Assessment

Strategic Management Process Assessment:
This assesses the process effectiveness by stage. A prime objective is to have equal capabilty for all stages, as the overall process is only as effective as its weakest stage.

Business Design Assessment:
This is an assessment of the contribution of the various elements of the business to its competitive advantage. The performance of the business design is assessed as proof of the validity of the hypothesis in the business design.

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Assessing Strategic Management Capability

Strategic management assessment serves as a guide for developing strategic management competency. Each aspect of the framework is assessed to determine its contribution to or effectiveness in producing a competitive advantage.

Assessing the Process

The effectiveness of the strategic management process is measured in the effectiveness of each stage of the process in meeting its objectives. Balance in all four stages of the process is the preliminary objective, while maximizing the effectiveness of all the stages is the ultimate objective. Given the interdependencies between the process stages, excelling in one stage is of no advantage overall. Great strategy with lousy execution is worthless. Great execution of a lousy strategy is draining and high risk.

Assessing the Business Design

The business design performance assessment will generally lag the performance level of the process assessment. The business design effectiveness is tested and legitimized by the waging war stage of the strategic management process.

Like the process stages, the preliminary objective is to have a balance in the aspects of the business construct, while maximizing their effectiveness is the ultimate objective. For example, their may be a great value proposition in the Function aspect aligned with the Purpose, but if it is not effectively enabled by the distinctive competency of the Process aspect, it will be greatly diminished in value. The Competitive Advantage Factors aspect assesses the integrations of the elements of the business model. The greater the business model element integration, synergy, and mutual optimization, the greater the value creation potential of the business. Lastly, the performance results are assessed to see the degree to which a competitive advantage is in evidence. The fulfillment of purpose is assessed to judge the effectiveness of the organization in fulfilling its purpose.

Assessing the People's Capabilities

The people's capabilities are both utilized and built-up by the strategic management process. As such, the more people who can be effectively engaged in the process, the better. Assessment of people's capabilities should be direct as opposed to using the results of the processes they execute. Deming once estimated that over 90% of the process failures are due to the process itself, not the people performing the process. This is contrary to many managers thinking. A well reasoned approach to finding the cause of and fixing process failures will steer managers away from finding and prosecuting the presumed guilty and direct them instead towards fixing the process, the much more likely cause of failure. A health process will then tend to produce capable people.

Business Architecture