Why 97% of Business Strategies Fail

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Guiding Principles, Prioritization Strategy, Strategy Risk Management, Strategy /

According to a recent article in Forbes, only 3% of strategic plans succeed.* In my experience, strategic plans fail because the planning process is flawed. The traditional top-down sequential process of vision-mission-objectives worked when the industry landscape changed at a glacial speed 30 years ago. Now the competitive environment changes almost daily. So by the […]

In the grand scheme of things…

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Prioritization Strategy, Strategy BRM, Consulting, Portfolio Management, Prioritization, Sales, Strategy /

“The world is not run by those who are right. It is run by those who can convince others that they are right” -Jamshid Gharajedaghi Convincing others is the first hurdle to getting things done. You might think just stating your salient points should be sufficient, then you summarize with the statement— “so in the […]

Change your strategy process from periodic mash-ups to an ongoing integration

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Guiding Principles, Organization, Strategy

We’ve all seen it happen. Deadlines for next year’s budget requests drive a mad dash to come up with defensible proposals. Drop everything. All hands-on-deck. If you’re fortunate enough to have a Business Relationship Management (BRM) Group then at least you’ve had the conversations with your business customers. But conversations don’t always translate to buy-in. […]

How to become a “Trusted Advisor”

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Guiding Principles, Strategy

Does your presence incite your client to insight? Not necessarily by directly challenging your client’s thinking but by surfacing assumptions that may go unchallenged. I always start my client engagements by saying: “I’ll never know as much about your organization as you do. But what I will do is help build a detailed picture that puts […]

Retire & Consult!

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Strategy

My retirement at age 58 lasted 6 months. Then my wife strongly suggested I find something to occupy my time instead of “helping” her optimize our domestic processes. (Not smart on my part in retrospect!) I had to do something in consulting because of my background but I wasn’t sure how effective I’d be without […]

High Fidelity Strategy Formulation

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Guiding Principles, Strategy

I’ve always been something of an audiophile. My early stereo systems had limited options for shaping the sound quality—just “Bass” & “Treble” controls. Later models added more options in the form of equalizers with dozens of individual frequency sliders. The benefit of having so many potential adjustments was the ability to compensate for the unique sound […]

What Happened to Strategic Planning?

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in E-Book, Strategy

Once a noble pursuit, strategic planning lost its potency and the trust of management. Restoring it to its former glory will require overcoming six fatal flaws. To-date my research has surfaced six flaws in the strategic planning process. Each of these flaws will be discussed below along with their resolutions. Fixing the Flaws To restore […]

Finding Your Connective Tissue

Posted byDr. Don Frazier in Organization, Strategy

As organizations become flatter and leaner they lose not only management layers, they lose the connectivity function these layers provided. Shared issues, ideas, and innovations were the topic of middle management reports and conversations. Now the details get filtered out to match the higher ratio of subordinates to managers. Without this sharing, the same issues […]