Why Higher Ed Needs a Strategic Shift As far back as 1636, with the founding of Harvard College in Massachusetts, the United States has been a leader in higher education. As Adrian Wooldridge points out in his Bloomberg column, in many respects the US is still considered the global pacemaker for higher ed. After all, [...]
Unlocking Strategic Success: The 6 Dimensions of Strategy Model Are you struggling to create a strategic plan that truly drives results? Many organizations fall short, often focusing solely on the "what" of strategy, neglecting the crucial "how." In this video, Craig, co-founder of StrategyBlocks, talks us through the 6 Dimensions of Strategy Model, a framework [...]
Power Position: The Role of the COO in Shaping Company Strategy Like many C-suite positions, the Chief Operating Officer role is evolving. Typically the second-ranking executive in the company, the position was once focused purely on the tactical needs of operations. Today, however, COOs are tasked with everything from improving customer-centricity to managing digital transformation, [...]
Three Tactics to Ensure Your Strategy and Culture Are Aligned Company culture was first identified back in the 1950s by Dr. Elliot Jaques, in his book entitled The Changing Culture of a Factory. In it, Dr. Jacques shares results from a longitudinal study he conducted at a ball-bearing plant in England and the impact various [...]
Why KPIs are Critical for Business Strategy Quantitative measurement is critical to a strong business strategy. Surprisingly, however, it is often overlooked. While there are any number of reasons why, many companies make the mistake of believing Key Performance Indicators (business metrics) are obvious and therefore don’t need to be clearly articulated as part of [...]
Three Trends in Business Strategy in 2024 As we begin the new year, it’s a good time to reflect on the progress made over the last 12 months and look ahead to those areas that will shape progress this year. 2023 continued to be a year marked by outside forces for many companies, with a [...]
Why the CEO Needs to Make Fewer Decisions The buck-stops-here mentality of the CEO role is often conflated with the idea that CEOs must have the final say in all decisions across the company. While most leaders know this is an improbable, if not impractical assumption, there still exists a culture within most organizations that [...]
Do You Need a Chief Strategy Officer? The role of the Chief Strategy Officer can mean different things to different organizations, leading a company to question whether they really need one. Defining strategic business direction has long been the purview of the CEO, alongside the Board, and for this reason, the CSO role can feel [...]
Measuring Success: Evaluating Company Strategy With Performance Metrics We talk a lot on this blog about how to create a successful strategic plan—after all, companies with clearly defined and documented plans grow 30% faster. But how do you know if your plan is successful? This can often be where strategy falls apart. As a recent [...]
Tired of Hearing How Strategic Plans Fail? Here’s How to Succeed You’ve likely heard the well-known statistic that 90% of strategic plans fail. It’s easy to believe the fault lies with a poorly designed plan or strategy, but even 67% of well-formulated strategies fail, due to poor execution. Our managing director Craig Catley recently wrote [...]
