Strategy Development and Deployment with Hoshin Planning

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Strategic Planning: Hoshin Kanri (Hoshin Planning) (153-slide PowerPoint presentation). [NOTE: Our Hoshin Kanri presentation has been trusted by an array of prestigious organizations, including industry leaders such as Apple, Facebook, Boeing, Shell, Goodyear, Cummins, Johnson Controls, Hanes, Telefónica, Chubb, Discover, Stryker, [read more]

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People and their managers are working so hard to be sure things are done right, that they hardly have time to decide if they are doing the right things. – Stephen R. Covey

Strategy is an expression of what an organization intents to do to get from a current state to a future state.

Strategic plans are often developed in isolation and rarely aligned across an organization. As a result, the organization’s strategy and strategic objectives are not well defined, are not well communicated and do not impact day-to-day decision making.

Our Strategy Planning and Deployment Process, using Strategy Maps and Hoshin Kanri, provides an organization with simple and effective methods and tools to develop, communicate and align its business objectives, strategic initiatives, operating plans, targets and goals.

A Strategy Map is a logical framework for identifying and organizing a collection of initiatives and activities, that support a specific Strategic Focus Area and Objective, over the four Balanced Scorecard dimensions; Financials – Customers – Internal Business Processes – Learning & Growth. Everything is linked to capture and visualize the cause and effect relationships.

To cascade each Strategy Map, interaction between the different level of an organization is necessary. This process is often called “catchball”, reflecting that all the participants in the process should be given the opportunity to “throw” ideas back and forth. An effective “catchball” process will result in well-defined and aligned action plans engaging the entire organization. The outcome of the “catchball” process is often documented and visualized using a Hoshin X-Matrix.

Strategy Maps are also the foundation for building an effective Performance Management Systems and aligned Balanced Scorecards for the different levels of an organization.

A well-defined, methodical and disciplined review process and the deployment of Process Excellence Solutions, including Lean Management, Six Sigma, Business Process Development and Problem Solving, will ensure that progress toward the Strategic Breakthrough Objectives is made and that any risks and roadblocks are identified and resolved in a timely manner.

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