The actual approach used to develop an organisation’s strategy will depend on the strategy and the environment in which it operates.  For example, taking months to complete a strategic analysis in the fast-moving electronics industry is going to be of minimal value, whereas in an industry that involves high capital investment time has to be taken to ensure the best decision is achieved.

The Oakland Approach

Whatever the situation Oakland follows a three-phase approach to developing and implementing strategy.  This is shown in the Driver diagram below.

	Define	Define the scope and goals of the improvement project in terms of customer and / or business requirements and the process that delivers these requirements
	Review	Map the 'as-is' process and measure the current process performance to understand the 'value-add'
	Investigate	Analyse the gap between the current and desired performance, prioritise problems and identify root causes of problems.
	Verify	Generate the improvement solutions to fix the problems and prevent them from reoccuring so the required financial and other performance goals are met.
	Execute	Implement the improved processes in a way that 'holds the gains' in management systems and standards of performance established using techniques such as SPC.
	Reinforce	Capitalise the improvement by 'learning the lessons' and establishing process re-assessment for continuous improvement.

Oakland’s role

The approach is very comprehensive involving many activities, with a high level of Oakland input in the early phases of understanding and analysis.  To gain an insight into expectations and purposes of strategic change, interviews and discussions with the main stakeholders will be required. The senior management team will play a major role providing 'top down' direction, with Oakland’s main role being to facilitate the decision taking process.  Once the strategic objectives have been agreed and strategic options selected Oakland will work with the organisation to deliver the strategy.