We help established companies in multiple industries—as well as new ventures (startups and growth-stage)—holistically detect and remove or overcome obstacles to strategic objectives.
This is sometimes done by examining and refining strategy, sometimes by identifying, roadmapping, and standing up needed operational capabilities and more effective overall business design, and sometimes by challenging and overhauling measurement and intelligence tools, methods, and policies, always striving for maximum strategic alignment of these three domains.
We have delivered Fortune 500 level expertise to organizations, of all sizes, active in generation, transmission and distribution, competitive supply and marketing firms, energy efficiency specialists, and various software, product, and service vendors both in the energy space and across a variety of other industries—enabling entrepreneurship in large settings and corporate sophistication in newer companies. Our list of clients includes some of the best-known utilities in America.
Our Services
Strategy and
Enterprise Architecture
Extensive experience crafting strategy and facilitating strategic decisions and actions within large companies and smaller ventures. Some of the services we offer in Strategy and Business Architecture are as follows:
- Strategy Formulation and Evaluation
- Strategic Capability Identification, Gap Assessment, and Planning
- Architectural Roadmap Formulation
- Product (Unrefusable Offer) and Portfolio Development
- Acquisition Target Selection, Evaluation, and Valuation
- M&A Integration
Our approach combines traditional strategy frameworks and approaches with Systems Thinking methods, such as the Theory of Constraints, Interactive Planning, Systems Dynamics, and Lean concepts. Our architectural approach is flexible and draws upon the best concepts in TOGAF, Archimate, and Service-oriented Architecture in general.
Unique to our practice is the inclusion of strategic finance in the overall strategy equation – and when combined with our sophisticated quantitative methods, we have more than just conceptual models of alternatives, we put numbers to choices.
Tactical Business Design
and Execution
We use a broad toolset and deep consulting experience in operational business design to identify and overcome barriers to top performance. The following are some ways we help firms achieve alignment between strategy and operational activity:
- Process definition and improvement, from conceptual design to detailed modeling (UML, BPMN2.0, and/or Archimate)
- Detailed business architecture planning and roadmapping, including diagrams, narratives, visuals, and timelines
- Functional Requirements Engineering and Prioritization: the translation of business needs into system functionality
- Database ERD / Logical Data Modeling
- Project and Program Management Services
- Constraint Management, Continuous Improvement / Lean / Six Sigma
The conversion of Strategy into action is both critical and often disconnected. Systems thinking helps us to focus effort and attention on the things that matter the most for direct revenue and cost impacts. Design tools and skills allows us to precisely define and communicate the changes needed to remove obstacles to better results.
Analytics and
Business Intelligence
We have a great deal of experience performing the kinds of analyses needed in large and small firms, spanning multiple subject areas. This experience informs our dashboard and analytics designs. Our services in this domain are as follows:
- Analytics / Business Intelligence Systems Design and Implementation
- Dashboard, visualization, and report design
- Conceptual and logical data model design
- Data governance
- The design and execution of complex quantitative models (using Excel, VB programming, statistical packages, Analytica, and a variety of other tools)
- Performance Measurement and Management (including Balanced Scorecard and Throughput Accounting)
- Valuation, Financial Analysis, and Business Case Development
- Econometrics and Simulation
We design analytics and business intelligence that informs both strategy and operations and helps diagnose disconnects between them. The tools we design are expressly created to expose aspects of the business, whether strategic or tactical, having the greatest impacts on performance. This focuses attention on what to change, which is often the hardest question to answer.
How We Work