Strategy is an organization’s engine.

Building a great one starts with thinking strategically. Harnessing it, starts with acting strategically.

These days being a good business operator is no longer enough—savvy, strategic innovation is necessary too.

In essence, the job of the strategist is to understand and cope with competition.

Prof. Michael Porter, Harvard University

Many business owners and business leaders view their organizations’ strategy-development processes as bureaucratic rather than insightful—or worse still, they see them as budget planning sessions. Many are more focused on making up imaginary numbers, rather than working out where the next strategic advantage will come from.

Here are some questions to help you think about strategic innovation:

1. Why does your organization matter?

2. What is your organization’s purpose?

3. How well does your organization understand its customers and their needs?

4. What does your organization do that is unique, or what does it do uniquely well?

5. Can your organization’s products and services be easily replaced by similar offerings ,and if they can, why will your organization be around in the future?

6. How does your organization create value?

7. What do customers think, and say about your organization?

8. What are people in your organization passionate about and what do they think, and say about the organization?

9. What are your organization’s values, are they lived by the organization’s people and are they reflected in the organization’s brand?

Don’t make the mistake of letting your organization be blindsided. Troika has developed a pragmatic, straight-forward approach to designing and developing effective strategy. Make no mistake. Strategic decisions are fundamental, organizationally defining, and unerringly predictive. No amount of talent, energy or even capital, will overcome poor strategy. Without strategic innovation an organization is at risk.