Global research spanning 5,000 Boards and 12,500 organizations shows that Businesses and Public Bodies adopt one of these differing philosophies —
The same research shows that the former is practised in 82% of organizations, the latter in only 18%; and that organizations embracing the latter outperform those using the former. (Kakabadse, 2015)
Business leaders face external challenges posed by VUCA daily (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) and an exponential rate of change seeking to undermine your strategic plan and its execution —the ‘fog of war’.
This ‘fog’ is compounded by internal ‘friction’ —the challenges of creating emotional engagement and simultaneously creating the clarity that aligns thinking, processes, structure, and priorities; and co-ordinates and adapts activity in the face of competing demands, actual progress, and changing context.
Is strategy development, evolution and execution 'led' as one seamless, integrated 'process' in your business, or 'managed' as disconnected separate entities?
How confident are you, that your organization, or your part of it, can execute its strategy —on time, on budget and with results that meet or exceed expectations?
Do you have 'strategy execution capability' in depth and breadth —the systemic means to enable your people to align their thinking and own their priorities and tasks?
Does your approach to strategy execution enable change, transformation and innovation; does it embrace programme and project management?
Is your strategy dynamic —does it adapt to actual execution progress and changed context? Is your business 'light of foot'?
Does your enterprise have the conceptual underpinning and systemic 'execution culture' to maintain competitive advantage?
Our beliefs are the result of over 20 years practical consulting experience combined with the aggregated research conclusions of academics and ourselves.
To overcome the challenges described above, we believe that effective leaders, and the exercise of leadership that is both distributed throughout an enterprise and integrated through a strategy execution system, is what really matters for business success. We believe that building adaptable, sustainable and scalable leadership and strategy execution capability is the single most important ‘internal challenge’ for CEOs and the C-Suite.
We believe that a long-term, sustainable future lies with the purpose-based enterprise —purpose fulfilled through strategy execution guided by deeply held values.
Extensive research and our own practical experience tells us that the two most important factors in the effective execution of strategy are:
Creating "Clarity” —the meaningful understanding of context, capability, the source of value, intentions and plans for the delivery of value (strategy), and the systemic and dynamic alignment of priorities, systems, structure and role-relationships, and adaptation of plans, to ‘higher intent’, actual progress and changed context.
Building “Emotional Engagement” —the willing accountability, commitment and discretionary effort to ‘think, act, follow up and follow through’.
We believe that people (and especially ‘clever people’) have three key needs to be satisfied to ensure intrinsic motivation, and they way in which we create 'clarity' must meet these needs:
Autonomy (the trust of their boss, and delegated authority aligned to clear accountability, objectives and priorities).
Meaning (a worthwhile reason why or ‘noble’ purpose —at both the organizational and individual levels).
Our Mission: To assist our clients to build strategy execution leadership capability; in order to secure client competitive advantage, achieve strategic objectives, and sustain improved returns.
To do this our services enable leaders at all levels in our client organizations, to create the systemic and dynamic 'Clarity and Emotional Engagement' that is essential to the effective and efficient execution of strategy and leadership of change —and to do that in such a way that autonomy, mastery and meaning are provided.
Decentralized execution aligned to centralised intent. Success requires every business unit, team and individual to understand and own their own ‘mission’ (a clear intent and purpose), and their plan and priorities to achieve it —all derived from the organization’s mission and strategic plan. The proven mechanism to create systemic and dynamic 'Clarity and Emotional Engagement' through distributed leaders is the durable, scalable and infinitetly adaptable approach we call mission-focused leadership.
At every level and across the matrix, this rigorous, time-effective approach clarifies intent, purpose and priorities, ensures co-ordination, and adapts plans to match progress and changed circumstances. Leadership of the ‘thought process’ drives alignment, leadership of the ‘social process’ (leaders' behaviour) secures emotional engagement —leadership that wins both hearts and minds.
Our approach enables an enterprise, or business units of it, to create or develop the ‘ACE Conditions for Success’ at every level (see figure below); and to work together as one with sufficient agility to develop and execute strategy both effectively and efficiently.
We are an ‘high touch’, high value-added and agile consultancy with global reach through our associates. We will help you to enjoy levels of success beyond your expectations. We will enable your business strategy to become your reality. We practise what we preach and are dedicated to furthering the understanding of strategy execution capability.
Our academic research base and the Masters degree level intellectual rigour of our concepts and methodologies; fostered through our links with Henley Business School.
Our 21 year history of published thought leadership in ‘strategy execution’ and the methodology which succeeds in embedding it —we were one of the first strategy execution consultancies (as opposed to strategy development houses), and Jeremy Tozer was one of the first published authors of a systemic approach to the leadership of strategy development and execution.
Our practical and applied orientation; we have pioneered the virtuous circle of experiential, conceptual and applied learning —real work is done within all our learning programmes.
Many of our team have served in the Armed Forces. You will find that our ethos reflects those service values and standards. Values and standards are not merely abstract concepts. Values are the beliefs to which we attach importance; the moral principles that guide and develop us; standards are the yardsticks for assessing behaviour that demonstrates values in action. Our values underpin our ability to partner effectively with our clients to achieve a genuine and lasting return on investment.
Selflessness: Putting the interests of the client before our own, and putting team interests ahead of personal interests.
Integrity: Adhering to a moral code that combines the virtues of honesty, reliability, and 'being straight'.
Self-Discipline: Meeting expectations and behaving appropriately and resourcefully under conditions of stress; following up and following through.
Jeremy Tozer’s second book ‘Leading Through Leaders’ will help you to improve your organization and its results by creating dynamic alignment while overcoming the challenges of VUCA and change.
With the focus on collective leadership as a strategic capability, Jeremy provides the means for effective individual and collective leadership: a coherent framework of principles and practices which by their nature change leadership behaviour, for intelligent application by leaders at every level.
Based on the author’s 29 years’ leadership and consulting experience and illustrated with case studies of application and learning from clients such as Cisco, MCI, Best Western, ABN AMRO, Philips, Pfizer, Rothschild, Centrica, Colgate and the NHS, this book provides unique insights into building collective capability.
Since 1995, our teams of in-country consultants, mobile experts and internal client champions have added significant, measurable value to clients in the UK and EU, Asia, the USA and Australasia:
Total revenue increased by 25%, customer satisfaction doubled, annual consultancy spend reduced by 88%, QA audit accuracy increased from 48 to 97% (Leisure Industry)
Customer service investment reduced by 60% through effective development and execution of strategy, while winning two industry awards (Information Technology Industry)
Halving the expected time for a major change programme to be completed, while doubling productivity (Financial Services Industry)
Using the proven, durable and scalable philosophy of Mission-Focused Leadership we develop bespoke solutions which enable your leaders to create the ACE Conditions for Success™ at all levels.
Our solutions work because they are bespoke, contextually-relevant, holistic, intellectually-sound yet practical and they engender confidence, ownership and accountability: they are based on research combined with enduring first principles and simple tools to be intelligently applied with discretion by leaders.
They are sustainable because we transfer our expertise (IP, L&D and consulting skills) to client in-house champions. We are so confident that we guarantee the success of our engagements and a measurable return in excess of any investment.
…over ten years, the thought leadership, drive to get business results, integrity and professionalism is has been first class… together we have faced some difficult global and regional business challenges and have successfully shifted the leadership legacy in the organizations where we have partnered. Jeremy is very pragmatic and will test and challenge thinking and assumptions. This results in the application of new business leadership concepts and processes, and a culture of leadership excellence. Testament to success is seen in consistent repeat business and Jeremy becoming a trusted advisor to Senior Executives across the organizations where I have partnered with him.”