Strategy know-how

Focusing on less, but more promising initiatives, organizations can revive their innovation program during times of crisis.

At the Evolutionizer User Circle 2022, customers and developers shared success stories and an outlook on future challenges

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Innovative companies rely on data to manage initiatives and create opportunities. But what if the necessary data are not yet available?

With a looming economic downturn, businesses have to ensure the fitness of their innovation engine.

Join our virtual event Success Through Digitized Strategy: Innovation Management to learn about possibilities of a digitized innovation approach.

It’s an award that underlines an essential partnership: Evolutionizer has been recognised as Business Partner Excellent 2022 by Deutsche Telekom.

Volatility, transformation, and organizational alignment are key challenges for companies. This was a common consensus among the international attendees of the 13th digital Corporate Strategy Execution Forum.

Evolutionizer is joining as an event partner when the virtual doors open on April 25th and 26th for the 13th Strategy Execution Forum. Register now for your free ticket for the first day.

Digital support for strategic management has been always an important issue for the experienced top manager.

Find out how matrix organizations ensure their future readiness in our upcoming webinar. Question established ways of thinking and methods and increase the agility of your strategy work.

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The central challenges facing companies are volatility, transformation, the development of an agile mindset and alignment throughout the organization, according to the unanimous opinion of experts at the 12th Corporate Strategy Execution Forum.

Get your free ticket for the 1st event day of the digital international conference.

Since March, Martin Erharter has joined the Evolutionizer Executive Board. Welcome to the team! We very much look forward to our collaboration!

In mid-February, we continued our User Circle webinar series live from the Rohde & Schwarz film studio at the company's headquarters in Munich. The two speakers presented the successful management and implementation of strategy in global sales with the help of balanced scorecards.

Due to the digitization push, the conditions for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) have never been better. These trends will accompany us in 2021.

The high speed of change in many markets makes it clear how important it is to act as early and in a coordinated manner as possible when unforeseen events occur. What helps us to deal with uncertainty?

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Christoph Kollatz as new Strategic Advisor at Evolutionizer.

A few key elements are required for the overarching strategy process to form a common, robust core. However the process, methodology and the type of cooperation should be individually designed for each planning unit and aligned with real needs. What should be considered in practice?

Numerous customers followed our invitation to attend the 9th Solyp User Circle, this time in a digital edition. Old business acquaintances met new contacts in the virtual space.

Successful strategy work ensures the right strategic alignment at the neuralgic points. These elements will help you with orchestration and alignment in practice.

Successful strategic work is based on agility. Therefore 3 essential things must be ensured in strategic work.

The digital transformation leads to significant changes in strategy work. To become "excellent", you should achieve these conditions.

The Corona Crisis has accelerated the digital transformation, which will change the organization and value chain of many companies in the short and medium term. Now is the time to drive digital transformation effectively and sustainably.  We summarized some current trends for you:

Many transformation efforts remain ineffective. And often not because of a flawed strategy, but because the change does not reach the organization sustainably. Taking the organization through a phase of change is one of the key tasks of leadership – and managers should know these 6 risks.

In the last part of our series on the topic of transformation, we described the prerequisites for successful transformation and how to use opportunities in one's own situation. Read now in part 2 how transformation can succeed.

As a result of the crisis management, many companies have already successfully implemented initial changes and are initiating new topics for implementation. We are experiencing a seamless transition to a phase of transformation that not only involves risks, but also opportunities. We have summarized a few of the success factors for sustainable transformation.

The hard lockdown seems to be over for the moment. Germany and Europe are awakening again. Although the consequences of the crisis are not yet fully visible, clear trends are emerging due to major consulting firms. We, as well, observed these changes, combined them with our practical experience and summarized the most important trend topics for you:

What about the resilience of the medium-sized companies? What measures do they take to prepare for the post-Corona period? We discussed these and other questions with selected companies in April 2020. Our 6 recommendations for action in 2020:

One of the central tasks of the CFO during a crisis is to ensure financial liquidity. A liquidity squeeze can quickly threaten the existence of the company. Especially in times of crisis, a lot of extra measures are required in addition to operational cost and liquidity management.

In economically difficult phases, companies run the risk of focusing exclusively on key operating figures and losing sight of important strategic issues. With these 5 evaluation perspectives you avoid strategic mistakes and ensure a balanced initiative portfolio management.

The initial shock of the corona crisis has been overcome, and the economic effects will continue to accompany us for a very long time. We must assume that volatility and uncertainty in our markets will continue to increase and become the new normality in the business world. The unknown will become permanently greater, we are forced to become even more agile as a company.

We are experiencing one of the biggest shutdowns in recent history. Nearly all companies are currently asking themselves how they can avert greater losses from their business from the effects of the crisis on their business, how they can continue to act and how they can prepare for the "ramp-up" after the crisis.

At the 27th Munich Management Colloquium (MMC), more than 80 leading managers and executives from various industries – including Dr. Heinrich Hiesinger – will speak on new business models, artificial intelligence and machine learning and present their solution concepts.

With immediate effect, TME AG headquartered in Frankfurt is one of our business partners. For more than ten years the team has been advising companies across industries.

If personnel expenses increase more or less in proportion to sales over a longer period of time, this is a sign of potential for productivity and efficiency increases. But what are the levers for increasing agility in our organizations?

We know about the sensitivity of your information and business processes. For us it is the essence that independent auditors confirm that your business information and processes are secure on our Solyp platform.

Current and important topics, inspiring discussions and also charity: In December we invited our Solyp users to Nuremberg for two days. For the eighth time, our customers came to exchange information with us about trends and developments in the technology industry, the Solyp platform, and developments in the field of Machine Learning and analytics.

From the beginning of 2018, Solyp3 was successfully used worldwide in Evonik's Regions Development division. The specialty chemicals company is now extending its co-operation towards the development and implementation of regional initiatives and programs with Solyp 4.0.

Most users of our Solyp 4.0 platform should be just as pleased with the news from Microsoft as we are: Microsoft is expected to provide server space in Germany in the fourth quarter of this year.

What gives us meaning? Where does performance come from? What drives people? You can find out what is important in our guest article.

Developing and promoting people is a plea against changing the personality of people. It is therefore one of the most important tasks of managers to take people as they are.

In part II of the Strategic insights publication series, we demonstrated practical ways to improve the quality and reliability of forecasting in planning. This article is dedicated to a much greater potential for strategic insights – which can finally be realized thanks to modern methods such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

Positioning is not primarily about changing products or services, but about actively designing how customers and leads perceive the company. Thus, corporate strategy always affects the positioning of an enterprise and its offers in the eyes of the customers.

In part I of the publication series Strategic Insights, the potential benefits of extended statistics and machine learning for strategy and planning work were outlined. As a more in-depth introduction to the topic, Part II discusses ways of increasing the quality and reliability of forecasts in planning.

As business environments have grown more diverse in recent decades, picking the right approach to strategy for each context has become increasingly important. We believe there are five broad approaches to strategy.

Developing a robust strategy has never been easy. High business complexity, market dynamics and shorter planning horizons create uncertainty and make it harder to make the right decisions at the right time. A lever lies in a new handling of the already existing strategy data estimates.

Market volatility, growth, disruption, digitization, shareholder value... our current environment is characterized by constant change and ever higher speed. It has never been easy to develop working strategies and implement them with the desired results.

Today’s complex world cannot be mastered with the help of the “old” logic. In the media and during events, we more and more frequently meet the term “agility”. But beyond half knowledge, what’s behind this buzzword, and why shouldn’t we underestimate this topic?

In many companies, strategic planning remains ineffective. A key ingredient of an impactful processes is a careful balance between data and debate. Four practical approaches from our experience on BCG client projects can help.

Which core competencies create a sustainable competitive advantage over the competition? VRIO analysis is a good way to find out.

From now on, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and our company will organize strategic work for a great deal of companies together: Both enterprises will be closely working together in order to further promote the digitalization of strategic management processes.

Some people have the gift to boil down complex issues into short, catchy statements. May it be with humor, charm, fighting spirit, or simply wisdom. In doing so, they inspire others to question their habitual ways of thinking and acting and even pursue entirely new paths in life.

Contrary to popular claims, good products do not simply sell themselves. Successful companies therefore not only develop innovative products, but also effective go-to-market strategies. Do you already use them?

Which competitive strategy does your company pursue? Cost leadership or differentiation? If your answer to this question is "both", you are probably on the right track.

One of the central questions which first need to be clarified as part of the introduction or revision of a strategic planning process in medium and large enterprises is the direction of planning.

What is the reason for Kotter’s continued topicality? Because when all’s said and done, his book ‘Leading Change’ appeared more than 20 years ago.  What is it that’s motivating the strategy community to engage with Kotter today?

Organizing and leading strategy workshops has to be learned, because the results of such workshops have a decisive influence on the future performance of the company.

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Key Risk Indicators signal changes in the company's risk profile at an early stage. We show you how you can identify risks early on and actively counter them with suitable measures.

The corporate environment is characterized by rapidly increasing complexity, dynamics and decreasing predictability. This situation requires new approaches to thinking and acting from management and those responsible for strategy.

The number and interrelations of these stakeholder groups are becoming increasingly complex in today’s connected, globalized world. Yet, still very few companies pursue an active, long-term approach to stakeholder management.

Many businesses are good at creating value by developing innovative new products and services. But when it comes to capturing that value and turning it into profits, the inventiveness of executives and managers all too often reaches its limits.

What do have companies like IBM, Philips, Unilever (Dove), and McKinsey & Company in common? They are all considered thought leaders within their industries. A position which they have attained over many years through large-scale content management programs and hard, dedicated work.

One of the most common mistakes when it comes to strategy implementation is that responsibilities are not clearly defined. Employees are not sure what is expected of them or simply assume that someone else will do the job. Create a remedy with RACI Matrix.

In contrast to traditional, incremental budgeting, Zero-Base Budgeting does not simply update the costs of the previous year. Instead, the budget is replanned from scratch, similar to when you start a business.

Change management is focused on the people. It aims to implement change in a comprehensive, smooth, and lasting way. But how can it be achieved in practice?

Bridging the gap between strategy development and execution is one of the biggest challenges many organizations face. Probably the most important driver for a successful strategy implementation is the so-called strategic alignment.