Strategy design is the art of describing a strategy so precisely and stringently that everyone in the company knows what is meant. The St. Gallen Strategy Workshop is a methodology that has been tried and tested since 1985 and which makes it possible to incorporate the knowledge collected and distributed throughout the company into the strategy design process.

Better strategies thanks to strategy workshop

In practice, the situation for strategy development is still often bleak: if three months after the strategy has been adopted, hardly anyone in the company knows what the content and goal of the new strategy is, then the strategy design has obviously not been successful. However, our research and many years of experience show that this is exactly the case in practice: the strategy was worked on in working groups for months, the strategy document in wonderful PowerPoint slides comprises 150 pages, everything was presented and discussed – and when a few months are spent following up on the levels at which the strategic change should be noticeable, there is hardly any sign of the change and the new strategy.

The first reason for a strategy to fail is the wrong strategy design. 1 page and not 150 pages must be enough to explain in a way that everyone can understand what you want to be in the future, what priorities you want to set, what market positions you want to occupy, what core competencies you need to achieve this, what resources you will make available and what projects you need to start immediately.

A single page? Yes, because everything else cannot be communicated. You will learn exactly how to do this at one of the St. Gallen strategy seminars. In such a way that you can incorporate the methodology, the process flow and the content into your company’s own strategy workshop. Our recommendations:

Knowledge at the seminar, implementation at the strategy workshop

Here you will learn how to develop precise and implementable strategies and put them into a communicable form through skillful strategy design.

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Strategy Workshop: Analysis

Anyone who assesses the situation correctly will also recognize the need for action. Many tried and tested things can remain, but new things are also needed. The more dynamic the environment and the greater the pressure to adapt, the more new things and fewer tried and tested things are needed. A good strategy design therefore begins with a concise strategic analysis. The strategy workshop allows the knowledge available in the company to be quickly tapped into and incorporated into a joint strategy process.

Strategy Workshop: Need for Action

The need for strategic action arises from the assessment of the situation. Often the most difficult thing is to understand the necessity of these changes. Employees like continuity and preservation and are afraid of the new and unknown. But in order to be strong in implementation later on, a broad alliance is needed to recognize the need for action. The strategy workshop is intended to achieve this.

Strategy Workshop: Options and their evaluation

There are several roads to Rome – and several roads to a promising future. Which road, i.e. which strategic option, is the right and best?
A strategy workshop with the company’s key personnel and those in positions of responsibility can be the appropriate way to think about this. The decision then lies with the management and supervisory bodies.

Strategy workshop for implementation

It is not always desirable or sensible to involve a large number of managers in the process of developing a strategy. This makes it all the more important to hold a strategy workshop for implementation. This should provide answers to important questions:

• Why is there a need for action?
• Why and in which direction does the company need to change?
• What does this mean for my employees and me?
  

St.Gallen Consulting

First-class management consulting for renowned clients for 40 years.