How to plan a strategy consulting engagement with StratNav

Introduction

Planning and executing a strategy consulting engagement can be challenging. I am sure that, as a strategy consultant, you have your own process and techniques.

In this article, we will look at how StratNav can help you plan and execute a strategy consulting engagement.

As you work through the steps outlined below, StratNav's AI will start to learn about the organisation and its strategy. The more it learns, the more value it will be able to add.

6 tips for starting your strategy consulting engagement off on the right footing

How to plan your consulting engagements with StratNavApp.com:

Create a new project.

You'll probably want a new project in StratNav for each new engagement. If you work on a retainer, then you may only need a new project for each new client.

To create a new project:

1. select Projects on the main menu,
2. select Create a New Project on the submenu that opens up
3. follow the instructions on the screens that follow.

Add the engagement brief to the Project Description.

Include your project brief directly in StratNavApp.com so that it is always on hand.

1. Select the name of your project from the main menu.
2. Select Project Details on the submenu that opens up.
3. Copy and paste or type the engagement brief into the Description field.

You can format it with bullets and other formatting as required.

Analyse any documents they provide

A new client will often provide you with existing documents. These could be an existing or past strategy, or industry reports or other analysis. 

You can upload these directly to StratNav or upload them to a SharePoint server and tell StratNav where to find them. (See Using the File Vault and SharePoint integration.)

Our AI can then analyse and summarise those documents for you, extracting any key insights and using those to build your SWOT, PESTLE, and other analysis. 

You can continue to add and analyse documents as the engagement proceeds. 

Identify the key stakeholders for the engagement.

Strategy is ultimately about people - stakeholders. So that is a good place to start.

There are typically two types of stakeholders:

1. input stakeholders - people you will need to consult with to gain a detailed understanding of the business, and
2. output stakeholders - people you will need to persuade to accept and execute the strategy.

Sometimes, but not always, they are the same people.

See Adding Stakeholders to your Strategy.

Plan your schedule of meetings and workshops with those stakeholders.

In general, start with the input stakeholders and work your way toward the output stakeholders.

Select Governance then Meetings before adding each meeting.

Specify the attendees, time and date venue and agenda for each meeting. Try to make sure you have clearly defined agendas for all of your meetings at least 2 weeks in advance.

See also: Plan you strategy meetings with StratNav's AI Agenda Writer

Make sure you send your agenda to all attendees before the session. You can use the button at the bottom of the Meeting page to generate a plan for the meeting in MS-Word format and mail it to the attendees if they are not also StratNav users.

During (or immediately after) the meeting

1. Confirm the attendees.
   
   Perhaps not everyone attended? You can mark anyone who did not attend as an 'Non-attendee'.
   
   
2. Record the minutes.
   
   You can type into the minutes editor as the meeting progresses.
   
   Even better, you can use one of many meeting transcription services to transcribe your meetings for you, and then have StratNav's AI write contextually sensitive minutes for you. See Empower your strategy meetings with automatic AI transcripts.
   
   
3. Log any actions.
   
   Remember to establish accountabilities and due dates for those actions.
   
   When creating an action from the Minutes screen, if you enter the first name of an attendee or the full name of any stakeholder in your project, the system will automatically assign them as a stakeholder in an appropriate role to the Action. Similarly, if you include a date or an indication of a time period (such as next week) it will add that as the due date for the Action. (See Linking to New Actions.)
   
   
4. Create and/or link to any insights, initiatives or decisions highlighted, discussed or made at the meeting.
   
   StratNav's AI can extract actions and insights from your meetings for you.

A timer bar will appear at the top of the meeting during the meeting and for a short period thereafter. This can help you ensure you finish on time whilst achieving your meeting objectives. It will turn from green to amber and then to red as you approach the end of the meeting.

At or immediately after each meeting.

1. Tidy up your minutes. Our AI Minute Writer can assist with this.
2. Download your minutes and actions in MS-Word format and send a copy to all attendees who are not included directly in the project on StratNavApp.com. (Those that are will be automatically updated by the system.)

Where to go after that

Many strategy assignments are simply iterations of meetings (to gather input and surface new documents), analysis of those meetings and documents, and preparation for the next meeting!

StratNav is packed with tools to help you develop and process all of that insight, and turn it into meaningful and executable strategies.

And it enables you to generate professional reports of your work at any stage in the process.

Conclusion

If you follow this approach, you will find that the insights and initiatives that make up your strategy start to build up almost effortlessly. You can then use StratNav to further build them out, and link them together as you develop and/or execute the overall business strategy.

Then at the end of the engagement, you can personalise and produce a comprehensive, professionally formatted and cross-reference report of the entire engagement.

See also

• The Power of Strategy: Unleashing Growth Through Effective Meetings
• What is a business strategy consultant?