How to avoid common mistakes with your business strategy, with author Jim Gitney

If you’ve ever had a strategic initiative fail at your organization and thought to yourself, “What am I doing wrong as a leader?” this episode is for you. 

The truth is, most leaders end up with several failed strategies under their belt. The trick is to stop making the same mistakes and lean into some best practices for strategic planning that *actually* work. 

There’s no one better to teach leaders how to build that foundation and grow through strategy than our latest guest. Jim Gitney, the Founder and CEO of Group50® Consulting has 45 years of corporate and consulting experience working with over 200 companies in guiding them toward double-digit top line and bottom line growth. 

Listen to the full conversation for more on the top mistakes business owners make when it comes to successful strategic initiatives, what the “business hierarchy of needs” is (and what CEOs can learn from it), the downsides of having too many goals, how to align compensation structures in a way that encourages forward motion on your strategic initiatives, and much more.

Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Learn: 

• Jim’s background in strategic consulting, and more about his approach

• Why it’s important to narrow focus when it comes to strategic objectives, instead of casting a wide net

• More about the “five whys” exercise that Jim takes his clients through in order to establish what their most important goal is 

• How to break strategy down into fundamental elements that everyone within a business can understand and implement

• What the business hierarchy of needs is, and why having a strong foundation is so important to creating strategies that succeed 

• Statistics about why strategies fail 

• Why mid-level managers typically hold strategic initiatives back

• How to correlate compensation structures with successful strategies, and why those systems can’t be just about money

• How to know when a strategic initiative is going to make an actual impact and really move the dial

• The biggest things that businesses struggle with when it comes to moving major initiatives forward

• Why every business leader should be able to answer three questions about their strategies: “From what,” “to what” and “by when”

• Why business is done horizontally, not vertically

• How Jim and his team measure success internally

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Strategy Realized website

• Group50 Consulting

• Jim Gitney on LinkedIn

• “Strategy Realized - The Business Hierarchy of Needs: Turning Strategy Into Results” by Jim Gitney

• Jim Gitney on YouTube

• “The Premonition: A Pandemic Story” by Michael Lewis

• 40 Strategy

• Contact 40 Strategy

• Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn