CPO Newsletter - October 2007

Strategy, yes I have a strategy…….

…..we hear this all the time and it’s more than likely true, but who else on your team knows what the strategy is? To grow, make money or give back to the community. Strategy is more than that. Many of our business friends are successful in spite of not adhering to a written strategic plan, to a degree. How effective could you really be?

The growth & success of any company is dependent upon the leader’s ability to articulate the growth strategy and to align the employees to a shared vision and purpose. As referenced from a Harvard Graduate School of Business study, companies that achieve a high level of internal alignment through effective strategic planning achieve significant improvement in value and performance over companies that do not. This principle applies equally to privately held and public companies. Look at these numbers, WOW!

How can you achieve such dramatic success? Follow the same techniques that these nationally recognized businesses have used. Develop and articulate your own strategic plan. Create alignment within your business. Integrate your strategic plan with your financial plan.  Your strategic plan establishes a foundation and framework to achieve tremendous results.

The process of developing the strategic plan is as important to the alignment of the team as the development of the plan itself. The process identifies ways in which the team members can understand and appreciate unique communication style, problem solving ability and their individual contribution to the overall success of the business.

Through our interactive process the team formulates the Vision, articulates your Values, develops a Mission and identifies short-term and long-term Strategic Goals which are used to guide operations, growth, and expansion.  From this work individual tactical plans to achieve the goals are developed and shared with the entire work group. Each organizational member will have an opportunity to contribute to the achievement of the tactical plan. This process creates clear alignment from the individual contributor to the leadership team driving the vision, line of sight from bottom to top.

Finally, the impact of the strategic plan on the company's financial results is projected to clearly establish the costs and benefits of successfully executing the plan.

Mark Ziska, founder of CPO, formed the business to improve the strategic planning process and outcomes for organizations. He is a respected strategic planning professional and business leader with over twelve years experience in leading strategic planning and aligning successful large organizations to achieve breakthrough results.  Mark deploys innovative tools to resolve breakdowns and align groups around strategic outcomes. Mark or other experienced members of the CPO team bring exceptional strategic planning experience to play in formulating, articulating, and quantifying the financial impact of  your strategic plan.

Welcome to the CPO team:

Pamela Speder, Senior Associate

Pamela is a highly capable strategic planning professional with over six years experience as a strategic HR business partner providing guidance to business leaders and their teams identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.  She has worked to overcome barriers, resolve communications and development issues, open up to new ideas and perspectives, and put the appropriate goals and plans in place to execute the strategy. The past three years she has focused on leading the strategy for talent management globally. She also worked with teams on a more focused basis to improve team and organization effectiveness which begins with strategy development and/or alignment. Pamela is an expert in competency based organizations.

In this issue

·        Strategic Planning

·        Senior Strategic Planning Professional Joins CPO

SUCCESSES

 "I love CPO, you make the hiring process the easiest its ever been."

Chris Gleason, CEO, NextMed

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