Clear choices

As an organization, you want to seize new opportunities, respond to market developments, and anticipate new technologies so that your best-selling product or service does not fall behind. As a member of the executive team, it is your responsibility not only to look inward, but also outward. By doing so, you translate external developments into clear internal choices. At the highest level of the organization, you therefore need to create agility that enables you to respond quickly and flexibly to external changes.

With our approach, we help executive teams create focus and adjust it when needed. We translate insights into clear decisions that enable teams to put plans into action. Changing course is not a lack of direction. Yet this is often where things go wrong, because decisions are not translated clearly enough into action. When strategic portfolio management is properly organized, reallocating resources becomes easier. The consequences become transparent, allowing teams to understand what is expected of them. Quick and effective steering from the top can be achieved in three steps:

1. Communicate the rationale
Explain from the outside in what an external development means for the company. For the executive team, it may be perfectly clear why an investment or cost reduction is needed. But colleagues who are more focused on the internal organization also need to understand why a change of course is necessary. Start by clearly explaining why adjustments are needed and what the executive team aims to achieve.

2. Translate (external) developments into decisions
When the reason and objective are clear, translate them into concrete decisions. Which current projects have become irrelevant as a result? Which ongoing priorities should you stop to create space for new ones? At the top level, determine the consequences for the portfolio: what do you stop, which outcomes to adjust, and what new initiatives do you start?

3. Align words and actions
Once the choices have been made, communicate the new focus clearly and visibly across the organization. This means ensuring that old priorities are actually stopped and giving clear direction for the newly selected priorities. By continuing to work from a shared overview (through the Strategic Portfolio Framework), everyone can see which priorities represent the collective ambition. This overview determines the agendas of both the executives and the teams themselves — not an outdated annual plan or separate steering committees. Ensure that agreements are followed through and do not deviate from the chosen focus. Put the progress of the selected priorities at the top of the executive agenda.

This is how strategy is translated into execution.