The most expensive mistake a founder can make is assuming that a marketing failure is a personnel problem when it is actually a mathematical one. You see a stalled pipeline, a flat revenue curve, or a declining conversion rate, and your instinct is to blame the talent. You fire the agency. You replace the VP. You bring in a high-priced Fractional CMOto “fix the strategy.”

And six months later, despite the new leadership and the fresh slide deck, the results are exactly the same.

This happens not because the people are incompetent, but because they are rational. In almost every stalled marketing organization, the team is behaving exactly how they are paid to act. The failure is not in the execution of the work. It is in the architecture of the reward. This concept is known as “Incentive Gravity.”. No matter how much strategic force a Fractional CMO applies, the team typically will revert to the behavior that supports their financial survival and professional safety.

If you hire a Fractional CMO to drive revenue, but your agency is paid based on ad spend. And your internal team is bonus-ed on lead volume, you have built a machine that is designed to fight itself. The Fractional CMO will fail, not because their strategy was wrong, but because they are a general commanding an army that is paid to lose the war.

The Physics of Incentive Gravity

“Show me the incentive, and I will show you the outcome.”. This adage is often cited but rarely practiced. In the chaos of scaling a company from $5M to $50M, incentive structures are often inherited rather than designed. Organizations pay agencies a percentage of spend because “that’s industry standard.”. Organizations pay SDRs on meeting volume because “activity drives results.”

These default settings create a gravitational pull that overrides strategic intent. When a Fractional CMO enters an organization, their primary mandate is usually to drive efficiency and effectiveness, generating more revenue for every dollar deployed. However, if the underlying incentive structure rewards volume and activity, the organization will treat the CMO’s strategy as a threat.

Consider the physics of the situation. A Fractional CMO identifies that 40% of the paid media budget is being wasted on low-intent keywords that generate clicks but no customers. Strategically, the correct move is to cut that spending. However, if the media agency is on a retainer tied to a percentage of ad spend, cutting the budget cuts their revenue. The agency will counter the strategy, producing charts that show “brand awareness”. Will suffer. They are not being malicious. They are protecting their invoice.

This is why talent cannot fight misaligned rewards. You cannot hire smart people and expect them to act against their own interests for the good of the company. Unless the Fractional CMO has the authority to restructure these incentives:not just the strategy:the engagement is doomed to stall.

The Agency Trap: Volume vs. Value

The most common point of failure in Fractional CMO engagements lies in the relationship between the company and its external vendors. Most agencies operate on business models that are opposed to the goals of a growth-stage company.

• The Percentage of Spend Model: If an agency takes 15% of your ad spend, their incentive is to spend money, not to save it. If the Fractional CMO finds a way to double revenue while halving the ad budget, the agency loses money. The agency is financially incentivized to be inefficient.
• The Retainer Model: If an agency is paid a flat fee regardless of output, their incentive is to minimize hours while maintaining “good enough”. Performance to avoid being fired. Innovation requires extra hours. Therefore, the retainer model incentivizes stagnation.

When a Fractional CMO attempts to pivot strategy:often by moving from broad-match paid search to account-based marketing (ABM):the agency resists. ABM requires high effort and lower media spend. It is detrimental to the agency’s finances.

In these scenarios, the founder often plays referee, hearing the agency’s complaints that the new CMO is “disrupting the flow.”. The founder, fearing a drop in lead volume, often sides with the agency. This neutralizes the CMO. The strategy remains unchanged because the incentives remained unchanged.

The Internal Trap: Safety vs. Revenue

The problem is not limited to external vendors. Internal marketing teams often operate under incentive structures that prioritize safety over revenue. In many organizations, the marketing manager or director is evaluated based on “delivering the plan.”. Did the emails go out? Was the trade show booth set up? Did organizations hit the lead target?

These are activity metrics, not outcome metrics. If the lead target is 500 MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) per month, the marketing manager will find a way to get 500 names. They is students, competitors, or low-quality prospects, but they count as “leads.”

When a Fractional CMO arrives and says, “These leads are garbage. Organizations need to change the definition of an MQL to exclude anyone without a corporate email address,”. The internal team panics. Their bonus depends on hitting the volume number. By raising the quality bar, the CMO creates a risk that the team will miss their targets.

The internal team then engages in “malicious compliance.”. They agree to the strategy in meetings but drag their feet in execution. They hide data. They create bottlenecks. They are protecting their paychecks. The Fractional CMO is viewed not as a leader, but as a risk factor.

This structural conflict creates a “shadow P&L”. Where the cost of misalignment is paid in wasted salary and lost opportunity. You are paying the CMO to drive change, and paying your team to resist it. Companies navigating these decisions often find that small business consulting accelerates the path from problem identification to resolution.

Why Talent Cannot Overcome Bad Math

Founders often believe that a “strong leader”. Can overcome these structural issues through force of personality or inspiration. This is a fallacy. You cannot inspire someone to lower their own effective hourly rate. You cannot motivate an agency to reduce its own revenue.

Incentives are the operating system of human behavior. Strategy is merely an application running on top of it. If the OS is incompatible with the app, the system crashes.

A Fractional CMO who does not control incentives is merely a consultant offering advice that no one can afford to take. To make the role effective, the engagement must begin with an “Incentive Audit.”. The CMO must review every contract, bonus plan, and commission structure to ask: “Does this pay structure reward the outcome companies are trying to achieve?”

If the answer is no, the first strategic move must be to change the compensation, not the ad copy.

Blind Scenario: The Volume Addiction

Context: A B2B SaaS company generating $15M ARR hired a Fractional CMO to fix a declining close rate. The company had a high-performing Demand Gen team that consistently hit its targets for lead volume. The Sales Development Reps (SDRs) were fully staffed and hitting their activity targets (calls/emails).

Diagnosis: Despite “green”. Dashboards across marketing and sales, revenue was flat. The Fractional CMO analyzed the incentive structure and found the breakage:

1. The Demand Gen team was incentivized based on the volume of MQLs, regardless of company size or intent.
2. The SDRs were paid on the number of meetings booked, regardless of whether the prospect showed up or was qualified.

The result? Marketing was buying cheap leads to hit the volume target. SDRs were bullying unqualified prospects into booking meetings to hit their quota. The Account Executives were drowning in bad meetings, leading to low morale and zero revenue growth.

Intervention: The Fractional CMO executed a “Hard Reset”. On incentives, despite significant pushback:

1. Marketing bonuses were shifted from MQL volume to “Pipeline Generated” (Stage 2 opportunities).
2. SDR compensation was changed to pay only for “Completed Qualified Meetings” (meetings where the prospect attended and met the qualification criteria).

Directional Outcome: In the first month, lead volume dropped by 60%. The founder panicked. The marketing director threatened to quit. However, by month three, the “noise”. Had cleared. The Account Executives were only speaking to qualified buyers. The close rate tripled. Revenue grew by 18% in the following quarter because the entire organization was finally paid to care about the same thing: money.

Re-Aligning Incentives Without Re-Orgs

Changing incentives is terrifying for founders because it touches the “third rail”. Of employment: compensation. However, realignment does not always require a full teardown of employment contracts. It requires a shift in the “Definition of Success.”

A Fractional CMO can implement “Incentive Overrides”. Or “Gatekeepers”. To align behavior without rewriting every contract:

1. The Quality Gate: The agency is still paid a retainer, but the contract includes a “performance kicker”. Tied to down-funnel metrics (e.g., Cost Per Qualified Opportunity), and a “clawback”. Clause if lead quality falls below a certain threshold.
2. The Shared Metric: Instead of Marketing owning “Leads”. And Sales owning “Deals,”. Both teams are assigned a shared KPI: “Revenue Pipeline.”. If the pipeline target isn’t met, neither team gets the full bonus. This forces collaboration.
3. The “Kill Switch”. Authority: The Fractional CMO is given the explicit authority to terminate vendor contracts that incentivize bad behavior. This shifts the agency’s incentive from “spending the budget”. To “pleasing the CMO.”

The Conversion Angle

If you are looking at your marketing team and wondering why they aren’t executing the strategy you agreed upon, stop evaluating their skills and start examining their pay stubs.

Are you paying for leads or for revenue? Are you paying for activity or for answers? Are you paying for hours or for outcomes?

A Fractional CMO cannot fix a broken incentive structure with better messaging. They can only fix it with better math. If you are not willing to let a leader redesign the reward systems of your revenue engine, you are not ready for a leader. You are only prepared for more of the same results.

Growth requires that everyone in the boat is rowing in the same direction. Incentives are the rudder. If the rudder is stuck, it doesn’t matter how hard you row.

Most founders do not wake up one day. And decide they want a “fractional CMO.” They search for fractional CMO services after a predictable pattern shows up: marketing activity is constant, spend is real, the team is busy. And revenue still feels too dependent on luck, referrals, or one channel that keeps getting more expensive.

If that sounds familiar, you are not looking for more tactics. You are looking for leadership: clear positioning, a revenue-linked plan, decision speed, and an operating rhythm that turns marketing into a system instead of a string of campaigns.

This post is built for buyer intent. It is designed to help you decide whether a fractional CMO engagement will produce outcomes in your business, what “good” looks like in the first 30/60/90 days, and what signals tell you to wait. If you want the service overview first, start here:Fractional CMO.For a deeper comparison of fractional vs. full-time leadership, consider: Fractional Chief Marketing Officer vs.Chief Marketing Officer.

What Fractional CMO Services Actually Mean

A fractional CMO is not a part-time marketer. You are buying executive-level marketing leadership that installs strategy, decision rights, measurement discipline, and team alignment without the cost and risk of a full-time CMO hire.

In practice, fractional CMOservicestypically cover:

• Positioning and messaging (what you sell, to whom, why you win, and how you say it)
• Revenue-linked planning (offers, funnel design, channel priorities, and quarterly initiatives)
• Measurement and diagnosis (what is true in the data, what is noise, where the leaks are)
• Team and agency direction (briefs, priorities, standards, and accountability)
• Operating cadence (weekly KPI rhythm, pipeline visibility, decision velocity)

If vague role definitions have burned you, read this before you hire anyone: Misconceptions About CMO Duties (and how a fractional CMO helps).

Who Fractional CMO Services Are For (and Who Should Wait)

Best fit signals

• You have a real offer, real customers, and can point to what is selling.
• You have marketing motion (content, paid, email, partners, outbound), but it is not cohesive.
• You have a team or vendors who can execute, but they are not being led.
• You want a strategy you can measure (not endless channel experiments).
• You want the founder out of day-to-day marketing decisions.

Usually too early

• You are still pivoting the offer every few weeks.
• You do not have a consistent demand yet.
• You cannot fund even modest testing and tooling.
• You are expecting the fractional CMO to be the entire execution team.

A quick sanity check is to look at readiness logic in an adjacent fractional leadership role. The same “too early” pattern exists across functions: if there is no stable baseline, leadership use is limited. This checklist is useful as a proxy: Is It Too Early to Hire a Fractional COO? (Decision Checklist).

The Problems Fractional CMO Services Solve (That Most Companies Misdiagnose)

Most companies describe symptoms (low leads, weak conversion, inconsistent pipeline). The real root causes are usually one or more of these:

1) Strategy is missing, so tactics cannot compound

If you cannot explain, in one sentence, who you are for and why you win, every channel becomes expensive. Teams optimize for what is easy to measure (activity) instead of what matters (commercial outcomes).

2) Decision rights are unclear, so marketing speed collapses

Marketing requires iteration. If every decision routes through the founder, campaigns die in approval cycles. If decisions route through a committee, no one owns the outcome. A fractional CMO installs a decision-right architecture: who decides what, at what threshold, with what evidence, and with what timeline.

3) Measurement exists, but diagnosis does not

Dashboards are common. Truth is rare. Many organizations track vanity metrics (traffic, impressions, followers) but cannot explain pipeline quality, conversion friction, or why CAC is rising.

4) Agencies execute, but no one briefs and leads them

Agencies and freelancers are not a strategy. They are a production layer. Without executive direction, you receive fragmented deliverables, channel silos, and reports that do not align with revenue.

What You Should Expect in the First 90 Days

The fastest way to judge whether fractional CMO services will pay off is to evaluate the first 90 days as a sequence. Not a vague promise to “improve marketing.” Here is a realistic outcome path when the engagement is structured well.

Days 1-30: Diagnostic and truth-building

• Audit analytics integrity (tracking, attribution assumptions, funnel visibility)
• Clarify ICP and buying triggers (who buys, why now, what blocks the deal)
• Build a messaging map (headline, proof, objections, differentiation)
• Inventory channels and triage ROI (what stays, what pauses, what gets rebuilt)
• Produce a 90-day plan with a small number of revenue-linked initiatives

Days 31-60: System installation

• Re-brief the team and vendors around one unified strategy
• Implement a weekly marketing cadence (KPIs, actions, decisions)
• Repair highest-use funnel leaks (offers, landing pages, follow-up, handoffs)
• Set a KPI stack that links leading indicators → pipeline → revenue

Days 61-90: Compounding and scale readiness

• Double down on what is working with budget discipline and creative standards
• Cut channels that cannot justify their cost (or cannot be measured reliably)
• Harden reporting so leadership can forecast and plan with confidence
• Create the transition plan (build internal capability so you do not buy dependency)

If you want the “first 90 days” logic from an executive operations lens (useful because the cadence discipline is similar), compare with: The First 90 Days of a Fractional COO.

Blind Scenarios: What Fractional CMO Work Looks Like in Real Life

These scenarios are anonymized and pattern-based. They follow Context → Diagnosis → Intervention → Directional Outcome, without client identities, revenue numbers, unique identifiers, or specific geographies.

Blind Scenario 1: “Busy marketing” with no pipeline clarity

Context: A company had constant output (content, email, paid tests), but sales leadership could not predict pipeline. Each month felt different, and performance was explained after the fact.

Diagnosis: The business lacked a primary ICP and a primary offer narrative. Each channel spoke to a different buyer. Reporting was channel-based, not revenue-based.

Intervention: The fractional CMO reduced campaign volume, rebuilt ICP and offer clarity, aligned channels around one buying journey, and installed a KPI cadence to measure lead quality, conversion, and speed-to-lead.

Directional Outcome: Total activity decreased, pipeline quality improved, and the leadership team gained repeatable visibility into what created opportunities and what did not.

Blind Scenario 2: Founder is the marketing bottleneck

Context: The team could execute, but approvals were slow. Copy, creative, offers, and spend decisions are routed through the founder. Campaign velocity collapsed.

Diagnosis: No decision-making structure existed for marketing. The founder acted as the de facto CMO, but without the bandwidth to run the operating system.

Intervention: The fractional CMO became the decision owner for defined domains (positioning, briefs, channel priorities, KPI reviews), documented thresholds, and moved the team into a weekly execution-and-feedback rhythm.

Directional Outcome: Velocity increased, founder time was reclaimed, and the team stopped waiting for permission to move.

Blind Scenario 3: Paid acquisition costs rise, and everyone blames “the platform”

Context: CPL and CAC rose for multiple quarters. The team responded by testing more ads, more audiences, and more landing pages. For organizations ready to move beyond diagnosis, professional business consulting offers the framework to turn insight into execution.

Diagnosis: The core issue was market-message mismatch and funnel friction. The offer was unclear, proof was thin, and retargeting compensated for weak first impressions.

Intervention: The fractional CMO rebuilt the offer stack, clarified differentiators, rewrote the landing flow around objections and proof, and narrowed testing to fewer variables so learning compounded.

Directional Outcome: CAC stabilized and then decreased because the business stopped paying to compensate for unclear positioning.

Blind Scenario 4: Multiple agencies, professional reports, inconsistent growth

Context: Several vendors were involved (SEO, paid, design, email). Reporting looked polished. Results were inconsistent.

Diagnosis: No one owned the unified strategy. Vendors executed their own best practices, but the business lacked a single prioritized growth thesis.

Intervention: The fractional CMO created a single strategy, rewrote briefs, set cross-channel KPIs, and implemented a cadence where vendors were accountable to outcomes, not output.

Directional Outcome: Vendor churn reduced, collaboration improved, and the pipeline became more predictable.

How to Choose the Right Fractional CMO

Most fractional CMO services pages sound the same. Use questions that force a signal.

Ask about the operating system, not tactics.

• What does your first 30 days look like (deliverables, decisions, and sequence)?
• How do you validate analytics truth before making recommendations?
• How do you set decision rights between the founder, sales, and marketing?
• How do you brief agencies so execution aligns with revenue outcomes?

Ask what they will cut

Strong fractional CMOs remove waste. If someone cannot name the kinds of initiatives they typically pause, they may add noise instead of clarity.

Ask how they build internal capability

The best engagements leave you stronger. If the model depends on you retaining them forever, you are buying dependency, not leadership.

Why Fractional CMO Work Must Connect to Operations

Marketing does not exist in isolation. If delivery, fulfillment, customer experience, or sales handoffs are broken, marketing will amplify the pain. That is why high-ROI fractional leadership often connects marketing outcomes to operational reality.

If you want the operations-side perspective, review Operations Audits: What to Fix First and the service overview for Fractional COO. In many businesses, the fastest path to sustainable growth is aligning marketing promises with what the organization can reliably deliver.

Another useful context piece (especially if you are evaluating fractional leadership across functions) is: What Happens After You Hire a Fractional COO?.

Mini Decision Matrix: Hire, Wait, or Fix First

FAQ: Fractional CMO Services

How long does it take to see results?

Most companies see clarity and measurable traction within 45-90 days when there is already a sellable offer and the ability to execute. The first 30 days are typically diagnostic and foundational.

Is a fractional CMO the same as hiring an agency?

No. Agencies execute deliverables. A fractional CMO owns strategy, measurement truth, priorities, and the leadership function that makes agencies effective.

Do fractional CMOs do the work themselves?

They may execute selectively, but the core value is leadership and system design. If you need pure production, hire specialists. If you need direction, alignment, and compounding performance, hire a fractional CMO.

What is the difference between a fractional CMO and a full-time CMO?

A full-time CMO is a permanent executive hire. A fractional CMO is an executive-layer engagement designed to install the system, improve performance, and build internal capability at lower cost and lower risk. See: Fractional Chief Marketing Officer vs Chief Marketing Officer.

Call to Action: Get a 90-Day Growth Diagnostic.

If you are considering fractional CMO services, the fastest path to a confident decision is a structured diagnostic that answers three questions: (1) what is actually blocking growth, (2) what sequence will unlock momentum. And (3) what should be stopped so the budget is not diluted across low-ROI activity.

Start here:Fractional CMO. For a deeper service overview post on the same topic, use: Fractional Chief Marketing Officer Services.

A fractional Chief Compliance Officer is an external expert who provides part-time compliance leadership to organizations without hiring a full-time executive. This arrangement allows companies to access specialized compliance knowledge, reduce overhead costs, and scale services based on business needs. Fractional CCOs handle regulatory requirements, policy development, and risk management across various industries. Read on to explore the top questions businesses have about implementing fractional CCO arrangements.

The marketing mix consists of four core elements: product, price, place, and promotion. Product refers to what businesses offer customers, while price determines its value and profitability. Place involves distribution channels and where customers access offerings. Promotion encompasses advertising and communication strategies. Balancing these elements creates competitive advantage and drives revenue growth. The following sections explore each component in depth.

For hands-on support, explore business consulting tailored for mid-market operators.

Strategy planning involves setting organizational direction, defining goals, and establishing actionable steps to achieve competitive advantage. Leaders must assess current capabilities, identify market opportunities, align resources with objectives, and communicate vision across teams. This process supports focused execution and measurable results. Learn the essential framework and proven tactics that transform strategic thinking into organizational success.

Whether you lead a team of a couple of people, a department with 25 people, a division with hundreds of employees. Or an organization with thousands of individuals you are going to want to acquire some key skills when it comes to strategy. Having a formal understanding of strategy and how to use various methodologies will have a direct impact on the success of your team and organization.

The following are some of the high-level considerations that should be given to strategy planning within your organization.

Strategy: It’s Everyone’s Job

Astrategyis typically let by the senior leaders within an organization. Larger companies may even have a senior executive with a role focused on Strategic Management. Others may reserve strategy responsibilities to a Senior Leader who has other responsibilities. Regardless, any organization should work to develop a culture of strategic accountability for all leaders. This commitment and focus should originate with the leader of the organization.

Annual Planning Cycle

It will not matter how competent you or your team members are at the various methods/models….. Of strategy if you do not have a rigid planning process around your strategy activities that considers:

• Frequency: The frequency and rhythm of your strategy planning will be largely dependent on your business cycle. At a minimum, an organization should be reviewing strategy on a quarterly basis. A best practice is to use one of these sessions for deeper planning and use the other quarters as tune-ups.
• Attendees: It is tempting to invite a lot of people to strategy meetings so that no one feels left out and all departments feel represented. For your quarterly meetings, you will want to avoid this temptation. For your key leadership meetings be mindful of including those individuals who can offer the….. Most value to the process (hint: It is not always the people with the biggest titles). As an organization develops its strategy “muscle” there will be various layers of strategy meetings occurring in the organization that will work to all leaders are included in strategy planning. And that all voices are able to be heard.
• Duration: Choosing the duration of your meetings will be influenced by your organization’s culture, budget, and business challenges. A minimum of 5-10 days. For planning days throughout the year (40-80 hours) equates to less than…. 5% of your leader’s time spent on one of the most important activities they could be engaged in. The 7 P’s of leadership planning “Prior Proper Planning Prevents P..s Poor Performance” derived. From…. A British Army adage applies equally well to a company’s approach to their strategy planning efforts.
• Ubiquity: Strategy planning and discussions should be ubiquitous in your organization. This means that you should be able to find strategy discussions occurring in weekly staff meetings, as part of yearly goal setting, and as part of yearly reviews. In addition, the best companies communicate broadly and deeply strategic plans and the organizations progress against these goals.
• Point Person: Depending on the size of the organization you may have a person who is in charge of strategy as their whole job. Or strategy may be a portion of someone’s job. Regardless, you will want one person who has the responsibility for leading the annual planning cycle. This person will communicate the organization’s approach to all leaders and employees. This person will also be responsible for outlining a strong agenda with input received from key members of the leadership. They will also be responsible for facilitating interactive strategy planning meetings.

Strategy Methods and Models

Hundreds of books and resources are available on various methods and models that are used in strategic planning. The list that follows is a sample of methods and models that should be considered for use by an organization. It is recommended that a broad mix of individuals (departments and levels) be a consultant when using any of these methods or models.

• SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats): This method is the most familiar to leaders as it is commonly used and most easily understood. On an annual basis, companies should be reviewing their business, the competitors in their industry and the landscape in which they operate to evaluate their and their competitors
  • Strengths: What sets you apart from your competition and how should you be using this to your strategic advantage
  • Weaknesses: What areas are you not strong in and how or should you address these as a strategic issue
  • Opportunities: What possibilities exist for you to capitalize on with the right investment of time and resources
  • Threats: What are glaring issues that you must address immediately
• VRIO Analysis (Value, Rare, Inimitable, Organized): This model can help an organization better understand where it derives its unique characteristics from. And how various capabilities can be used in the strategic efforts of positioning the company against the competition
  • Value: How can you use any of your resources or capabilities as a competitive advantage
  • Rare: What resources or capabilities do you have that are rare and which give you a competitive edge (patents, physical resources, or unique capabilities should be reviewed)
  • Inimitable: What do you have that is difficult to replicate
  • Organized: This is where a company identifies resources or capabilities that it can invest in to give it a competitive advantage
• Porters’ Five Forces: Is a tool used for understanding the forces that shape competition within an industry. It can be useful in guiding strategy adjustments to suit the competitive environment. Porter’s Five Forces was developed by Harvard Business Scholl professor Michael Porter. The five areas that are reviewed by companies to analyze an industry’s attractiveness are:
  • Rivalry Amount Competitors: Do competitors “play nice” or is it cutthroat
  • The threat of New Entrants: What barriers exist to keep out new competitors or what should you be working on to make it hard to do business in your space
  • The threat of Substitutes: A substitute is not always as a similar-looking business model. Taxi companies did not anticipate that customers would be so eager to try Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing platforms
  • Bargaining Power of Customers/Consumers: Access to information has given customers and consumers new use in dealing with you, how do you use this in your strategic decisions
  • Bargaining Power of Suppliers: How do you strategically approach your relationships with suppliers
• PESTEL Analysis (Political, Economic, Social, Technological. Environmental. Legal): A PESTEL analysis helps an organization think. About what may. Be occurring in the various spheres of influence. Which will impact the strategy of an organization.
  • Political: What is happening in the environments of the geographies which a company operates in or the industries a company participates. And how this impacts short-term and long-term strategy of the organization. Who in your organization is watching policy changes closely in the markets and industries in which you are involved?
  • Economic: Factors from currency exchange rates to labor wage differentials that can drive where the <a href="/fractional-chief-operating-officer/”>business is conducted. How much disposable income your customers have should be known and it should be understood how they spend this disposable income.
  • Social: How does the thinking of individuals and groups influence a company’s approach to their products or services (e.g. growing concerns around “green” efforts) and how do shifting demographics of your customer base influence your organization.
  • Technological: Companies must continually be learning about how changes in technology will impact their business, in how they design products and position services Artificial Intelligence should be understood by all companies as its impact will be far-reaching on how products are designed. Services are provided and employees impacted.
  • Environmental: All companies have an impact on the environment at large. You will want to think strategically about how your product or service engages with the environment. And the tactical efforts you take that will both impact your top line, have a corresponding impact to your bottom line. And create a perception in your customer and employee’s minds.
  • Legal: The legal landscape may have an impact on how a company strategically positions itself based on policies surrounding things like labor laws, health, and safety, free trade, etc.
• TECOP Analysis (Technical, Environmental, Commercial, Operational, Political): A TECOP analysis provides a mix of looking internally at some key capabilities. And externally at key influencers to a company’s success to understand risks that need to be understood and addressed.
  • Technical: What is happening with technology that can impact your product or services and those of your competitors
  • Environmental: All companies have an impact on the environment at large. You will want to think strategically about how your product or service engages with the environment. And the tactical efforts you take that will both impact your top line, have a corresponding impact to your bottom line. And create a perception in your customer and employee’s minds.
  • Commercial: Sometimes this is referred to as cultural. This is about understanding your demographics (internal and external) and the attitudes and behaviors of those you impact
  • Operational: Also known as Organizational, these are your structures, guidelines, policies, procedures, etc. that will impact your strategic choices
  • Political: What is happening in the environments of the geographies which a company operates in or the industries a company participates. And how this impacts short-term and long-term strategy of the organization. Who in your organization is watching policy changes closely in the markets and industries in which you are involved?
• VUCA Analysis (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity): A VUCA Analysis requires a company to think abstractly and broadly to consider out-of-the-box factors which may impact them in the future
  • Volatility: Factors change quickly and identifying what should be monitored and analyzed regularly will help your strategic planning
  • Uncertainty: Having the ability to assess risks and model accordingly will help in choosing the right strategic path
  • Complexity: Understanding how the strategic plans execute on will interact with the broader business and social climate
  • Ambiguity: While data is critical to setting any strategy you will never have all the information you would like

Strategy Skills

A strategy is a learned skill. Companies often overlook the benefit that can be derived by investing in strategy skill development for their key leadership. It is important to invest time in each of the following to build a culture of strategy within your leadership ranks

• Training: Formal training efforts should be in place for key members of your leadership team (both existing and upcoming leaders). This training can be anything from strategy webinars to full-day training sessions, to actual accreditation.
• Associations: It should be broadly communicated the value of membership in associations associated with strategy (such as ASP: Association for Strategic Planning. And SMS: Strategic Management Society) Membership in disciplines directly associated to a person’s area of discipline also provide a means in which to stay familiar with key trends. And concepts that will impact a company’s strategy).
• Books: It is beneficial to recommend reading on a strategy to your key leaders. . Some of the top titles that will get your leaders thinking differently and more strategically:
  • Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs by John Doerr
  • Deep Dive: The Proven Method for Building Strategy, Focusing Your Resources, and Taking Smart Action by Rich Harwath
  • Elevate: The Three Disciplines of Advanced Strategic Thinking by Rich Horwath
  • American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company by Bryce G. Hoffman
  • The Attackers Advantage: Turning Uncertainty into Breakthrough Opportunities by Ram Charan
  • Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins
  • Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

Improving your Strategy Planningis a multi-year effort that once fully deployed will transform your organization and the results you achieve.