantee it would work. Could ordinary people cover the added expense? Would they travel to a store (sometimes far away) to purchase a SIM card? How many were willing to learn how to use this new technology?

3) Customer Non-Care

C&W was well known for the poor service it offered to Caribbean customers. As a former part of the government, it appeared to be staffed with the worst of the former civil servants.

Digicel promised to offer a level of face-to-face service that was unprecedented. In the early days, it clearly delivered a stunning degree of customer care. Also, it undertook reward programs and prizes that gamified the business of mobile telephony for the first time. For several years, they offered cars as gifts for lucky customers during their annual Christmas promotions.

In retrospect, these three moves may seem to be obvious. But back then, it was a huge risk because each one relied on the other. Assumptions were made which could only be proven on launch day.

Yet, it still worked. Other islands in the region were envious as Jamaica rid itself of an unwanted monopoly…within days.

But this was no incremental improvement over C&W’s service…like yet another copycat pan chicken stand on Red Hills Road. It was a radical new strategy that combined fresh elements which had never been introduced to the Caribbean at scale.

Note that we Jamaicans love to “follow-fashion” each other, favoring the apparent safety of large numbers. It drove us to Olint and Cash Plus. Today it’s driving us to build high-end apartments on every available open lot.

It takes courage to bring about a new future, using only imagination and vision. But the good news is that this capability isn’t unique. This power is available to your organization.

But first you must understand that the essence of a breakthrough strategy is not duplication. Or competition. It’s “difference making” in which leaders define a new category in order to unlock fresh value.

Digicel did it, and so can your company in its next strategic planning session. I don’t intend to imply that doing so is easy. But there are proven methods for giving your creativity free rein that could lead to outstanding results.

This article was originally published in the Jamaica Gleaner.
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Why People Analytics Isn’t Just for HR

Your company is aware of people analytics. It wants to use these techniques to increase productivity. But it’s not clear who should champion this transformation: HR or another unit?

In companies across the world, COVID has accelerated the call for data-driven innovation. Consequently, managers in your organization are concerned. Productivity has fallen due to work-from-home arrangements, but are they thinking about improving it in the best way?

The traditional approach to determine knowledge-worker productivity is borrowed from the factory floor. Put people together in tight quarters. Keep a close eye on them. Then, make sure their bodies are doing the right things.

However, COVID has blown a hole in that practice. Now, it’s obvious that, unlike physical work, knowledge work can be performed anywhere. But this fact hasn’t stopped your managers from campaigning for a return to “the good old days”.

Fortunately, stale, inefficient ways of full-time face-to-face working aren’t coming back. Also, companies which insist on treating employees as if they are manual workers will see their best people leave. Why? Top performers prefer to work with colleagues who trust them to do their finest work, regardless of physical location.

Case in point: a local colleague conducted a search for a remote job. His queries uncovered a company on the US West Coast. Consequently, this A-class worker quit his government position for an organization 3000 miles away.

If this transition is one your best people also wish to make, your organization should beware. Consider the growing use of People Analytics as a productivity tool to help workers and managers become more effective and engaged. Here are three steps.

  1. Retire Old Productivity Indicators

Before COVID, everyone knew a Chatty Cathy who talked a good game in the office. This polished extrovert speaks well. Studies show that her tendency to pipe up first is seen as a sign of leadership ability.

Some Cathys also make it their business to remain highly visible. They attend all meetings involving executive exposure. They never stay quiet, so their voices are known.

Finally, Cathys always arrive to work early and leave late. And on weekends, email threads never lack their input.

In summary, Cathys play into the weakness of managers who judge productivity visually. This lazy method of assessment promotes Cathys, even if their actual work is only average.

Unfortunately for them, COVID has changed the game. Gone are the visual cues Chatty Cathy used to wow managers. And the old flawed ways of measuring her productivity may never return.

  1. New Productivity Challenges Being Ignored

If you have never heard of “People Analytics” you may not realize that it’s an update to the notion of “HR Analytics”.

They are used everywhere employees can be found…not just in HR. For example, metrics are being gathered to reverse productivity losses in two nagging areas: email and meetings.

Both problems have become worse due to COVID according to research by Harvard Business School. In spite of the negative impact, companies treat them like rush-hour traffic – something we all hate but can do nothing about.

Today, rudimentary analytics tools are measuring both.

For example, your company could end each meeting with a smartphone survey of attendees. This should improve its quality.

Email effectiveness can also be surveyed manually, but that’s not all. Sites like emailanalytics.com measure an individual’s message volume and responsiveness automatically.

For instance, it helps you see that a manager who has 3,456 unread email messages is not just “bad at email”. He is a nuisance to his colleagues and an unproductive detriment to the bottom line.

I mention these two areas because they are relatively easy to measure. All it takes is a serious commitment to productivity. Plus a willingness for managers to use data to identify their lack of efficiency.

  1. HR’s Capacity to Lead People Analytics

Your HR Department may not be thinking in this way yet. It may not even have tools or skills available. The truth is that few are ready to lead their companies in this area.

Instead, HR has earned a reputation for being numbers and technology averse. This is a bigger problem than ever given the growing requirement for managers to use People Analytics. They want to impact every aspect of worker performance, not just productivity problems.

Eventually, managers will find the analytics they need even if they must do the search themselves. But this isn’t the best solution.

The revolution in your company’s People Analytics needs to start from HR Departments who understand how and why workers work. The future beckons professionals in HR to stay abreast and get ahead if they intend to remain relevant.

Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search his prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com.