Case Study: Strategic Planning
Specialty Manufacturer - Accelerating Growth
The Situation
Our client was a US-based, privately owned specialty manufacturer of high-precision components and solutions for the defense, medical equipment, automotive and other industries. The company was a leader in its market and prided itself on excellent engineering capabilities and responsiveness to customer needs. Revenues were in the tens of millions of dollars per year and in recent years had grown by about 10% per year with limited investment in marketing.
Banner Group was called shortly after the CEO announced a goal of doubling the company’s sales within 5 years.
Challenges at the time included:
● Senior management did not have a coherent plan for identifying new market opportunities or which internal capabilities should be prioritized for investment
● Growth in recent years had pushed the company to the limit of the its capabilities and caused persistent quality problems and excess waste
● Key employees expressed reservations about the company’s ability to continue growing, much less achieve the ambitious new sales target
“When the very aggressive goal was announced … I was concerned that we would not have “buy in” from the majority of our employees.”
– Senior HR Executive
Our Approach
The solution was a Strategic Planning process that started with aligning the members of the senior management team and a cross-section of key employees to a common understanding of the situation, and ended in the formulation of a concise strategy statement and key strategic initiatives.
The engagement was delivered in three phases, each lasting about 3 to 4 weeks and requiring an average of 1 to 2 hours per week per participant:
★ Phase 1: Measure Alignment — interviews, online surveys, prioritization of issues
★ Phase 2: Maximize Alignment — targeted facilitation sessions in small groups
★ Phase 3: Strategy Development — management workshops to formulate plans
“[Banner Group] was able to get us past some of the perceived obstacles to success by … helping us to look at the situation in a different light.”
– Employee
The Outcome
The client accomplished the objective of creating a path forward to achieve the ambitious goal of doubling sales within 5 years with following results:
● Development of a Plan-on-a-Page including a Strategy Statement, Priority Metrics and Strategic Initiatives that serve as a common reference point for all employees
● Launch of 7 Strategic Initiatives with the potential to deliver meaningful change during the first year to accelerate progress toward the 5-year goal
● Identification and successful resolution of areas of misalignment that if unaddressed would cause a drag on future progress
“The ROI on improved alignment is already becoming evident in the clear, concise message that is now cascading down through our entire organization. It’s exciting to learn and see how effective we can be when alignment paves the way.”
– CEO and President