Strategy

What is Strategy and what does Enlighten know about helping organisations achieve results?

Strategy is a well used word, although a wise person (you know who you are!) once said, 'strategy is simply a series of well thought out tactics designed to achieve a long term goal. Nothing more, nothing else'. So let's not over-engineer a strategic approach to your business!

Some people think the whole business of developing an organisation's strategy is consultant speak for months of talking and the development of a 200+ page document. This might work for some people, although at Enlighten we believe the longer the report the higher the propensity for it to lie in a drawer and not be implemented. We are much more interested in finding out about what makes your business tick and where you want it to go. From this we can help you define your strategy and to articulate this into a much more meaningful series of Action Plans you can work through (to a specific timetable).

OK, you might think that strategy is a waste of time, however, doing nothing is not an option. Is it not better to understand where you need to improve, what you need to do and then at least do something in order to get there? You might just be surprised at the results.

At Enlighten we can provide a wide range of strategic advisory services. The following table provides a snapshot of some of these services.

understanding your business	meeting with your key stakeholders to understand the fabric of your business and the direction you are heading in.
understanding your clients	client listening programmes to see how clients currently perceive your business. This can also be linked to improving client satisfaction as we can identify what is working well/ what can be improved, etc
understanding your data	an often overlooked part of a business is the data that it already holds.
client satisfaction	the client listening campaign may be developed into a comprehensive client satisfaction survey (or an existing survey could be reviewed for possible amendment/ enhancement). Do you currently know what your clients think?
Client Relationship Partners	identification of Client Relationship Partners (CRP), creating terms of reference and rolling the process out across the firm
Away Days	facilitating strategic away days (or even half days) can be a very useful way of bringing everyone in the organisation into the process and allowing them to take part in forging the future direction of the firm.
Brand Strategy	some of the 'understanding' process mentioned above can be used to help with understanding your brand proposition and assist you as you define your brand strategy. This process can also be used for establishing the creative brief and the development of your new brand identity.
Marketing & Business Development Processes	quite often marketing processes simply evolve within an organisation and inefficiency is rife. In an area that is often limited in resource it makes sense to implement systems that make the process as efficient as possible. This will ensure you get the most from your marketing spend.
People	having lived in the marketing world for over sixteen years we know the characteristics required in a good marketing candidate. We therefore offer clients a full marketing recruitment process to identify the right person for the job.
Marketing Communicatons	most services marketing efforts and expenditure goes on marketing communications (Marcoms), be it developing brochures, adding articles to websites, signing off advertisements, etc. However, a lot of this effort is mere order-taking. A senior member of staff asks for something to be created, provides the copy and the marketing person simply 'organises it'. Is this what you really want from your marketing? Are you sure you don't want to develop a consistent & strategic approach to all of your Marcoms and ensure that every time something is created that it supports your brand? Another benefit of reviewing your Marcoms is that this is where most of your budget goes - are you achieving the best bang for your buck? are your suppliers giving you the best deal? Would you like to benchmark this?
Budget	whilst this is normally covered under 'processes' above, this is an important one to get right. How do you currently set budgets? Would you prefer a process that allows departmental budgets to be developed and have systems in place to monitor this process? The implementation of this budget process will also allow you to keep control of your marketing activities and ensure your plan is being implemented.
Sales	is this a dirty word??? Well, it shouldn't be. If you can't win work, you can't survive. Would you like to implement an approach to improve your sales efforts and allow you to monitor the results on a regular basis? You probably have a finance report - do you have a sales report?
Internal Communications	is it worth it? More and more organisations are learning that this is an important tool to maximise their ability to achieve the goals that they are aiming for.
Profile Raising	developing profile raising campaigns for your firm, specific areas or people.
Sounding Board	a plain and simple sounding board for idea generation.

This is only a snap shot of what we can do for our clients. To find out more, please get in touch. We can talk through your key priorities and what your firm would like to achieve.