How Strategic Planning Creates a
Roadmap to Success

When we meet with new clients, one of the first things we ask is “what makes you unique?”. It can be challenging to answer for some, but it helps us start the strategic planning process. At MC Advisory, we don’t believe your company should be competing to be number one — it ignores the power of choice and focus. What we want you to strive for is to be unique.

With MC Advisory, we work with you to create a strategy that defines your uniqueness. This strategic planning offers a roadmap of long term choices to distinguish you from the competition.

What is Strategy?

Strategy is not about competing to be the best. Strategy is about competing to find a unique mix of value that separates you from your competitors. It requires a clear sense of purpose and that demands clarity around who your customers are and what needs you’re trying to meet. And then it comes down to choice, making the necessary — and at times very tough — choices across your business that will enable you to compete differently.

An effective strategy requires you to think 10+ years in the future and to build your strategy back. It requires you to zoom out to big issues and trends and then zoom back into implementation.

Strategy for Your Entire Company

A successful strategy includes the following five characteristics:

1. Unique Value Proposition: This defines what you are going to do differently compared to others to deliver a higher level of value.
2. Distinctive Value Chain: This defines how you are going to operate the company differently compared to others in order to deliver your uniqueness
3. Clear Trade Offs: Choosing what not to do is as important as choosing what to do. Tradeoffs make strategy sustainable against competitors. Focus is fundamental for strategy to be effective.
4. Integration: Designing how your full organization works together is how you achieve the flywheel effect. The parts of the organization need to reinforce the whole organization.
5. Continuity of Strategic Direction: Strategy is a long term play. Who you are and why you are unique is a bet you need to stick with in order to become a great company.

The intention of your strategy needs to be tangible, something all your employees will understand and get behind. Making your strategy clear, easy to understand and making its progress easy to track leads to your employees being able to see how they can contribute and make an impact. This tangible and clear strategy invites all the people that comprise your organization to be emotionally motivated.

Let’s Build Your Road Map

We will work with you to help create a strategy that defines your uniqueness. Our approach, experience, and framework facilitates the process for making the long term choices necessary to distinguish you from the competition and helps you turn that into the action plan to deliver.

You’ve worked hard to run a good business. Now, let’s work together and take it to the next level. The MC Advisory team will help you unlock your uniqueness and make your intentions and goals tangible. Our role in working with you to develop your strategic plan will be to own the process, facilitate the exercise, guide and challenge to enrich the thinking, and ultimately to enable your success.

Connect with Drew

Ready to work together? Reach out to Drew Barbour, Managing Director and Senior Advisor at MC Advisory, and we’ll get started. Previously leading global businesses and delivering transformative advisory work in over 50 countries across a broad set of sectors and practice areas, Drew was pleased to return to his Atlantic Canadian roots to lead and help launch MC Advisory. As Managing Director, Drew aims to help Atlantic Canadian leaders to innovate, transform and plan for success over the long term.

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MC Advisory has prepared this document for information only; it is not intended to be business advice. You should consult MC Advisory about your unique circumstances before acting on this information.

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