The view from here

2nd July 2005

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“There is a Chinese curse which says, ‘May he live in interesting times.’ Like it or not, we live

in interesting times…”

Robert F KennedyCape Town, June 7th 1966

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Our search for strategy

Towards 2012

County Commissioners Conference

Committee of The Council

Strategy working group

Chief Commissioners

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Our point of view on strategy….

Organisations who succeed focus on their core

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Organisations fail when they take their eye off the ball…

Watches

Oil and gas

Drugs3 stepsBatteries (Duracell)

Writing instru-ments (Parker)

2 stepsAfter shave lotion

Toiletries

1 stepWomenrazors

EuropeCoreRazors & blades

Luxury writinginstruments(Waterman)

Unrelated diversification

Gillette example

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Pathway to success

Mission

1. Define and focuson your core

3. Measure forsuccess

2. Drive it to full potential

4. Expandselectively

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Pathway to success

Mission

1. Define and focuson your core

• What are your objectives? How are they bounded?

• What levers will you pull to achieve these objectives?

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Identifying our core

• What are your best service offerings?

• What are your strongest capabilities?

• What are your most important resources?

• Who are your most important clients?

• What other key assets do you have?

Defining the Core

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Pathway to success

Mission

1. Define and focuson your core

• What are your objectives? How are they bounded?

• What levers will you pull to achieve these objectives?

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Pathway to success

Mission

1. Define and focuson your core

2. Drive it to full potential

• How high is high?• How do we get there—strategically,

operationally, organisationally?

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Pathway to success

Mission

1. Define and focuson your core

2. Drive it to full potential

• How high is high?

• How do we get there—strategically, operationally, organisationally?

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Pathway to success

Mission

1. Define and focuson your core

3. Measure forsuccess

2. Drive it to full potential

• What are the ‘vital few’?

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Pathway to success

Mission

1. Define and focuson your core

3. Measure forsuccess

2. Drive it to full potential

4. Expandselectively

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Metrics ensure your organisation stays focused

• Provide focus on right strategic issues

• Clarify if you are achieving your objectives

• Help align the organisation

• Create ‘rallying cry’ for change

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And our major strategic issue?

Retaining and recruiting adults

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Organisational: 5 imperatives

1. Provide clear direction and leadership

2. Make good decisions

3. Develop and deploy talented people

4. Excel at front line execution

5. Instil a high

performanceculture

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We’ve come a long way…

1990

2005

2012

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Do any of these sound familiar…

• Pet projects?

• Conflicting agendas?

• Resources spread too thin?

• Trying to be all things to all stakeholders?

• Squeaky wheel gets the attention?

• The ‘new new’ thing?

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We’ve come a long way…

1990

2005

2012

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2005

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200?

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We’ve come a long way…

1990

2005

2012

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If you take away one thing from today…

Focus, focus, focus

• Executing on a strategy well is much harder than developing a good strategy in the first place

• So it is far better to be the best at one thing than to be okay at lots of things. Winning requires…