Twenty years hands-on business experience informs our approach to strategy:
“Taking accountability for the impact a strategy has on your own business or function teaches you a lot. I know that strategy must be challenging but realistic, informed by research and data but pragmatic and not over-theorical. I know the importance of engaging with the people who have to implement strategy – they need to own it, act on it, and work to keep it current as circumstances change and the organisation continues to learn. I have seen strategy treated as the end of a learning process, in my experience it is often the start of one.”
Rod Shephard, Cogence Principal
How we work with you
Developing an effective strategy starts with learning, striving for clarity about the organisation, its environment, challenges and opportunities. It becomes a creative process, a search for the best ideas to achieve the organisation’s objectives.
The creative ideas need to be refined by objective evaluation and selection, adjusted to fit resources, returns and appetite for risk.
A strategy can only add value when it is implemented: meaningful strategy is put into action. Implementation creates a wealth of new learning opportunities to keep strategy dynamic, constantly evolving to stay relevant in a changing environment.
Cogence is unique in its ability to help clients prepare for implementation, by designing and planning strategies for execution, and applying strategic thinking to key business activities, such as competing for major tenders.
Cogence is best suited to working with a small, senior client team
Creating a robust strategy is only half the challenge, embedding it in an organisation to be put into practice is the other half. Engaging the key people in strategy development improves robustness: it harnesses existing knowledge and learning, builds ownership and understanding of the new insights, and is invaluable for practical implementation plans dealing with the realities of business (such as conflicting priorities). Two way communication is critical to implementation effectiveness, and participation in strategy development primes a leadership team to engage their organisations in implementation, and to quickly capture and feed back the learning achieved into the strategy process.