Make Strategy Actionable

Introduction

• An AMA study indicated only 3% of CEOs said their companies

were successful at implementing strategy and 62% said their

ability to execute was moderate or worse (Mankins and Steele,

2007, Contractor’s business management report);

• According to a Fortune magazine article, less than 10 percent of

strategies effectively formulated are effectively executed (R.

Charan & G. Colvin. "Why CEOs Fail." Fortune Magazine, 21

June 1999);

• A Harvard study indicated that large companies only achieve

about 63% of their strategic goals every year and a third of

companies achieve less than 50% of plan (Mankins and Steele,

Harvard Business Review, Jul–Aug 2005);

• In another survey, companies estimated that 60% of planned

productivity gains were lost due to failure to execute (Neiman and

Thomson, Can Manag 17, Fall 2004).

I haven’t seen the plan…

Source: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-05-21/

Results

With mySTRATEX your company’s employees will learn the strategy

of your company. By playing the game, they will know in which

strategic objectives to achieve, what are the initiatives in which your

company will be investing and which events may influence your

company’s performance.

With mySTRATEX you and your management team will also be able

to better understand the cause-and-effect relationships between

different strategic objectives.

mySTRATEX will allow you to simulate 3 to 5 years of the life of your

company, executing the established strategy, making decisions

regarding strategic initiatives and responding to unexpected positive

or negative events.

mySTRATEX Simulation Pack

mySTRATEX is the result of more than 20 years of experience in

helping companies in defining, communicating, executing and

monitoring Strategic Plans. It is a great tool to motivate managers to

learn and implement the strategy of your company.

mySTRATEX Simulation Pack is based on the Balanced Scorecard

model, developed originally by Professors Robert S. Kaplan and

David P. Norton.

mySTRATEX Simulation Pack

Many companies experience difficulties in defining, communicating

and implementing their strategy.

mySTRATEX will help you demonstrate to your management team

the importance of having a clear strategy and what the strategy of

your company is.

mySTRATEX Simulation Pack

Playing mySTRATEX Simulation Pack

During the simulation two to four

teams per board game will

compete with each other,

making decisions about different

strategic investments. The

interaction between strategic

objectives, decisions about

investing in strategic initiatives

and the occurrence of external

and internal events, will

determine the scorecard of each

competing team and, ultimately,

the winner of the simulation.

mySTRATEX Simulation Pack Game Board

We use a board game to

simulate one year in the life

of a company. The board is

divided in four quarters and

each quarter is divided in

twelve cells. The movement

of each player is dictated by

the result of rolling two dice.

There are three types of

cells.

mySTRATEX Simulation Pack Strategy Map

In the center of the

board game is the

Strategy Map scorecard,

representing the

strategic objectives and

the cause-effect

relationships between

objectives. Each

Strategic Objective can

have a score,

represented by the

position and the color a

plastic chip.

mySTRATEX Simulation Pack Event Cards

mySTRATEX uses Event Cards

to simulate the things that can

happen during the life of a

company that will have a direct

impact in its performance. There

are External events that impact

all participants and Internal

events that only impact the team

that got the card. Each event

can impact one or two strategic

objectives, resulting in

adjustments of the respective

score(s). Events can have a

positive or negative impact.

mySTRATEX Simulation Pack Initiative Cards

During the simulation participants can invest in Strategic Initiatives.

These investments will have a direct impact in the related strategic

objectives. Investing in Strategic Initiatives is also a way of

protecting your company from negative events or benefiting from

positive events.

Winning the mySTRATEX Simulation Pack Game

The team that has the most

points in the scorecard when

the game finishes is the

winner. Only strategic

objectives that have a score

green or yellow count for the

final total score.

mySTRATEX Simulation Pack Customization

One of the main benefits of mySTRATEX Simulation Pack is the

ability to customized the game. You will be able to define your own

Strategy Map, create External and Internal Event Cards and prepare

Strategic Initiative Cards that reflect the intrinsic characteristics of

your business.

The mySTRATEX Simulation Pack can be an important component

of a Strategic Planning Retreat. The External Event Cards are

adapted following the PESTEL analysis and the Internal Event Cards

are an output of the SWOT Analysis. Once the Strategic Objectives

are defined and the cause-and-effect relationships established we

can print the Strategy Map, Event Cards and Initiative Cards that will

be used for the mySTRATEX Simulation Exercise. After doing the

simulation it is often appropriate to reflect on the current Strategy

Map and make some final adjustments.

Next Steps

Send us an email with information about your needs and we will

contact you to explain how we can help you.

Contacts

António Lucena de Faria

Av. Marginal - Ed. Parque Oceano 3º G,

2780 -373 Oeiras, Portugal

+351 214 228 870

alucenafaria@methodus.com