Strategy in transformation
Strategy check: test your strategic assumptions and prepare concrete decisions on markets, customers and competition before a full strategy process.
A strategy check suits a company that wants to review its direction without presupposing a new strategy. It brings together market attractiveness, competitive strength and customer expectations. The key question is: do our assumptions about the business still match what we can observe happening?
Make the strategy team’s current view of markets and customers explicit.
Compare trends in your environment, the competition and your own core capabilities.
Confirm the direction, adjust it in a targeted way or commission a strategy process.
Your company holds experience about customers, strengths and competitors. These assessments are set against observations from the market and the customer’s view. Differences between how you see yourselves and how others see you are recorded and worked through in the strategy team.
Which expectations must be met before customers will even consider an offer? Which services deliver particular value beyond that? The check looks at how customer expectations, your competitive position and your organisation’s capabilities connect.
Strategy is an ongoing process of reflection and decision-making for management.
The analysis condenses the findings into strategic questions for action. The outcome may be confirmation of the current direction, targeted adjustments or a full strategy process. Priorities and next steps are agreed with the people responsible.
Book an initial callThe check does not begin with a ready-made answer, but with reflection on the previous view of the market. In the strategy team, the relevant environments and their influencing factors are identified: which trends are changing customers, competition and value creation? What opportunities or threats arise from them? The company’s own core competences are then described explicitly. The discussion of these creates a shared picture of the capabilities on which a future positioning can be based. Only with these two perspectives can one examine whether the chosen direction still holds.
The check is intended to create friction particularly where routines and key figures direct attention towards the familiar. A confirmed positioning is just as possible an outcome as the decision to develop new strategic options. The responsible leadership retains the decision; we structure the review and make the assumptions open to discussion.
We keep drafts of the future, their business assessment and the later vision of the future separate. The check does not have to go through all phases of a complete strategy process. However, we show which information is still missing for a well-founded choice. This may be customer expectations, a change in competitive strength or the question of whether a core competency remains relevant for the future market. Where options emerge, feasibility, prospects of success and risks are tested; where needed, external data is brought in selectively.
A clear result names not only measures, but also the strategic question for which management takes responsibility. For subsequent implementation, a strategy map, master plan and KPIs are possible instruments. They are used only if the mandate goes beyond the diagnosis.
Strategie regelmäßig überprüfen und weiterentwickeln: Ein Strategiereview schafft einen strukturierten Anlass, strategische Annahmen, Prioritäten und Handlungsfelder gemeinsam zu überprüfen und daraus nächste Entwicklungsschritte abzuleiten. Die Reviewlogik kann dabei als kompakte Verbindung von Analyse, gemeinsamer Reflexion und strategischer Weiterentwicklung eingesetzt werden.
Arbeitsergebnisse: Gemeinsam bewertete strategische Ausgangslage; Überprüfbare Annahmen zu Markt und Wettbewerb; Priorisierte Fragen und nächste strategische Entscheidungen.
Scope and depth of data depend on the decisions to be made. A check does not replace a dedicated market study where the necessary information is missing.
The strategy process follows a clear professional logic. First, the framework conditions, challenges, market and competition are examined. Then the organisation’s own core competencies are described and linked to these external perspectives. Building on this, strategic options emerge. Drafts of the future are made concrete in business terms and tested for feasibility, prospects of success and risks.
A strategy check can start precisely at the transitions: do the previous assumptions about customers and market still hold? Are there changes that do not show up in your own observation framework? Do the claimed core competencies actually contribute to the desired positioning? Which option should management explore further or discard? The check asks these questions within a limited framework and documents open data points.
Where needed, external information is fed into the process in a targeted way. For subsequent strategy work, a vision of the future, strategy map, master plan and KPIs are available. They are not sold as an automatic consequence of a check, but used only where the strategic decision and the mandate require them. Leadership thus gets a clear choice between continuing, correcting and developing anew.
In discussion with the client, the scope of the check is also defined. One management team may initially only want to examine its strategic assumptions; another already needs a decision on specific options. We keep these steps separate. That is why we state which conclusions are possible with the available market and customer data and which require a separate survey. This way, the check ends with a clear work assignment instead of a long list of non-binding ideas.
The strategy check is particularly revealing when different leaders interpret the same market situation differently. It combines the external view of markets and customers with the internal view of capabilities, organisation and leadership. In the joint work, assumptions are identified as assumptions; observations and evaluations remain distinguishable. The leadership team can thus decide which questions need in-depth analysis and which strategic course can already be set.
The result is not a blanket confirmation of the previous strategy. What emerges is a prioritised view of opportunities, risks and fields of action that can then be carried into a strategy process or a targeted implementation initiative. The exact scope depends on which decisions are actually pending in the company.
When you want to review your current direction and it is still open whether an adjustment or a full strategy process is needed. It is especially revealing when different executives read the same market situation differently. The check does not start with a ready-made answer but with the strategy team reflecting on its current view of the market.
Market and competitor observations, customer expectations, strategic assumptions and your own core capabilities. The strategy team identifies the relevant environments and the factors that drive them: which trends are changing customers, competition and value creation? The core capabilities are then described explicitly. External data is brought in selectively where needed, and gaps in the data are documented.
Confirmation of the current direction, targeted corrections or a mandate to develop and assess new options. The result names not only measures but the strategic question management takes responsibility for. In a documented case study of an industrial services provider, twelve market segments were assessed and eight customer segments formed, each with its own value proposition.
Not necessarily. It narrows down what needs deciding and shows what further work is required. A check does not have to go through every phase of a full strategy process; a strategy map, master plan and KPIs are only used if the brief goes beyond diagnosis. Nor does a check replace a dedicated market study where the necessary information is missing.
Case study
An anonymised case study: the starting point, process and results of a strategy check at an industrial service provider.
What decision are you facing? Together, we clarify your situation, the people involved and the right next step.
Director | Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Head of corporate strategy competence team
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