Why does 90% of strategy consulting fail?
Introduction to strategy consulting:
Strategy consulting is a hot cake in the market. It is a huge responsibility that you have got to shoulder. Not everyone would possess that knowledge and skillset to propose the best strategy for your business. When you create a brand or a product, you should create the best strategy to promote them.
You should be knowing the Unique Selling Points (USPs), what their competitors are doing and how to go about with the upcoming strategies to garner the attention of your customers. Businesses need to choose that enigmatic strategy consultant to sail up to their business. They could be an independent consultant or a part of a fortune 500 strategy consulting firm.
What do strategy consultants do?
Strategy consultants focus on a variety of tasks in hand. There are many kinds of strategy consulting. You could be a strategy consultant for a product, technology, brand, business, growth or innovation.
Top companies such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google could be hiring a large number of management consultants who would be working on various kinds of stuff such as product management, increasing market opportunity, and other such related technologies.
There is a well-known saying in the industry that 90% of organizations are unable to execute their planned strategies. We analyzed why this happens in the majority of cases. The reasons were quite unsurprising. They face a multitude of setbacks and challenges hindering their growth.
What are the major challenges faced by strategic consulting?
There is no proper objective: A strategy without any objective is as good as a house without a floor. The foundation has to be extremely strong to withhold during storm, rain and testing times. Otherwise, it is leading you nowhere. Similarly, when you are creating a product or a business strategy, your primary goal should be If your objective is set clearly, then upcoming steps would be easier.
No flexibility: Being static and forcing the people to follow what you say is not going to prove fruitful. Are there any new technologies in the market, that could serve your cause in a better way? Shift over to that. Flexibility matters a lot, especially when it comes to strategy consulting. Otherwise, it would lead to increased overheads. Peskier tasks would be awaiting you if you stick to what you think is the right approach.
No growth or innovation: A company that does not focus on the growth of its product would be failing sooner. The strategy consultant should adapt themselves as per the industry standards. Many companies failed due to no innovation or growth-related approach. The best example here would be Polaroid corporation. They were not ready to innovate their products according to the new trends. This resulted in the bankruptcy of this 70-year-old company in 2001.
Visibility is missing: Are you able to understand the factors that determine your market visibility? Is your growth predictable? If you can answer in the affirmative, then you are on the right track. If not, it’s time to reconsider your strategy. Clearly understanding the visibility factors is more important than going along with the flow with no real-time insights.
Measure your success: Knowing if your strategy is working is one step away from determining what works and what does not work. Your strategy should not be a random one. It should be a well-planned, organized strategy that would skyrocket your growth and success rate. There should be key factors to measure where your strategies are heading to.
No knowledge on thresholds: While speaking about thresholds in strategy consulting, it is when you cut down on the cost and take time to complete the project. As your brand value grows, your customers recognize the brand or a product among various other brands in the market. That would lead to increased growth. Without recognizing the threshold, this would not happen.
Incomplete data: Data plays a vital role in determining the way your strategy works. Your strategy should be data-driven and carefully crafted. While hiring a strategy consultant, make sure that they are focused on data rather than roughly making decisions. Catapulting your brand or product from the initial stage to the next would happen only if you have on-time data available.
No interpretation of results: When you are result-oriented, everything falls in place automatically. You can streamline everything in order and work towards maintaining your brand credibility. With no result-based approach, you would not be able to concentrate on where your strategies are taking you forward. Performance measures and other key point indicators should come into play.
All talk, no action: Holding long meetings and discussing with your team on the recent updates will do, only if there are real updates. Planning and strategizing is of primary importance but putting them into action is what separates you from other strategy consultants. That do and die attitude is essential to sustain your product or brand in the market!
Missing domain knowledge: The consultant should possess adequate knowledge of what they are discussing. Without proper expertise, consultants would be having a hard time in strategizing their plans. Your strategy consultant should be guiding you on what your next move should be, which could cost you millions of dollars.
How to understand clients’ needs and find a gap in product development?
As a strategy consultant, understanding your client’s needs is not going to take a long time, if you are ready to listen. You should have a clear-cut approach towards what you are focusing on. This can happen only when you discuss with your clients. Then you should analyze with your real-time expertise on how you can fill the hole in the product development phase. This will help you to scale higher in the market.
How to resolve the problem and give the best solution?
Resolving a problem is not going to take so long if you can predict what would work well for you. You need to possess a piece of sound knowledge on the subject to overcome the challenges. This would lead to better decisions and improved product life cycles. You should move on with your strategy and stick on to your goal of achieving the desired results. This will put your brand image forward in the market.
Conclusion:
Being a strategy consultant is a lot of hard work and effort combined. To be the best strategy consultant, you would require the industry-oriented skill set combined with flexibility and real-time experience on working on the project.
At Pattem Digital, we are a team of prolific strategy consultants with an exemplary approach on how you should be taking things forward.
Connect with us if you are looking for the best strategy consulting service providers in the market.
