Have you assessed your strategic readiness for 2021? Strategic readiness refers to aligning your strategy to your organisation’s assets eg. people, processes, information. Good strategic alignment enables your organisation to gain competitiveness, especially important given these uncertain times and recessionary conditions that we undergo.
Strategic readiness, help to spell out your organisation’s goals and can be articulated over the short, mid and long terms. Its benefits are:-
- Systematic and systemic method to manage organisation’s future
- Enables an organisation to be more proactive than reactive
- Uncovers organisation’s strengths and weaknesses that can be respectively leveraged on or redressed
- Sets sense of direction that can be further aligned to organisational vision
- Aligns human capital to a strategic agenda
Carry out this strategic readiness self-assessment to gauge where you and your organisation stands.
#strategicreadiness #planning #newnormal
I have developed a strategic readiness self-assessment with a focus on ascertaining your ‘new norm’. This self-assessment provides a gauge of your organisation’s strategic readiness to move forward particularly into the next 12 months. The areas covered broadly are your business system, external environment, customers expectations, satisfaction levels, vision, strategies and action plans.
In the context of your strategic readiness, provide a rating to the following questions:-
Rating :
- Not identified/ reviewed or do not understand
- In midst of completing/ identifying/ understanding/ reviewing
- Comprehensively completed/ identified/ understand/ reviewed
| Questions | Rating | |
| 1 | Do you know your capabilities in the new norm eg. product offering, value chain, assets. employees? | |
| 2 | Have you assessed your organisational value chain and/ or activities impacted by Covid-19? | |
| 3 | Have you reassessed your financial status, plans & projections? | |
| 4 | Have you conducted a comprehensive external environmental analysis and its impact on your organisation? | |
| 5 | Do you understand the structural shifts within your own industry & its implications? | |
| 6 | Have you reviewed your competitors actions and strategies? | |
| 7 | Have you reviewed your organisation’s growth-share within the industry? | |
| 8 | Have you assessed the impact of Covid-19 on your customer base & relationship? | |
| 9 | Do you understand your customer expectations and satisfaction levels in the new norm? | |
| 10 | Have you reviewed the relevance of your service levels and service quality? | |
| 11 | Have you knowledge of areas of leverage in your customer’s journey? | |
| 12 | Have you reviewed the relevance and alignment of your organisational vision? | |
| 13 | Have you clearly identified your strategic direction eg. growth, stability, retrenchment into the next 12 months? | |
| 14 | Have you identified gaps between your current situation and into the next 12 months? | |
| 15 | Have you reviewed your strategies, action plans and schedules to close gaps into next the 12 months? | |
| Total |
35-45 points: The organisation appears to comprehend its “new normal” and is likely to be able to envision what a discontinuous shift could look like. It appears to have considered the impact of Covid-19 and the options for it to move forward. It also appears to be clear about its external business landscape that includes eg. geopolitics, structural shift within the industry and its competitive environment. The organisation has comprehensively assessed the impact of the pandemic on its internal organisation, activities, financial position. It also comprehensively understands its customer base, customer expectations and service level requirements in its new normal. The organisation has clarity on the relevance of its product/ service portfolio. It has detailed plans in place to move forward into the next 12 months.
25-34 points: The organisation appears to have challenges comprehending its “new normal” and completing assessments related to it. It may be in the midst of fully conceptualising imminent changes that have and continue to impact the organisation. The organisation may just be beginning to gain some clarity of the external environmental dynamics and its impact. The organisation is in the midst of understanding the impact of the pandemic on its internal organisation, activities, financial position. It is in the midst of comprehending the impact of the pandemic on its customer base, customer expectations and service levels needed in the new normal. It is beginning to understand the relevance of its product/ service portfolio in its new normal. The organisation may be considering ways to create detailed plans to return the business back to scale quickly, and how it intends to progress into the next 12 months.
15-24 points: The organisation may be in a state of indifference/ lacks perseverance/ is uncertain in ways to determine its “new normal”. It may lack capabilities to comprehend the impact of Covid-19 on its organisation eg. employees, customers, technology and business alliances, cash management. The organisation has little or no clarity of the external environment and its impact. The organisation has little or may not be equipped to understand the impact of the pandemic on its internal organisation, activities, financial position. It may be unable to ascertain the impact of Covid-19 on its customer base, is unclear of its customer expectations and satisfaction needs in its new normal. It is unclear about the relevance of its product/ service portfolio in its new normal. The organisation may be struggling to move forward into the next 12 months. Leaders and operational managers may require specialist support to assess challenges and recraft strategies for the organisation to return the business back to its new normal.